Hey guys. It's been about a month since I last posted in here.

My truck (06 dak 4.7ho) has had the ATF fluid overheating light come on the past 3 days. The light has come on after about 10-15 minutes of highway driving.

I sent the truck into napa for an oil change and to have them look at the issue. they said it can throw that light because of three things:

1. "hotrodding" the truck. aka: putting an extreme strain on the truck via large load (towing) or high revs

2. sitting idle in gear too long (aka: bad rush hour traffic just sitting there doing nothing and creeping along)

3. torque converter could be slipping and causing the fluid to heat up

Napa said that they wouldn't fix the issue and I should bring the truck to the dealer. well, the truck has 86k on it now and any warranty that it would have is gone by now. what's your experience with this? who should I take the truck to or how should I go about fixing this?

thanks guys.

 

I would start by dropping the tranny pan, pulling both filters and let it drain overnight. Replace both filters, seal the pan and refill with atf+4. A friend of mine at work at the same problem with thier Jeep with 545-RFE. I changed the fluid and filters and they said it went away.

Good luck man.

 

Thx, Blown. I had asked the tech at napa if I should flush the system and he said the fluid didn't look that poor. He did mention something about a possible tsb on the auxillary trans cooler. do you know anything about that?

The tranny hasn't been slipping lately, but I have felt odd "clunks" when the Torque converter locks in and out on the highway at about 60mph. ex: i'll hardly tap the gas when it's locked up and I will feel a decent shake from the tranny. thoughts on this? could this be related?

 

Don't do a flush. If you google it, it's killed many 545-RFEs. The look of the fluid will not tell you if the transmisison filters are clogging up.

That could be your transmission planetary gears on the highway.

Are you running a Sonnax?

 

Ok. so just drop the pan, let it drain, replace with new filters, filler' up?

not sure what a sonnax is, so i will say no.

 

Sonnax is a line pressure booster you can buy (aftermarket). If you had one I was going to suggest unplugging it.

When you change the filters really look at the seals. If the seal hasn't been good you might have been sucking air into the valve body.

I would try the fluild filter change before anyting else. Has it ever had both tranny filters changed that you know of?

 

Thanks for the advice. I have owned the truck since 47k, currently at 86k, and have never touched the transmission, it's fluid, filters, etc. I knew something must be coming soon, and now it seems it is time. Hopefully my waiting hasn't caused too much damage. We will see.

I just started a new job (no time on my hands) so I was thinking about taking the truck to AAMCO to have them look at it. They can do a drain for $30 + filters and I guess we will see where that leaves me.

 

Here you go brother a DIY write up and it's really easy.

http://www.60ateight.com/DodgeRam/

 

$30? Man that's fantastic! Aamco did mine but I had to pay $99!

 

This except add some lubegard to help improve protection and heat transfer.
http://www.lubegard.com/~/C-113/LUBE...ATF+Protectant