Still fighting with FCA about my 8 speed

[Pettybilt]

I'll Try to keep this short and to the point.

Does anyone know any dealers that actually care to do the right thing in the Charlotte area?
I've been told by Keffer, and Classic that there's nothing wrong with my truck.
I even had the service manager from Classic do a ridealong and he seen with his own eyes my trans temp get up to 240, heard the whining noise it makes and still says that's normal.
Showed him the picture below of the trans temp at 271, he's response was , " well there no CEL, if something was wrong there would be a CEL"
Does anyone know when a high temp CEL would be set? I mean if 271 wont do it what will?

Well yesterday coming back from the mountains, temp was up around 240, went to pass a car and the trans attempted to shift into 5th. However it was like it was in neutral, it then shifted to 6th,then back to 5th, made a loud bang, so loud it woke a sleeping teenager in the back seat.
I could get it to bang in 5th every time afterwards, just not nearly like the first time.


This dam truck is going leave me stranded or worse my wife and kids.
FCA refuses to acknowledge there is something wrong.
This is trans # 2 and it's worse than the first one.
I had a case manager and as nice as she was, she didn't do anything for me. They rely on the dealers, and they suck.

Any advice in dealing with FCA, or if you know someone who works at Auburn Hills who has a pulse who can help me out would be greatly appreciated.

 

[seabrook]

I would trade it in on another at that dealership. they can’t say the transmission is bad and ur going to end up spending a lot of money on a transmission or take it out for a drive and kill the transmission, since it’s slipping that shouldn’t be hard to do.

 

[JohnnyMac]

A couple 4000 rpm neutral drops will take care of it....

 

[LouM]

If this is a similar transmission as is in the eco-diesels;
There have been several discussion threads about hot running tranmissions.
There is a thermal management controller bolted onto the transmission,
it is a mechanical devise with no electronic control it does not communicate with anything.
It is a thermostatic control of the transmission temperature.
https://www.ram1500diesel.com/forum/ram-1500-diesel-transmission/59906-cooling-hot-transmission.html

 

[crash68]

As LouM pointed out, the problem is the transmission heater assembly. There was two known EcoDiesels that both had spiking high transmission temps(no codes) that were fixed when the heater assembly was replaced.
The one owner footed the bill to replace the heater assembly himself and was later reimbursed for the repair (truck was still in the 5/100 warranty).

 

[huntergreen]

A couple 4000 rpm neutral drops will take care of it....

No doubt johnnymac is joking, but there is some truth to this. I would hook up a trailer,, load up to max weight and drive hard through a mountainous area till the trans grenades.

 

[PoMansRam]

This does suck because unless it's something painfully obvious to the dealer service department or something they can easily troubleshoot, fix and be paid for, they'd rather let you walk.

I realize you probably don't want to, but I'd trade the sucker in at this point.

 

[chrisbh17]

If they replaced his transmission, would it come with a new thermal manager? or is that a part that they swap over?

If it gets swapped over, you would think common sense would apply and maybe a service person would have a light bulb light up above their heads.

 

[Pettybilt]

From my understanding its the same transmission as the Eco Diesel. 8HP70. I am aware of the issues with the thermal management unit (tmu), ive even told the dealers to look into it. The dam thing is they (FCA) knows there is an issue, and refuse to do anything banking on it will make it through the warranty period.
Ive had the truck just over a year, and i hate to think about losing money cause i have to trade it in cause FCA is screwing me over. I might very well have to do that. On the other hand if i trade it in someone else is going get screwed and FCA wins.

And from my understanding my old TMU was swapped over. At this point if the TMU could in fact fix the temp spikes, i feel the trans has been compromised. I wont be satisfied until a new trans, and new TMU is installed, or better yet FCA buy the junk back.

Anyone have any experience having FCA buy back a truck?

 

[Kap1]

Ask a local mechanic friend to help you carefully break this transmission so dealer gets you a new one.

I respect that you don't want to trade it and screw over another person. Good karma to you and good luck.

 

[PoMansRam]

If the weather was better, I'd crawl under my 2017 Ram 1500 for a look at this ATF thermo unit (assuming my 8HP45 is the same). If you could get at it easy enough, I'd disconnect the rubber engine coolant lines to the unit and just join them together by clamping them over a piece of copper tubing. You'd want to clamp them off before removal of course so you don't loose coolant. although I get it that the truck is under warranty and you don't want to DIY..

The thing I have a hard time with, if it was indeed the ATF "heater" doing this, why would ATF temp get hotter than engine coolant temp? Would this scenario not be associated with the ATF cooler in this case? They're separate components best I can tell.

** Edit, maybe this has been discussed, but based on the pics I've seen online of this, you might be able to simply pinch off either the hot or cold hoses at the ATF heater to block coolant flow through it. You could try it for troubleshooting.

 

[crash68]

If the weather was better, I'd crawl under my 2017 Ram 1500 for a look at this ATF thermo unit (assuming my 8HP45 is the same). If you could get at it easy enough, I'd disconnect the rubber engine coolant lines to the unit and just join them together by clamping them over a piece of copper tubing. You'd want to clamp them off before removal of course so you don't loose coolant.

