Uh ohh.... a few hard shifts. Trans on the way out?

[NJ4X4]

I felt a hard shift three or four times over the last couple weeks. Seemed the first couple times were at lower speeds...today was more around 50mph....shifting into 6th gear. Truck is a 2013 with the 6 speed and just hit 62K miles. Always maintained....ALL fluids changed a year ago. Anyone else ever have this issue on their 4th gen? Did the trans go shortly afterwards? Maybe I should trade it into carmax or one of those while the values are still crazy high....

 

[Treburkulosis]

6 speed truck or 8 speed truck?

 

[NJ4X4]

6 speed truck or 8 speed truck?

6 speed.

 

[NOV87]

Transmission fluid level low? You said, it was replaced last year, check the color of it too to see if it nice and red.
I have 6sp RFE too.(same as yours) 95k miles on mine. Transmission tune with locked shifts. It kicks somewhat in low gears at low RPM. But in my case expected, due to tune.

 

[NJ4X4]

Level looks fine. Ill take a better look at the color tomorrow.

 

[Treburkulosis]

I went with redline transmission fluid with a Mopar filter and then I added lube guard shutter control. Mine started doing this mess after the fluid was change 60k earlier. That solved mine. I even run my throttle controller on maxed out race mode and it is perfect shifting. I did mine a second time at 139k just insu and mine it back shifting normal.

 

[NJ4X4]

I went with redline transmission fluid with a Mopar filter and then I added lube guard shutter control. Mine started doing this mess after the fluid was change 60k earlier. That solved mine. I even run my throttle controller on maxed out race mode and it is perfect shifting. I did mine a second time at 139k just insu and mine it back shifting normal.

Cool.....glad to hear that! I'll take another look at it tomorrow.....but I think I might do exactly what you did!

 

[Princeton_Man]

For what it's worth...

I had that happen with one of my other trucks, it turned out to be caused by the mass airflow sensor. The computer was shifting based on bad data from the sensor.

 

[NJ4X4]

For what it's worth...

I had that happen with one of my other trucks, it turned out to be caused by the mass airflow sensor. The computer was shifting based on bad data from the sensor.

Thanks!

 

[Burla]

So you tend to lose overdrive gears first with rfe's, it is likely the clutch packs or valve body accumulator pistons. Two must video watches are here below links, and you need a synthetic rfe filter upgrade with a metal thread, no more plastic. First things first, yes you will need 8 quarts of redline C+, it is pure rfe honey and will likely solve this. Now, you should drop the pan as well, so good time to find a synthetic filter from thread above and order it, knock the paint off it, purchase a rfe metal thread upgrade, and a sump filter I highly suggest mopar oem for this, and i don't recommend oem for hardly anything, but spark plugs and sump filters yes, do not use oem spin on filter, use the option from the thread above, and now all you need is transmission gasket maker.

Dime to donuts this gets you right, but to get longer use from your rfe have a plan soon to update valve body like the ones below, they have plate upgrades or gasket, if you are going to tune up pressure, you will want a plate, not cheap but will protect that rfe better. The cheaper route is a gasket shift kit w/o tuning psi. This is not a full flush, do not worry about that one bit, like I said if you plan to do this first and a larger fix later your fluid will be like new between the two procedures. You can get a new pan with bolt, this makes changing easier, but costs more every time you swap fluid and it will take more. The good thing about the rfe you can pump fluid right out of the dip stick and do some quick flushes and keep fluid fresh. 4 quarts out and 4 quarts in on any day you are bored.

Hemi395 found these and as far as I'm concerned they are the rfe bible.

Valve Body upgrades.

Rfe weaknesses.



.

 

[Burla]

Once a transmission is slipping, using ester based fluid is a must, why we recommend redline C+ for this. If the trans wasn't slipping or hard shifting, I'd say use any atf4, it is a very high quality spec for fluids, maybe the best. But, atf4 is not a high detergent spec, so next to no cleaning, esters are natural cleaners similar to solvents without the baggage of using a solvent. It has nothing to do with brand, but rather formula, and this formula was built for stuff like this. I used an ester based cleaner and totally fixed this and lasted 200k miles in another vehicle. Now, this is a very cheap way to do it and I don't recommend this for the rfe, doing a redline swap is going to make that trans last longer. Just in case you cant do a transmission swap right now, the product is called auto rx, it is an ester based cleaner known to un-stick sticky transmissions. Let us know what you will do, let us know how it works, peace Burla.

 

[NJ4X4]

So you tend to lose overdrive gears first with rfe's, it is likely the clutch packs or valve body accumulator pistons. Two must video watches are here below links, and you need a synthetic rfe filter upgrade with a metal thread, no more plastic. First things first, yes you will need 8 quarts of redline C+, it is pure rfe honey and will likely solve this. Now, you should drop the pan as well, so good time to find a synthetic filter from thread above and order it, knock the paint off it, purchase a rfe metal thread upgrade, and a sump filter I highly suggest mopar oem for this, and i don't recommend oem for hardly anything, but spark plugs and sump filters yes, do not use oem spin on filter, use the option from the thread above, and now all you need is transmission gasket maker.

