545rfe Trans issue today

[pickupman66]

Shuddering when in overdrive under load.

So. I was headed up the mountain and forgot to disengage cruise from 75. Engine down shifted to remind me so I hit cancel and then went to pick it up with my foot. Slowing down to 65. Overdrive engages and then the truck starts to shudder something awful. I manually put into 4th and it down shifted fine. But when going back to overdrive and putting the load on it seems to struggle to downshift or be super rough in overdrive. It is fine on flat surface but get an incline and it is awful. Truck has 110,000 miles on it. 2009 1500 4x4 Laramie with hemi. I've owned it a year and a month. Please help. What can I do for it? Did I break her? Prior to today she would hold overdrive going up at 65mph. This is a 5% grade.

If the Trans is going out she is getting traded immediately.

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Thread title Edited to reflect actual issue....

 

[NYCruiser]

Has the tranny ever been serviced?

 

[pickupman66]

Since I have owned it it has not. I was thinking I needed to drop the pan and clean it as regular maintenance but have not been able to because of spending money on the wheel bearings. I've put 35000 miles on it.

Also I accelerated a bit tonight in way home and got a cylinder #6 misfire code.

Yay. :-/

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[NYCruiser]

Have you put plugs in it since you've had it? The plugs need changed every 30K miles.

I would think you are having service issues. The tranny service is more than just cleaning it out. There are band adjustments and filter to change too.

I'd do or have the servicing done before deciding to trade in the truck.

 

[pickupman66]

No. Doing the plugs now. Going to also change the coil on #6. Whatever happened to 100k mile plugs? I am capable of a pan drop and filter replacement also can do fluid exchange. Not the band adjustment. Does dodge have to do that?

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[NYCruiser]

100K plugs didn't start coming on Hemi's until the '14 model year. You have copper 30K plugs. 16 of them actually (2 per cylinder).

These trannies have been around a long time and any competent tranny shop should be able to service it and give you an assessment of its condition.

 

[pickupman66]

Ok. I'll see what plugs did to it. Here are the plugs that came out. Double platinum going back in. O'Reilly said they are oem.

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[NYCruiser]

I'll bet that makes a difference. Thumbs up on O'reilly's. They will get you the right parts.

 

[pickupman66]

Lemme tell ya. Those rear ones are a pain in the ****... I'm cussing some engineer

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[NYCruiser]

Yeah, the ones behind the brake booster. Don't be surprised if they've never been done. LOL

 

[pickupman66]

All done. 2.5 hours. All were worn out e3 plugs like the two above. I ended up just taking off all the coils on that side. Climbed up and did it. Then with 4 to go my plug socket quit grabbing the plugs. I had to put a washer in it to grab good. And the 1/4 ratchet was my friend. Previous plugs had no antiseize on them. I feel lucky. Now how long will the platinum last? That was a *****.

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[pickupman66]

I'll drive to work tomorrow and see how she performs. In the race up the street to 65 she was killer smooth.

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[pickupman66]

And btw. If the Trans has a fault will it send a code to the ecm? and turn on the check engine light?

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[jwheeler]

And btw. If the Trans has a fault will it send a code to the ecm? and turn on the check engine light?

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That is correct. Those e3 plugs are garbage anyway. Not good for a hemi


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[NYCruiser]

And btw. If the Trans has a fault will it send a code to the ecm? and turn on the check engine light?

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Depends what the fault is, I guess.

 

[pickupman66]

well, Good news. the issue was not in the transmission but in the engine. The misfire detected in #6 along with the plugs caused the shuddering when placed under load. taking it out of overdrive masked this symptom.

She performed flawlessly on the way to the office today. I will do an oil change and trans service this weekend.

 

[jwheeler]

Nice to hear it was an easy fix.


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[RLJ10X]

That poor 545RFE sure catches a lot of hell around here.

But, after 2 years, it has managed to hold off the supposedly better 8 when it comes to the fastes 1/4 mile times.

 

[pickupman66]

That poor 545RFE sure catches a lot of hell around here.

But, after 2 years, it has managed to hold off the supposedly better 8 when it comes to the fastes 1/4 mile times.

Sheepishly I wish my edit of the thread title would have worked. OH well.

 

[pickupman66]

Time for one last update here this weekend I dropped the transmission pan and change the fluid and filters. The fluid was a little dark but had been changed some time after 2012 per the date stamp on the cooler line filter. The magnet had very little metal dust attached to it so I will take that as a pretty good sign that the transmission is still in decent shape. The job was pretty easy and allowed me to fix a slightly leaky seal on the pan from the previous owner. They did a very sloppy job of putting the new seal back on.

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