I agree. get rid of him!!!

 

He's already gone.

~Amanda

 

SAY HURRAY AMANDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHEN A NEW PERSON WRITES IN FOR ADVICE, THE LAST THING HE NEEDS IS TO BE FLAMED BY A JACKASS!!

THANK YOU FOR REMOVING HIM!

 

Gentlemen, for all of those on here who disagree that the Dodge transmissions are not at all very well built, I counter with the fact my father owns a shop here in South Florida. He has 4 tranny techs and 4 bays specifically for rebuilding trannys - without a doubt, the number one transmission he has to rebuild is on Dodge trucks and vans! There are 4 to 5 a week which come in, but they never come back because they leave here with some important differences than how they left the manufacture. first and formost, he ALWAYS adds an exterior tranny cooler in front of the radiator. If the customer refuses to have the cooler added, he tells them to take the truck elsewhere. Heat kills the dodge tranny like nothing else, they are extremely prone to failure at the slightest raise in temp, and the extra cooler lowers the fluid temp dramatically. second, all leave here with an an inline filter. The filter in the bottom of the pan clogs too rapidly and easily, so on the cooler lines running to the radiator, one line will have an extra filter. and last, ATF-3 is crap! You must use ATF-4 or synthetic. He uses a synthetic fluid only automotive shops can buy, but Amsoil will do just as well if you don't want to pay the stealership money for ATF-4. One important point you all need to remember when driving your dodge, is NEVER go into reverse without putting the truck into "drive" first. Dodge, in all their ignorance, decided not to have the pump operating on the tranny's until the vehicle is placed into gear. On other makes, if you take one of the cooler lines off from the tranny while the engine is running and the tranny in park, fluid will still shoot out across the room. On Dodge's, the pumps only work when the tranny is in gear. So if you start up the truck after it has been sitting a while and the fluid has drained back out of the torque convertor, if you go straight to "reverse", there is a second of two before the fluid makes back around. Always put your foot on the brake, place the tranny in "drive" then wait a second or two, then either go into reverse, or simply continue in drive. either way, always let the truck sit for a second or two in gear before letting the tires actually rotate.

 

Wow that answered a ton of questions for me. I travel allot and sometimes my truck sits for a month at a time in my driveway. And of course when I start it up it allways starts...But I did notice that it does shift very hard into reverse first time I depart. Thanks for the great insight to why it does this.


Maybe this could be moved to the Tech Questions area

 

As for tranny's I've heard a lot of good and bad. We've had several dodges (Dakotas and Rams) in our family. I have and uncle who went over 120,000 miles on a 96 ext cab 5.9 4x4 1500. I have a cousin who had a 95 ext cab 4x4 1500 5.9 with well over 100,000 miles. Both were autos and pull light loads on occasion and didn't have any tranny problems.

On the other hand my mom has a 99 dakota and it is a grocery hauler. Don't have a hitch and has never had a big load. She drives it very very easy (prolly too easy actually) and the tranny went out at about 50,200 miles. No way it should have done that. Oh ya, it was 2 months after the 5 year warranty went out.

My point is everyone has problems. I could lose the tranny in my truck tomorrow. Hope not. But if you are a true MOPAR man/ woman you'll stick with em' thru the good and the bad because all the other brands have problems too. I could go on forever about things that have happened to fords and chevys but I'll end it here.