Maybe another torque converter

pipefactory · **Posted:** Sat May 20, 2006 8:41 am

Thought I was going to have to shoot my CRD last night to put it out of it's misery. Driving home after a gig at 60 mph the Jeep made a hard jerk then came out of overdrive then the engine light came on, drove another mile then it started to slow down. Got to the off ramp and went to turn and it could barely pull itself off the ramp. While it was idling it was clanking real loud at the back of the engine. I shut it off and took off my Predator thinking I was going to call the 800 # for a tow to the dealership then after about 5 minutes I started it and it was like normal again but still had the engine light on. I'm dropping it off Monday. Any clues?

Kondor v. · **Posted:** Sat May 20, 2006 1:20 pm

pipefactory wrote:

Thought I was going to have to shoot my CRD last night to put it out of it's misery. Driving home after a gig at 60 mph the Jeep made a hard jerk then came out of overdrive then the engine light came on, drove another mile then it started to slow down. Got to the off ramp and went to turn and it could barely pull itself off the ramp. While it was idling it was clanking real loud at the back of the engine. I shut it off and took off my Predator thinking I was going to call the 800 # for a tow to the dealership then after about 5 minutes I started it and it was like normal again but still had the engine light on. I'm dropping it off Monday. Any clues?

Check the TSB sticky. There is one for the Trans that mentions clunks and noise from trans. You may have just qualified! Good luck.

Bonehead · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 4:51 am

Mine already at the dealer , my TC took a dump last week at 28,000mi.
It would just go into lock up at anytime....like when putting into gear(that little diesel doesn't go down without a fight though

) or when slowing to a stop or make at turn. I had to drive it like that for a week because of the dealer, was fun :evil:

.
It also did not set off the engine light ,but it was pretty easy to tell what was up.
Now I'm just waiting for parts...........

Guest · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 7:37 am

pipefactory and bonehead down for the count...

All you familiar folks are having this problem and I have I feeling I'm in line as well. I'm only at 11,000 miles or I'd be in the shop with you guys. Let me know how things drive after the fix... :cry:

pipefactory · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 10:06 am

Kondor v. wrote:

pipefactory wrote:

Thought I was going to have to shoot my CRD last night to put it out of it's misery. Driving home after a gig at 60 mph the Jeep made a hard jerk then came out of overdrive then the engine light came on, drove another mile then it started to slow down. Got to the off ramp and went to turn and it could barely pull itself off the ramp. While it was idling it was clanking real loud at the back of the engine. I shut it off and took off my Predator thinking I was going to call the 800 # for a tow to the dealership then after about 5 minutes I started it and it was like normal again but still had the engine light on. I'm dropping it off Monday. Any clues?

Check the TSB sticky. There is one for the Trans that mentions clunks and noise from trans. You may have just qualified! Good luck.

I can't wait till I get the service manager in front of me on Monday. I brought the TSB for the softwear update which I believe was to prevent this, he told me it didn't apply to my Jeep. I think it might apply now! I',m going to tell them if there are anymore updates they better do them all as I am going out towards Washington with it and don't want it to break down out there.

Cowcatcher · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 10:35 am

pipefactory wrote:

Kondor v. wrote:

pipefactory wrote:

I can't wait till I get the service manager in front of me on Monday. I brought the TSB for the softwear update which I believe was to prevent this, he told me it didn't apply to my Jeep. I think it might apply now! I',m going to tell them if there are anymore updates they better do them all as I am going out towards Washington with it and don't want it to break down out there.

Wise move!!! If you break down out here along the road no telling what would happen to you. It is a wild and undeveloped land. Lawless unless you are in the big cities. Heck you get stranded out here outside of Seattle and they may never even find your bones. :roll:

nycrd · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 12:36 pm

just under 30,000 miles and mines at the dealer waiting for a new converter.

Goglio704 · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 2:21 pm

Cowcatcher wrote:

pipefactory wrote:

Kondor v. wrote:

pipefactory wrote:

I can't wait till I get the service manager in front of me on Monday. I brought the TSB for the softwear update which I believe was to prevent this, he told me it didn't apply to my Jeep. I think it might apply now! I',m going to tell them if there are anymore updates they better do them all as I am going out towards Washington with it and don't want it to break down out there.

Wise move!!! If you break down out here along the road no telling what would happen to you. It is a wild and undeveloped land. Lawless unless you are in the big cities. Heck you get stranded out here outside of Seattle and they may never even find your bones. :roll:

He could have meant D.C. but the never find the bones part still goes. :lol:

blacksmoke · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 6:06 pm

I'm getting freaky now (I won't got to Spookyane then!!!)
Got 33000+miles on, and everything seems OK from the transmission: no noise, nothing hard.
Is there any early symptoms to look/listen for?

greiswig · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 7:26 pm

Interesting...is someone keeping records of tranny build dates for these known failures? I took mine in to the dealer yesterday for the tranny filter change/flush TSB, and they said it didn't apply to my vehicle. Their read on the TSB was that since my tranny build date was March 4, 2005, that falls "between the two" date ranges. The TSB gives two sets of dates, and my build is between the two sets. My read of the TSB was that if it falls between within either given range, or between them.

