Sorry so long. I had the trans in my 01 5.2 rebuilt last summer. The trans has been rebuilt once before. The first time around 95K and the second when I did it at 191K. The shop that did it is very reputable, they've been in business for 30 years with their 3 mechanics being there 20, 25, and 28 years. Our company has used them for the last 25 years with no problems, that's how I found them.

Since the rebuild the trans has had to have the valve body replaced twice, that's within 10K miles. They installed a brad new valve body the second time. Now it's been another 5-6k miles or so and I believe the valve body is going out again. I hear a brief sucking sound when I hit the gas, I heard it before and thought I was hearing the throttle body but it went away when they replaced the valve body. It's come back so I know the VB is probably going out again. The trans also seems to shift hard when I come to a stop. I assume it's shifting back to first.

What could be causing this? The trans shop is standing behind the trans, they even extended the warranty on it from 2 years 24k to 5 years 50k because of the trouble. They've rebuilt hundreds of these and have never seen this before, they open the trans up and find nothing but a bad VB. I'm tired of this, it's becoming a hassle and before I take it back a third time has anyone had this problem?

 

I have rarely heard of a valve body going bad...... let alone two within a few thousand miles of each other. There has to be something else going on there, that is causing them to fail. I don't have the faintest idea just what that would be though.... Any idea what is 'bad' on the ones that have failed??

 

They didn't say, they replaced the valve body and that solves the problem apparently for 5k miles. The problems I had were going into passing gear. When I floor it to pass someone instead of going to passing gear it goes in to neutral. It has that sucking sound as well that has come back but I have yet to be able to make it go to neutral. It would also only do it if I was say "changing lanes" at the same time. It would never do it driving straight.

 

Maybe the TC is falling apart. Needs a good one. And when it is falling apart, it's clogging up the VB ? Or maybe it just needs a better Governor solenoid? Just throwing it out there. Where is MonteC when you need him. LOL

 

Yeah, no doubt zman!

Try replacing the governor pressure sensor, with a better unit than what dodge puts in there. The stock ones are know for becoming saturated at WOT, and not working correctly........

 

If the line pressure is too high it'll warp the valve body, should be 1 psi per 1 mph in third gear. Lock put od and drive it up to 60mph, should be right near 60psi need a scanner to read it though.

Over torquing the vb can also cause weird problems, torque is only 100 inch/lbs.

 

Thanks for the help, I'm going to ask about what everyone suggested, they also added a trans cooler when they rebuilt it. Could that be a problem?

 

No, the trans cooler will only help the tranny.

 

Borg Warner makes a better one, anyone know the number for it?

Thanks Dave

 

Yea I got it, hold on a minute.