Quote:
From a recent post:
The hemi TC did not take care of my shudder issue as I hoped it would. I welcome anyone's thoughts or what worked to resolve their issue.
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From a LOST member:
The Hemi TC is built to the same low quality standard and bottom line cost as the Liberty CRD stock TC, on the same line at the same 40 yer old Chrysler Toledo Machining Plant in Perrysburg, Ohio. The Toledo Machining Plant that builds torque converters and steering columns, not exactly a bastion of high tech torque converter manufacturing. It's not even a transmission plant. I see the Hemi TC mod for the CRD in the same quality bin as the 2nd Generation Ufie/Bosch fuel head - it doesn't fail like the original, but it only shines in comparison to a really, really bad predecessor.
Same cheap paper clutch material, same plastic stator vanes, same low quality components. It's vane angle is different, but many posts on it's sloppy hookup in the Ram Hemi performance forums exist about it as well. It doesn't fare well when Ram Hemi owners take it to the drag strip for weekend racing.
It's built to last through warranty, nothing more. If it does, it's gravy and good luck, it's certainly not because of quality components.
Not a high quality part at all and certainly not worth throwing another $800-$900 worth of R&R labor to replace a slipping TC at a decent tranny shop if it fails on you further down the road instead of immediately. I've held the plastic stator and other components from all 3 Mopar TC's in my hands - it's junk quality, period. No if ands or butts about it. It's lowball quality. The TC clutch piston is poorly machined and the metal looks to be what we used to call "pot metal," low grade scrap metal used for the lowest cost applications.
These gents may be letting the better hydraulic coupling fool them into thinking it's a better quality torque converter. Better hydraulic coupling has *nothing* to do with the quality of the materials or construction. It has different springs, possibly explaining the lack of tc clutch bottoming out, but then so does the Euro and that thing is a stock TC with thicker stator clutch springs. See Warps pics - Euro is a stock CRD TC with springs that are .020 " thicker. That's the fix for the shudder from Mopar. A Mopar Hemi TC will couple better, but it only shines when compared to a very low standard, the stock or Euro Liberty CRD TC. If I see 40 or so CRD's running a Mopar Hemi TC for 200K miles and still going strong, I might change my mind, but I'm not holding my breath. We're talking Mopar quality, now run by Fiat.
You've seen my updates on Chrysler's quality of late on $50K Jeep GC's and Ram trucks, whether it's the engines, TIPM's, transmissions or even the CV boots. it's crap, with beautiful styling and great performance. They just don't care about quality and Fiat is not making it better, they're making it worse. They just fired the QA VP, who was responsible for upgrading the interior materials in Jeep and Ram vehicles. It wasn't Chrysler management who did this, it was Sergio himself.
Labor to R&R is higher than the cost of the SunCoast or a cheaply built TC, so recommending a Mopar Hemi TC can quickly become more expensive than doing it right the first time. Another $800 in R&R labor to replace a TC again quickly wipes out any $350 savings by using a cheaply built Mopar Hemi TC.
Take the cost of a Mopar TC, selling from an online dealership for $335 to $350. Bought from Mopar for $100 - $150, who bought it from Chrysler/TMP for $50 - $75. Cost of materials is very likely around $25-$35 tops. With a manufacturer like SunCoast, if markup is 2x, without a middleman, then the cost of materials is at least $300 vs $35 for a Mopar TC. If I use just the cost of the 2 torque converters and $800 for R&R labor, it's $1495 for a SunCoast TC vs $1150 for a Mopar Hemi TC. $350 savings for Mopar bottom of the barrel quality? It's not even a good joke.
The sloppy fit on the TC clutch apply piston and stamped steel cover of the Mopar TC is likely worsened by the very poor condition of Chrysler tooling, long overdue for upgrades due to poor management decisions. It's missing due to the Daimler raiding of the $9 billion in cash Chrysler had set aside for tooling and plant upgrades in 1998! Daimler used that money to pay off their own internal debt instead of tooling and plant upgrades, then sold them to Cerberus, who further delayed these upgrades during the global recession. Now insiders are complaining that tooling and robotics, worn out as they are, are being replaced with low end new equipment from a Fiat subsidiary in Italy, who makes equipment with half the precision of tooling Chrysler had in 1998!
Not a good recipe for a quality torque converter.
Bottom line preventative maintenance on a good working transmission for both TC stator shudder and TC slip:
1. New quality torque converter and seals. Euro/Hemi TC will do in a pinch, but may need replacement well before 200K miles due to low quality materials
2. Upgraded, hardened (anodized) valve body Chrysler upgraded to in mid 2010 - the ones with the black appearance instead of the silver
3. Sonnax/Transgo hardened pump and valve body liner inserts and hardened steel valves and springs - well known early wear issues that cause clutch slip
4. Full fluid replacement, including cooler, TC and lines to cooler.
5. New quality filters
6. Magnefine filtration, changed every 12K miles.
All of the Mopar torque converters for the 45/545RFE have proven over 15 years of use to have low cost paper clutches, plastic stators, washer thrust bearings, cheap steel stamped covers/tc clutch pistons and springs. When you see these Mopar TC's opened up, it's immediately obvious how low the quality of both materials and machining tolerances were used. That includes the Hemi TC. Not what you want in a diesel engine vehicle.
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Supporting Vendor and Moderator of LOST05 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited
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