Back from out of town for a few days...
Thanks to info from retmil46 about the WIX fuel filter subsititue, upon spotting a NH Tractor dealership, I pulled in on the way home - they had the 5 micron fuel filter in stock for $21 and some change. Bought one and will be installing it soon. Just needs the drain plug Mitchell provided the part number for, or a reducer to adapt the WIF sensor on the CRD. At least the WIX/NH filter is listed as a glass synthetic filter rated at 5 microns nominal. It should be a good interim filter until a CAT2 filter is available.
To the other question from this quote:
Quote:
If you KNOW the replacement TC is inferior, show me.
That's not the issue here. The issue is that DC has a history of using subpar power-train components that fail well before warranty expiration on the CRD. Now with the last F37, they are reducing power in an attempt to make it last past warranty. That is the issue, no matter how you try to obfuscate it. If the F37 TC is adequate for as sold, advertised levels, then let DC prove it by restoring power back to what they sold us. DC needs to do the proving here, not us.
To date, at 26,900 miles, I've had a TC destroy itself on me on a local road at 45 mph, stranding me on the way to work - this was at 18K miles, without warning. They flushed the tranny cooler (plugged up badly with debris), flushed the tranny, cleaned the tranny pan, replaced the filters, replaced the TC and added new fluid. Neither the pump or the tranny cooler was replaced. This was long before F37 existed, sometime in early 2006. Now, at 8900 miles later, the TC is making some bad noises when climbing some small hills. Shudder problem, present from day one, still exists. This is on a vehicle that is used for highway driving on Interstate at 90%, local roads 10%, 50 miles a day. The tranny/TC combo should last at least 100K miles under these conditions. Not a lot of stop and go, mostly in lockup mode. Shudder is present only after WOT on ramp acceleration or Interstate merging, then relaxing the accelerator pedal. It does not shudder on acceleration, only after easing up at 60 - 65 mph. Once speed is reached, the shudder stops. Its been flashed several times in an attempt to eliminate shudder, but without success.
So yes, I think the TC DC used is inadequate for this powerplant. The TC in my 02 with a V6 rated at 235 ft-lbs is doing fine at well over 50K miles.
As to inferior, that is pretty subjective term. It wouldn't matter if it were inferior, as long as it held up to the powertrain specs. It doesn't in some cases, enough to cause some concern.
One of the Speed Channel shows, iirc it was 2 Guys garage, had a special showing the stock Dodge TC from a Cummins equipped truck compared to a performance built TC. First they showed the Dodge OEM, taken apart. Fins on the TC were press fit into slots, not braised, in the TC housing, with somewhat loose rattly fit. The stamped steel clutch surface was already blue-burnt with heat from the lockup clutch slipping excessively, with warped uneven, high spots. The TC bearing was a phenolic disc, with wear marks - wear which adds sloppiness to the TC stall speed as it wears. The flex-plate mounting lugs looked to be stamped steel welded to the TC case. The stator, responsible for the torque multiplication, was a cast aluminum with thick vanes that had constricted flow paths for the tranny fluid to traverse.
In contrast, they showed the specialty TC. First, a billet steel TC cover, machined to size, had heavy duty clutch surfaces and was much, much thicker and stronger to resist the warping that the OEM experienced. The clutch material was kevlar/carbon fiber or something similar, not paper based clutch material like the OEM. The stator was compared directly to the OEM. The stator fins were streamlined, had less resistance to fluid flow and provided more torque multiplication than OEM ( don't remember the exact figure). Instead of phenolic bearings, metal roller torrington bearings were used.
So in that regard, the OEM was inferior to the specialty TC. What was apparent was that Chrysler went for lowest component cost on the OEM TC - important to them, but the $200 to $300 Chrysler may have saved (at their unit volume cost) is insignificant from an owners point of view, in a $25K to $38K diesel vehicle, whether its a Liberty CRD or Dodge 2500 truck. Again, inferior wouldn't matter at all if it would last 100K minimum and not lose efficiency as it accumulated miles. Unfortunately, that's not been the case with enough CRD's.
I'm not concerned if you believe there is a problem or not, and even less interested in proving it to you. I am concerned if you're here to whitewash the problem or attempt to obfuscate what DC did by detuning instead of using a TC built to handle advertised power Being stranded on the road with a trashed TC has a very convincing affect as to whether the TC can handle the advertised power level. If you're lucky, it won't happen to you. As long as DC did their math correctly with the power detuning, you might make it past warranty without an issue. If not, a PCM power detune and new/rebuilt TC may be in your future. Good luck with your CRD.
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So when things like this are printed, they affect all of us whether we agree, like, hate, despise CR or not - the damage is done.
It's the only Jeep that is recommended. Reliability is rated as average; satisfaction is below average; and depreciation is average.
sometime it upshift very hard, sometime it wait too long... that's why i'm putting O/D off all the time except straight highway, doesn't help my MPG consumption