Yes your 8HP45 has a similar assembly. It looks like a plate heat exchanger on the driver's side of the trans.
The problem isn't with the coolant side of the transmission heater but the thermal bypass valve that directs the transmission fluid to the cooler on the top of the AC condenser.
Someone on this forum pulled this assembly apart and stated there is no good way to bypass this part of the heater assembly effectively.

 

[RamHondo]

Try Performance Dodge in Clinton NC, Kieffer is usually pretty good. Maybe Hendricks Dodge? Or Steve White in Newton NC.

 

[RamHondo]

I'm sure there is a dealer or 2 here on Forum, they always cruise forums....

 

[PoMansRam]

The problem isn't with the coolant side of the transmission heater but the thermal bypass valve that directs the transmission fluid to the cooler on the top of the AC condenser.
Someone on this forum pulled this assembly apart and stated there is no good way to bypass this part of the heater assembly effectively.

So the issue is not with the heat exchanger on the trans (fluid heater), it's with the 'thermostat' for the ATF cooler?

Or is the T-stat that sends ATF to the cooler integrated into this stupid heater unit?

 

[Wild one]

So the issue is not with the heat exchanger on the trans (fluid heater), it's with the 'thermostat' for the ATF cooler?

Or is the T-stat that sends ATF to the cooler integrated into this stupid heater unit?

The thermostat is part of the heater assembly,when I had mine off,i couldn't see an easy way to bypass it.It's in the bottom of the heater assembly.Paramount does list a 160 F thermostat for the 8 speeds,bads news is you can only get one if you buy one of their transmissions.You can bypass the coolant hoses pretty easily if you're so inclined just by using one of the rubber hoses on the top of the tranny and simply hooking it to the other coolant line.If you decide to try that trick,i'd recommend draining the rad first,as it's gonna be messy,lol.You'll need a set of flexible hose clamp pliars for the clamps,channel locks or normal style pliars ain't gonna cut it for them hoses,they're a bit ugly to get at,even if you unbolt the heater assembly and drop it down as far as you can.

 

[pgr1990]

Time for a War Viking




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GMcD]

I would bet anything that transmission fluid is burnt. See if you can get someone to drain a little from your transmission

 

[Pettybilt]

I would bet anything that transmission fluid is burnt. See if you can get someone to drain a little from your transmission

I would bet you are correct. Of the many trips to the dealer, not one time has the fluid level been checked. That's just too simple i suppose.
I have requested on several occasions to see in writing the trans operating perimeters, this information my be top secret causes i have yet to receive it.

At this point, the my trans has one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel. Its just a matter of time before it gives up, and its never going be a good time.
All i want is my truck fixed, that doesn't seem like too much to ask does it?

Does anyone else find it odd that so many people seem to know the root cause of the temp spikes (thermal management unit) , yet FCA could care less cause to them no codes = no problems?
That's like a Doctor telling you blood pressure of 200/100 is okay cause you haven't died yet.

I'm beginning to think FCA only does recalls on things that they could get sued over, like the Autopark recall i just got. In the letter they claim that my long term satisfaction is important to
them.



If my transmission decides to fail in traffic and causes an accident like it very well could have the other day when it failed to engage in 5th while i was on I77 in Charlotte. I would think a court of law would see that as direct negligence on FCA. I have documented this problem for close to 9 months, and they refuse to do anything to correct the problem.
They did give me a CDI if wanted to purchase a new truck, now why in the hell would i do that knowing their track record taking care of the customer?

FCA if you are reading this, FIX MY TRUCK.

 

[Wild one]

I would bet you are correct. Of the many trips to the dealer, not one time has the fluid level been checked. That's just too simple i suppose.
I have requested on several occasions to see in writing the trans operating perimeters, this information my be top secret causes i have yet to receive it.

At this point, the my trans has one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel. Its just a matter of time before it gives up, and its never going be a good time.
All i want is my truck fixed, that doesn't seem like too much to ask does it?

Does anyone else find it odd that so many people seem to know the root cause of the temp spikes (thermal management unit) , yet FCA could care less cause to them no codes = no problems?
That's like a Doctor telling you blood pressure of 200/100 is okay cause you haven't died yet.

I'm beginning to think FCA only does recalls on things that they could get sued over, like the Autopark recall i just got. In the letter they claim that my long term satisfaction is important to
them.



If my transmission decides to fail in traffic and causes an accident like it very well could have the other day when it failed to engage in 5th while i was on I77 in Charlotte. I would think a court of law would see that as direct negligence on FCA. I have documented this problem for close to 9 months, and they refuse to do anything to correct the problem.
They did give me a CDI if wanted to purchase a new truck, now why in the hell would i do that knowing their track record taking care of the customer?

FCA if you are reading this, FIX MY TRUCK.

Why don't you buy yourself a heater assembly and install it.Only 3 bolts and a couple lines hold it on the side of the transmission.They aren't that expensive. When I did my tranny,there was another guy doing his convertor swap at the same time ,and he bought a new heater assembly for around $80.00 USD,through a relative that was a parts manager at a local dealership,so even with-out the good guy price,they're probably still around a 100 bucks USD.I flushed the **** out of my heater assembly with the gold plated ZF fluid and spent more on fluid then he did on the heater,but he was a couple days behind me ,so I didn't find this out till after I had my new 8sp back in place.You might want to flush the cooler and lines to,or even invest in a new A/C condenser/tranny cooler.Keep all your bills,and submit them to FCA,you never know,they might reimburse you if that fixes your issues