Last year I came to the realization that it was time for me to buy a new (as in new to me, not brand new) vehicle. The Nissan pickup that I was driving as my primary vehicle was accumulating a lot of miles. Plus, with the birth of my grandson, I needed something with a backseat so I could have a place for his carseat. Being a pickup man at heart and having had good luck with my Nissan pickup, I first started looking for a late model used Nissan Frontier 4 door Crew Cab. Soon I discovered that all of them are equiped with the V-6 engine which has a timing belt. I have owned a couple of cars with timing belts, but I don't like it. Give me a good old chain, not as much chance of breaking.
With the Nissan out of the picture, my next choice was a pickup with a compression ignition engine (what we all call a diesel.) I did some research and quickly discovered that the Dodge 2500 with a Cummins diesel was right up my alley. The one cavet seemed to be the automatic transmission. The internet is littered with horror stories about the Dodge automatic transmission. Not only the diesel model, but the gasoline model as well. So my first choice became a Dodge 2500 with Cummins diesel and manual transmission. After doing a lot of searching, I found three vehicles in my general price range. Unfortunately, all three of them were automatic transmission. Back to the internet. I found an article by a guy who seemed to know what he was talking about. He said it was not a matter of if a Dodge automatic transmisson went out but more a question of when. I thought about it, did a little research on the costs of repair versus the cost of the manual equipped vehicle and decided to take my chances.
The first vehicle I checkout was in Florida, near where my daughter, son-in-law and grandson live. It was a nice vehicle but I told the guy I still wanted to check out the other two before I jumped. The second vehicle was in Wetumpka, only about 75 miles from me. I had misread the price on the internet. It was a nice truck but a little out of my price range. The third truck was in Franklin TN. I drove up there in a Volvo that I intended to trade. Sure enough, it was just what I wanted so I bought it. The drive home was uneventful as were the next couple of months of driving.
Then one morning, I started out of my driveway, which in sort of steep and about 1/2 way up the drive the transmission seemed to jump out of gear. I had a Ford van one time that was bad to leak transmisson fluild, when it would get low, it acted just like the Dodge was acting. Unfortunately, I had already checked the transmission fluid and it was right up on the full mark. I discovered that if I let the transmission warm up a little and started off with the lever in first gear it did better. This went on for a few weeks and then one day as I was taking a sharp corner a little faster than usual, the tranmission seemed to slip and then catch back up, just like it was low of fluid.
I became reconciled that my little truck was soon to need a rebuilt transmission. I went back to the internet and started searching in earnest for stories of successful Dodge transmission repair. I found some, but mostly what I found were horror stories of multiple transmission failures and replacements. I was beginning to question my original decision. Then I happened on to a site where someone was discussing a problem exactly like mine. One of the answerers said that when the Dodge with an automatic transmission sits for a while, the torque converter drains back into the pan. The pump that fills the torque converter in the Dodge automatic transmission does not run when the transmission is in park. He said that the individual needed to shift the transmission into neutral and let the engine run for a couple of minutes before attempting to drive away, especially in cold weather. A light went off in my head. I knew to check my transmission fluid with the engine running, but was not aware that the Dodge automatic transmission had to be in neutral instead of park. I went out, set the parking brake, started the engine and checked the transmission fuild. The tip of the stick was barely touching the fluid. I had to put 2 quarts of AFT+4 in the transmission to bring it up to the proper level.
I suspect that there are a lot more folks out there that are just like I was. They thought they had their Dodge automatic transmisson full when they didn't. I would not be a bit surprised if that is not the source of some of the Dodge automatic transmisson failures. So, if you are driving a Dodge with a automatic transmission, be sure and have the transmission shifted to neutral when you check the transmission fluid. By the way, it plainly says on the transmission stick to check the fluid level with the transmission in "neutral."
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