Hatchet Man
Member
- Joined
- May 16, 2020
- Posts
- 42
- Reaction score
- 28
- Location
- Rocky Mountains, USA
- Ram Year
- 2020 2500 Heavy Duty
- Engine
- 6.4L Hemi
I'm hoping someone can help me sort this out and I'll try to be brief. We bought a 2015 RAM 2500 Outdoorsman (6.4 L Hemi) a little over a month ago. Since then, we've hooked up to our 26' travel trailer (bumper) and headed to the same spot in the mountains about an hour and a half away. Total load is guestimated at 7,500 lbs or less. Some hills are huge and steep (the Hemi screams up these, but can do the posted speed limit), others just normal and windy. About 45 minutes into the trip, the truck sounds like it goes into Limp Mode and stays in 4th gear and won't shift with the +/-, or if you shift into nuetral and back to drive. Doesn't matter if you lift your foot off the gas and mash the pedal back down or gently increase pedal pressure, stays around 2,500 rpm whether going uphill, downhill, or flat roadway. The sound from the engine sounds like a huge internal fan on the driver's side of the truck. The first time it did this, it lasted for about 5 minutes then somehow corrected itself as we went into a long straightaway.
The 2nd trip, we were not so lucky. It did the same thing on the same hill (and it isn't even the worst hill) and stayed that way until I made it to the next town. So it lasted about 20 minutes, finally had a shoulder to pull off safely and park. I let the truck rest for about 15 minutes then started it up and it was fine again.
So now the truck is at the same Dodge dealership we bought it from. The guy in the morning says that they replaced a solenoid in the transmission about a month before we bought it (note - the dealership did not give this info to CarFax and they never told us about it during the purchase process). He also says that the tranny fluid is now brown. He added that it is just under the 5-year drive terrain warranty and should be covered. The guy in the afternoon calls my wife and tells her that they ran a diagnostic check and everything is fine, but they recommend changing the tranny fluid and the total cost for the tranny fluid change and diagnostic check will be $400+. So the wife calls me, yells, and I call the afternoon guy. The afternoon guy tells me that the morning guy didn't say much, so he just recommends a fluid change. I asked him how a fluid change could correct what is happening and he didn't have an answer. I asked him if he knew about the recent solenoid replacement and he said yes, it was done right before we sold the truck to you guys. The afternoon guy hears my story about the 2 trips and says that he'll talk to his tech and call me back.
Any of you RAM veterans have an idea as to what is going on with the truck?
The 2nd trip, we were not so lucky. It did the same thing on the same hill (and it isn't even the worst hill) and stayed that way until I made it to the next town. So it lasted about 20 minutes, finally had a shoulder to pull off safely and park. I let the truck rest for about 15 minutes then started it up and it was fine again.
So now the truck is at the same Dodge dealership we bought it from. The guy in the morning says that they replaced a solenoid in the transmission about a month before we bought it (note - the dealership did not give this info to CarFax and they never told us about it during the purchase process). He also says that the tranny fluid is now brown. He added that it is just under the 5-year drive terrain warranty and should be covered. The guy in the afternoon calls my wife and tells her that they ran a diagnostic check and everything is fine, but they recommend changing the tranny fluid and the total cost for the tranny fluid change and diagnostic check will be $400+. So the wife calls me, yells, and I call the afternoon guy. The afternoon guy tells me that the morning guy didn't say much, so he just recommends a fluid change. I asked him how a fluid change could correct what is happening and he didn't have an answer. I asked him if he knew about the recent solenoid replacement and he said yes, it was done right before we sold the truck to you guys. The afternoon guy hears my story about the 2 trips and says that he'll talk to his tech and call me back.
Any of you RAM veterans have an idea as to what is going on with the truck?