I have a 2003 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 Hemi with the 45rfe transmission, the truck has 160k miles but runs and drives good, that is till yesterday.

The truck has been sitting for about a year and a half. I recently started driving it and have put about 500 miles on it. I've noticed that the transmission has been acting a little funny. It has been starting out in second gear sometimes and shifting just a little late in city traffic. I ordered solenoid kit, both filters for the trans and the appropriate transmission fluid as I've always used.

The day before my parts came I started my truck up to go to work and let it run for a minute as usual. I shifted into drive and the engine abruptly killed. I started it back up, put it in reverse and it seemed fine, so I shifted it back into drive and it killed again. It can't go forward at all now. It feels like the transmission is trying to go into forward and reverse gears at once, then locks up and kills the engine. I figured it was just the solenoids messing up so I proceeded to change the solenoid pack, filters and fluid. Everything in the pan looked normal. There was just a small amount of very fine debris on the magnet, no excessive wear or chunks. I believe this is the first time the pan has been removed. It is still killing the motor when I put it in drive. Reverse gear seems to work fine although it does feel like when reverse gear engages it engages a bit hard. I plan on having somebody come to my house and run live data and try to pull some codes out of the transmission. I have replaced the transmission cooler lines up near the radiator because the rubber was leaking. I replaced both rubber sections with some new rubber sections from some Chevy transmission lines by using compression fittings to the original line. I'm hoping somebody else have seen this problem or experienced it and can give me some insight.

I usually just read forums to help figure out my problems but I wasn't able to find any posts contains my current problem. I've never posted on a forum before so I hope I'm doing this right.

 

Sounds like something in valve body.

I know this sounds stupid, but do these even have a Torque convertor lock up solenoid? If so.. what your describing is exactly what happens when those failed.

Mike

 

This was right along lines of what I said. sadly Op never did get back to inform to cause.
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-c...r-lock-up.html


Mike

 

Mike, thank you for helping me try to figure this one out. I was thinking that it sounded like the torque converter was locked up but it didn't make sense that I can drive the vehicle in reverse. I'm starting to think it could be maybe a stuck valve in the valve body or something or maybe that's just wishful thinking but I don't know enough about the torque converter or the TCC yet. I'm really hoping I can find somebody that had the same problem. I can't believe I'm the only dude to have this kind of bad luck lol
Chris

 

I find it hard to believe the engine stalls ..if torque converter is damaged.......only one way....

get the codes pulled from the transmission... also pull codes from engine...

if transmission is causing stalling... engine computer should be complaining about something... my opinion.

 

Not quite sure what you mean by the first statement..? Only one way what?


I do not believe that the torque convertor is physically damaged. It sat for awhile . Due diligence and reading through issues with many years (not just 3rd Gen), shows this to be a recurring theme with our transmissions.


Code scanning may or may not show cause. However, speaking personally, engine code wont show anything useful to diagnose the transmission. And if OP is in same boat as a lot of folks, may not have the scratch to pay a third party to diagnose for him.


I just wish that folks would post fixes more often instead of just taking advantage of peoples time and use forums like a one night stand. More then likely we would know what the cause is, as the thread I linked had exact same issue.


Mike

 

I sent a message to Master Tech in this forum and he replied yesterday saying he had the same problem on a vehicle and it was the valve in the valve body that was bad he fixed it and it took care of the problem with killing in forwards gear. I'm going to try that first. Also, I talked to a friend last night that had a Chevy 1 ton plow truck that was doing the same thing last year. The owners believed it needed a new transmission and my friend was like" nope, it needs a torque converter". So he put a torque converter in it and it fixed it. Now I'm not sure on the year or what tranny was in the Chevy, I'm sure it's different than mine lol. but he did say the reason why it went backwards is because the torque converter is like two pieces on the inside and they kinda" welded" themselves together or something to that effect. So the reason why it goes backwards is because that's the natural way the one part turns.....? like I said, I don't know the workings of the insides of a torque converter besides it works by some kind of Voodoo magic LOL. but he is insisting that if I put a torque converter in it it will fix it. I haven't been able to find anybody to pull the codes out of the truck yet during the weekend and I can't drive the truck anywhere.
All I really know is that when I put the gear selector in drive I hear a binding noise coming out of the transmission and the engine abruptly kills, not like stalls, I mean stops very quickly. I will be sure to follow up with my posts when I figure this out.

 

It turned out that it was the TCM ( transmission control module). It's located on the inner fender well near the firewall on the passenger, was causing all kinds of problems shift problems besides sometimes telling the transmission to go into forward and reverse gears at the same time which caused the engine to stall. When this occurred at times I was able to repeatedly shift from a person to drive and get it freed up. I was getting a check engine light and the code was P0700 and the transmission to go into limp home mode. For my model truck it was a direct drop in parts. It did not have to be programmed for my vehicle.

 

Thanks For the upDate.... Glad you got it fixed....