My condolences to your loss.

 

correct, the majority of 2002s came w/ the 4 speed transmission, and the 45 and 545 are plenty tough when bolted onto the 4.7, they were built to take the power put out by the hemi which came out for the 2002 model year, so as longa s you do the maintance (change fluid and filters regularly) and keep the right fluid in it the trans you have should last for a very long time

 

well is there a code in the vin to figure out what i have or?...and thanks hydra if any of you have small children please keep them well supervised this summer around a pool....and how do i adjust the bands because that shouldve been done at 120,000 miles but wasnt...its got over 143,000 on it now....well im not sure but it could up shift 3 times but it also revs down a bit more after all the upshifts and i think i read on here some were that its because of the torque converter or something like that...

 

if you have the 4.7 there are no bands in that transmission, its electronically controlled, nothing to adjust, just change the fluid and filter, if you have the 4.7 you have the 45rfe end of story. however there should also be a sticker int he glove box w/ the transmission type and how many speeds printed on it.

 

so they only used the 45rfe behind the 2002 4.7's?...that must be why it hasnt had any problems with not havin the filter and fluid changed in 60k or 70k miles then?....

 

the 45s were used behind all 4.7s through 2002, in 2003 they switched to the 545, but yea thats probably why you havent had any problems with the transmission

 

ok well is there a thread that decodes the vin# so i can figure out all of the options that i have or dont have?....i know most forums have them on different vehicles

 

My condolences as well. I have one son of my own, and my wife has 3 kids from her previous marriage that I love as if they were mine. To lose any of them. Man, I can't even begin to imagine....

Well, I dunno. The Durango as a whole is a tank. These things are tough as nails. But Chrysler does have a reputation for flaky transmissions. Whether that reputation is deserved or not is up for debate, but they do have the reputation. Given that I'm going to spend tomorrow morning making a 30 mile drive to the shop at about 7mph since my tranny won't come out of 1st, you can guess which side of that debate I'm probably on at the moment... lol... (Actually, my belief is that their trannys are not "crappy", they're just a bit under-specced. Probably a cost-cutting measure, but I'm sure they'd all be fine if they were just put behind smaller engines... So, not really "bad" transmissions, just a case of bad decision making at the management level, resulting in good parts being asked to do a little bit more than they were designed for...)

As far as making it last, the biggest thing is just keep up on your routine maintenance. Get things done ahead of schedule if you're really serious about keeping the thing around for a long time. If you're really, really super serious about it, then go ahead and throw in an upgrade kit like was mentioned in the first post in this thread (basically replacing stock components with stronger, tougher versions). Probably not necessary for a stock vehicle as long as you keep up on maintenance, but if you really want it to last and have the spare cash, or if you do a lot of towing, it certainly couldn't hurt.

 

Best way to do it is to just swing by a dealership. With the VIN they can print you out the build sheet that gives you all kinds of information about what was put into your specific Durango. (If you're anything like me, make a few copies and file them away in different places. Lost mine when we moved last year... Need to go get them to print me another one.)

You can also get the build sheet by email through their website, but my experience with that was a huge PITA. If you have a dealership within an hour's drive, it's easier to just go get it there next time you're close by.

 

sounds good to me, i have to go to a dealer a lil farther away from me now cause my usual dealer went out of business about 2 weeks ago.....(rest in piece mopar shop)....now i have to drive all the way to anouther county.....