EHarris

Sorry for what might be an extremely stupid question but I'm almost at 120k and due for a transmission service to keep my lifetime powertrain warranty in effect. I'm at 107k now and im told there are two services. One is a flush and the other is to drop the pan and replace filter. $249 and $379. They just recently did a rear main seal under the lifetime warranty about 7k ago. Would they flush the transmission anyway while doing the rear main seal? Once again sorry for the newb wrench question.

ronjenx

Probably they didn't flush it. If they did, they would have mentioned it, or charged you for it.

Fluid and filter is enough if the fluid doesn't show evidence of contamination or having been overheated.

EHarris

Thanks Ron. They said the fluid didn't look good but I got it flushed at 50k once already. If I'm checking for myself, would that just be the transmission dipstick while the engine is running and checking to see the color of the fluid isn't brown?

According to the manual it's a replace fluid and filter. Can those two items be accomplished without dropping the pan?

ronjenx

The pan has to come down to change the filter.

Check the fluid level with the transmission warmed up, engine idling, lever in park, on a level surface.
The level changes quite a bit with temperature. If you have no way of getting a fluid temperature reading, anywhere from half way between hot and cold, to the hot mark is OK.

If you have an infrared temperature gun, point it at the front of the pan. Get the reading and compare it to the levels in the picture below.
When you look at the dip stick, notice if fluid is burnt and discolored.
If you have overheated the transmission since the last service, I would change the fluid and filter whether the fluid looks good or not.
All the fluid won't get changed with the normal service, but it will still benefit the transmission. You can do a couple changes to get most of it renewed.

EHarris

I have not over heated but I have added an mopar trans cooler. I'm at 108k now and got it flushed at 50k at the dealer. I added the cooler as 65k