Two weeks ago I pulled the truck up on ramps in my driveway. I was rolling around underneath looking at my u-joints and doing an underbody cleanliness check, (or as we say here in FL....doing a Bill aka-arocketman), but without the toothbrush, micro-fibre cloth and bottle of wax in hand. (He keeps one of the cleanest truck I have ever seen. Even more amazing is it's his daily driver and it roars down dirt roads every day). While inspecting the drive shaft and devising a plan to get Bill and his cleaning products to drive the 60 miles to my house (or maybe I can drop it off in his driveway while he's at work. He'll come home, inspect it, and his OCD cleanliness obsession will take over, and since he can't move it, he'll just have to clean it. Just like a mother cat grooms her kittens) I found what I felt was a little too much play in the shaft coming out of the back of the tranny. While laying on the crawler, looking upside down toward the front of the truck and contemplating this, I just happened to get a reflection off what looked like a quarter size wet spot on the edge of the tranny pan. I rolled forward and it turned out to be tranny fluid. That really, really pissed me off. My truck is a 06 with 27K miles and the tranny pan gasket had already been replaced 3 times. First at 1200 at the idiot dealer where I bought the truck (Satch will love this-the same dealer where the tech thought it was a SRT-10 and tried to put a SRT power steering pump on it), again at 9K (different dealer) where they also said some hose to the vent tube had came off and again at 19K.

I took it into the dealer a few days later. We put it up on the rack and the tech and I went over the drive train. (A side note: The tech commented on how clean the underside of my truck is. I was starting to feel pretty good, like a proud papa, but then I though about Bill bouncing down a dirt road on his way to work every day, with his left hand on the wheel and holding a cup of coffee while applying Armor All and vacuuming with the right. My truck sits in the garage all week, I try not to drive it if I know it's going to rain and his is still cleaner!.

The tech said the U-joints looked good and the play was within specs. We also found that the fluid was not from the pan, but had come out of the vent tube on top and worked its way down to the pan. The tech said he remembered reading about this and wanted to do a little research. About 30 min later the advisor tracked me down and said the tech wanted to see me. The way he said it made me think OH S**T. I was trying to remember if I had a copy of the Magnuson-Moss ACT in my truck because this dealer is known for jerking people around about aftermarket parts and warranty work. The tech said he found a service bulletin about pumps leaking pressure and causing fluid to blow out of the vent tube. He said they have to pull the tranny and change the pump. Holding my breath I asked, "it's covered under warranty right?" He said YES and the converter will most likely be replaced too. Ripe with the overwhelming feeling of good fortune and of being the proud owner of a truck with a pretty clean undercarriage, I started getting greedy. I wondered if I slipped him a few bucks and got my Edge billet converter from home, could it find its way in? Naa..better quit while I'm ahead. He said there is one problem. With all the issues Dodge is having, it can be hard to get parts. The last tranny rebuild he did took almost two weeks.

Well, two days later they said come pick it up. The tech replaced the converter and rebuilt the whole tranny. He said my overdrive clutches were burned. Considering how much I baby it, I was really surprised. It's never been down the track. I'm really cautious about OD downshifts. I’ve never even done a burn out with it. The tech said it's possible the loss of pressure from the leak could have something to do with it.

I've always felt something was wrong with my truck, but could never pinpoint it. Its performance has always been inconsistent. A couple times I've dropped the hammer and it downshifted from 2nd to 1st and broke the 22's loose, other times it seems to drag as*. That's one of the reasons I never ran it when we have our chapter GTGs at the track. I've only driven it a little since I got it back and want to put some miles on it before I see how it really feels, but so far it's definitely got the pep back.

I guess the moral of this whole drawn out story is sometimes dumb luck and good timing hits us all. A gut feeling about a problem, just happening to catch a reflection out of the corner of my eye, a very knowledgeable tech and all this taking place just 3 months before my warranty expires, saved me a ton of money in the very near future...........It's also wise to have the truck up on ramps with toothbrush and cleaning supplies in hand pretty early in the morning to keep up with the Bills of the world. See ya in St Augustine Bill.

We ought to put Bill head-to-head up against clifcuda65, "Clif," aka Mr. Clean.

I understand he has lined his street a quarter mile in both directions with ShamWows!!!

overdrive clutches have always had problems in the 45rfe. Pumps have problems sometimes, valvebodies its a skeet shoot on which problem you might eventually have. There is updated parts that they should put in the new transmissions when they rebuild or install a new one.

BILL3491 I read your post and my trans is doing the same thing all down the left side was yours the same.

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We ought to put Bill head-to-head up against clifcuda65, "Clif," aka Mr. Clean.

I understand he has lined his street a quarter mile in both directions with ShamWows!!!

quote:

BILL3491 I read your post and my trans is doing the same thing all down the left side was yours the same.

Yes. The pump was leaking pressure and forcing fluid out of the breather hole. The tech said he remembered reading something about it and found info on the problem and the fix. There should be a service bulletin or something about it.