Dime to donuts this gets you right, but to get longer use from your rfe have a plan soon to update valve body like the ones below, they have plate upgrades or gasket, if you are going to tune up pressure, you will want a plate, not cheap but will protect that rfe better. The cheaper route is a gasket shift kit w/o tuning psi. This is not a full flush, do not worry about that one bit, like I said if you plan to do this first and a larger fix later your fluid will be like new between the two procedures. You can get a new pan with bolt, this makes changing easier, but costs more every time you swap fluid and it will take more. The good thing about the rfe you can pump fluid right out of the dip stick and do some quick flushes and keep fluid fresh. 4 quarts out and 4 quarts in on any day you are bored.

Hemi395 found these and as far as I'm concerned they are the rfe bible.

Valve Body upgrades.

Rfe weaknesses.



.

Some great info there.....that's why I love this forum. Thanks!

 

[Treburkulosis]

Im running Redline in mine as well. Mine had gotten a little sloppy and right before I swapped out my fluid mine had a few hard shifts. No slipping just harder shifts. Did the redline and mopar filter swap and mine shifts like a new one. Also look into lubeguard shudder control. I also added it to mine just for some added insurance.

 

[Treburkulosis]

Here is the sudder stuff.

Amazon.com

 

[Jeepwalker]

Just to back up, did the OP attempt to extract any codes? If any are present? I had a Jeep tranny that did something like this (was present from a previous owner). I ended up taking it to the dealer b/c work was crazy and time was limited. New solenoid resolved it. That was many yrs ago, still have the jeep.

My truck's 6-spd has 165k on it and still going strong. You might want to take yours to the dealer just to 'see' what they say. Might be a quick fix. Not all dealers do lousy work all the time ...though reading these forum complaints tend to make ya think so. When I've taken our Chrysler vehicles to our local FCA dealer they've always done a good job, never had any ongoing complaints.

OR, if you've been thinking of upgrading your truck to something else. Yeah, there may never be a better time than now. If you're not in it for the long haul, you probably should get on the band wagon while prices are still stratospheric. Once all the new chips start flowing in, the car companies are going to have to sell a lot of cars as quick as they can. Big incentives. It'll nosedive used car resale.

 

[NJ4X4]

Just to back up, did the OP attempt to extract any codes? If any are present? I had a Jeep tranny that did something like this (was present from a previous owner). I ended up taking it to the dealer b/c work was crazy and time was limited. New solenoid resolved it. That was many yrs ago, still have the jeep.

My truck's 6-spd has 165k on it and still going strong. You might want to take yours to the dealer just to 'see' what they say. Might be a quick fix. Not all dealers do lousy work all the time ...though reading these forum complaints tend to make ya think so. When I've taken our Chrysler vehicles to our local FCA dealer they've always done a good job, never had any ongoing complaints.

OR, if you've been thinking of upgrading your truck to something else. Yeah, there may never be a better time than now. If you're not in it for the long haul, you probably should get on the band wagon while prices are still stratospheric. Once all the new chips start flowing in, the car companies are going to have to sell a lot of cars as quick as they can. Big incentives. It'll nosedive used car resale.

I haven't checked for codes. I'm pretty sure my OBDII scanner only reads engine codes. I did buy the truck new though and know for sure there's never been any previous issues.

And, I'm on the fence with trading in the truck. I certainly could do it as I have other cars to drive. The 30% increase in value would be nice.... We just sold one of the other cars to carmax a couple months ago. It was a '17 2SS Camaro with 9K miles on it. Got WAY more money for the car than it was purchased for 4+ years ago. The downside is I know I will want another truck and with the limited supply and higher pricing....it probably pointless unless I wait til things normalize. How long will that be? No one really knows. Apparently, the chip manufacturers are in no rush to produce these older larger chips when they can make smaller chips and increase their profits.

 

[NJ4X4]

I love all the response and plan on going to redline c+ and the synthetic filter and OEM sump filter. But, with all the links to other threads to read and figure out the gasketing, etc.....this might take a few days to sort out before I actually place an order. No need to pay extra on amazon to get extra parts quicker if all the parts wont be here yet.

 

[Jeepwalker]

Did you buy a solenoid kit? If you're going to pull the pan....

 

[Treburkulosis]

I love all the response and plan on going to redline c+ and the synthetic filter and OEM sump filter. But, with all the links to other threads to read and figure out the gasketing, etc.....this might take a few days to sort out before I actually place an order. No need to pay extra on amazon to get extra parts quicker if all the parts wont be here yet.

Summit is where I got mine. I have a local store here. They were the cheapest in town.

 

[Jeepwalker]

Sell yer truck now while prices are high. Buy an inexpensive used car to drive over the winter. When spring comes and the new chips/trucks are in, ....and companies are incentivizing the heck out of the new stuff, you can take advantage of great deals. But if you need to finance to get a new one, you might have to wait and take a lower trade-in value ...but youll get good financing or incentive I suspect.

Come spring yer going to have the new Ford Bronco, Lightening, new Ranger and Maverick out...which are going to suck up some full-sized sales. When new car sales are super strong, used prices plummet. That's how it typically goes. But buyers can get better incentives then too.



Note: If there are any global events, or gas shocks, that'll just making buying a newer pick-up that much cheaper.