retmil46 wrote:
I may be missing something here, but if we have torque converters failing and dumping debris into the system, eventually trashing the whole tranny, pardon my French but it seems pretty d####d stupid not to drop the pan and check it and the filters while they're at it.
Granted I'm no expert, but from what I understand of automatics that's basic Tranny 101, check the condition of the fluid, and for debris in the pan and filters, as indications there may be problems. Seems that would be a more reliable indicator that more than the TC needs to be replaced, than having a tech trying to listen for a rattle over the sound of the engine.
It sounds like they're assuming that if there's no rattle, everything else is fine and all they do is swap out TC's. If there is a rattle, they assume everything is up s##t creek and replace pump, cooler, lines , etc.
In other words, they're not allowing for intermediate stages or gradual failure of the TC, assuming it's either 100% healthy or 100% fubar based on the rattle.
I know where this is heading - when they finally do the recall on mine, I'll be visiting the local tranny shop again to have them drop the pan and filters just so I know for sure what the h##l is going on.
I hate to say this but yes you are missing something. If as in my case the tranny filter problem was caught in time and the filters replaced and their was no metal in the tranny and the proper filters were reinstalled and no further tranny problems ensued then yes there is no need to drop the pan.
Despite what you all are hearing this is a problem caused by improper filters, and these filters not only were put into the tranny at mfg, but later when TSB's were done or regular tranny service done these filters could have been installed. There was an internial recall of the filters to the parts depts and they were supposed to have not been used and returned to warehouse, unfortunely some of the filters on the shelf went into trannys that had proper filters and they had no way to tell which vehicles got those other filters. This was also a problem in the PU line and is being handled quitely I guess, I am not a member of a Dodge PU truck board.
The number of CRD's that may have had a bad filter installed at the TSB is small but could have happened. It almost did with my CRD, but the tech caught the mistake by looking at part # on the filter box. I have no idea if the dealership got rid of all the bad filters, but will assume they did. The real reason for these TC failures is because of filters, improper repairs, dealers refusing to do the TSB to start with, some people posted here they would not even take the vehicle to the dealer till tranny puked it's guts, some said here that they would try to destroy the tranny before taking it in just to get a new tranny.
Granted this whole mess was handled wrong by D/C, a lot of dealers, but a lot of people here were guilty of abuse of the tranny or neglect, not to mention some would mix fuel problems up with tranny probelms. Hey fuel starvation on and off can be very rough on a tranny in case you didn't know.
Ok I have to do a restart on the laptop to allow MS to update things, back up in a few minutes. I also will take this time to check out my small office and it's reading material.
Hey Mitch don't get mad and think I'm dressing you down, that was not the intent. But printed words often say more then intended.
Walt
PS: Hey I am back, MS flash up-grade was a sucess. All paper work complete in small office.
All is right with the universe. 