Hi all. I originally joined this forum to learn about my 99 Ram 1500 4 X 4 PU. I have to sell in now unfortunaltely because I drive too many miles to be able to afford the gas for the 318. I just turned 100K miles and I recently started having shifting problems with the auto tranny, especially on cold days. Until the engine warms up the trans winds out way past where it would normally shift. After a few miles it goes back to normal.

I bought the truck with 82K on it and haven't done anything to the trans yet. Will changing the fluid and filter help? Am I an idiot for not doing this when I bought the truck?

Thanks, Jerry.

 

Your just like the rest of the people who have automatic transmissions and those people mostly don't even know that transmission service is essential for the life of the thing.

Fresh genuine ATF+4 fluid and Factory filter from the dealer certainly wouldn't hurt. Factory filters are designed specifically for your tranny as opposed to aftermarket ones being universal for many aplications. I would also suggest to adjust your shifting bands while you have the pan dropped for tighter factory shifts if the existing shifts are sloppy. Also, it's a good idea to get a small hand pump to pump out as much fluid out of the radiator and fluid lines as possible because if you just replace the fluid in the pan alone, that's only about 4/16.5 quarts that the system holds total. When I last changed the fluid in my ram, I got out about 9 quarts by dropping the pan and pumping out the lines. This all should help if there is nothing wrong with the tranny. It will prolong the life, but if the thing acts wierd when it's still cold, let her warm up before you start to travel. Simple solution right there, and the truck will love it.

Also, if you want the tranny to last a lot longer, a auxilary tranny cooler is a must. Excessive heat tends to make the clutch packs disintegrate, seals go bad, debris to flow and clog up the tranny, etcetera. Soon as that happens, transmissions usually need a little service but people don't know this so they spend thousands on new or rebuilt transmissions when all they need are possibly a set of new clutch packs, a couple seals, filter, possibly a new shift kit for better more firm shifts if any upgrades are to be made, and a good cleanup of all the internals if no hard parts had been damaged or destroyed. I don't know exactly what those kinds of things cost these days, but so long as hard parts aren't involved, it's less then 500-700 I'd imagine, but the thing would practically be like new.

There was a guy who posted in another thread just the other day and according to his post or avatar, whatever that means, he's a level 4 master technician or something like that. His username is XXL 1500. I think it might be time to ask a pro to get the specs on a common rebuild if one really wanted to know. Hmmm... Maybe I will.

 

Thanks Slomojo.