RFCRD · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 7:33 pm

greiswig wrote:

Interesting...is someone keeping records of tranny build dates for these known failures? I took mine in to the dealer yesterday for the tranny filter change/flush TSB, and they said it didn't apply to my vehicle. Their read on the TSB was that since my tranny build date was March 4, 2005, that falls "between the two" date ranges. The TSB gives two sets of dates, and my build is between the two sets. My read of the TSB was that if it falls between within either given range, or between them.

Wondering how many got the TSB done and the torque converter or transmission came apart anyways? There is something seriously wrong with this whole situation. I'm to the point where I soft toe the accellerator to make sure the transmission is actually going to grab a gear before pushing this rig.

Ranger1 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:40 pm **Posts:** 1137

greiswig wrote:

Interesting...is someone keeping records of tranny build dates for these known failures? I took mine in to the dealer yesterday for the tranny filter change/flush TSB, and they said it didn't apply to my vehicle. Their read on the TSB was that since my tranny build date was March 4, 2005, that falls "between the two" date ranges. The TSB gives two sets of dates, and my build is between the two sets. My read of the TSB was that if it falls between within either given range, or between them.

My transmission build date was ~ February 15 - the filter tsb didn't apply to it either. Didn't matter, the torque converter failed without warning, only a rattling metallic sound from the tranny area. Tech said metal debris was all over the bottom of the pan, and the tranny cooler was completely clogged. It appears the tranny failures are not limited to just the ones with bad filters.

There is clearly something seriously wrong going on with these tranny failures - I wonder if DCX even has a clue - from the looks of things, they keep releasing tsb's with a "lets try this and see if it works" mentality.

RFCRD · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 9:11 pm

Ranger1 wrote:

greiswig wrote:

Interesting...is someone keeping records of tranny build dates for these known failures? I took mine in to the dealer yesterday for the tranny filter change/flush TSB, and they said it didn't apply to my vehicle. Their read on the TSB was that since my tranny build date was March 4, 2005, that falls "between the two" date ranges. The TSB gives two sets of dates, and my build is between the two sets. My read of the TSB was that if it falls between within either given range, or between them.

My transmission build date was ~ February 15 - the filter tsb didn't apply to it either. Didn't matter, the torque converter failed without warning, only a rattling metallic sound from the tranny area. Tech said metal debris was all over the bottom of the pan, and the tranny cooler was completely clogged. It appears the tranny failures are not limited to just the ones with bad filters.

There is clearly something seriously wrong going on with these tranny failures - I wonder if DCX even has a clue - from the looks of things, they keep releasing tsb's with a "lets try this and see if it works" mentality.

Is there any place to check if this is going on with this transmission in other applications, like a Dodge Ram/Hemi? I detailed some of this in my complaint letter to the owner of the dealership. Would be good to know if this is a wider problem than the CRD.

Ranger1 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:40 pm **Posts:** 1137

Evertyhing I read on the (5)45RFE shows it to be almost bulletproof. But very application I've seen it on has been a gasolene engine. My other Liberty is an 02, with the same transmission (45RFE) with 50K on it - runs beautifully - never had a single problem with it. the only consistent failures I can find on it are on the CRD. Jeep claims they used a modified torque converter on the CRD to dampen the diesel engine vibrations. Could be they ended up getting junk quality converters for this application. Jeep needs to buy a qualify diesel rated torque converter and issue a recall for the CRD - before they start hitting astronomical failure rates - if that happens, their diesel introduction will end up with the same reputation that their minivan transmissions did in the 90's. They never did recover from that image, even long after they fixed the problem.

Ian Wendt · **Joined:** Sat May 20, 2006 2:08 am **Posts:** 15

Is there a torque converter that can be swapped in instead of the stock one, without having to do a lot of "surgery" to make it fit?

RFCRD · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 9:32 pm

Ranger1 wrote:

Evertyhing I read on the (5)45RFE shows it to be almost bulletproof. But very application I've seen it on has been a gasolene engine. My other Liberty is an 02, with the same transmission (45RFE) with 50K on it - runs beautifully - never had a single problem with it. the only consistent failures I can find on it are on the CRD. Jeep claims they used a modified torque converter on the CRD to dampen the diesel engine vibrations. Could be they ended up getting junk quality converters for this application. Jeep needs to buy a qualify diesel rated torque converter and issue a recall for the CRD - before they start hitting astronomical failure rates - if that happens, their diesel introduction will end up with the same reputation that their minivan transmissions did in the 90's. They never did recover from that image, even long after they fixed the problem.

Sounds like the recall party has already started, just nobody told DC. You know, I skipped the whole 90's Chrysler trany thing, never went back until this Jeep :cry:

onthehunt · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 9:44 pm

Ever see what a quality diesel torque converter is going for these days?? I would think they can rebuild your trans at least once or twice for the cost of a good converter. Maybe that's the plan!!?? Rebuild it once, maybe twice and warranty is over. The worst they do is break even. I think I have it figured out. I really hope not. Speaking of 90's chrysler mini-vans- I just sold my 92 plymouth voyager with 208,000 miles. On it's third trans and that one was on it's way out! I'm starting to get a bad vibe about all of this.

RFCRD · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 9:56 pm

onthehunt wrote:

Ever see what a quality diesel torque converter is going for these days?? I would think they can rebuild your trans at least once or twice for the cost of a good converter. Maybe that's the plan!!?? Rebuild it once, maybe twice and warranty is over. The worst they do is break even. I think I have it figured out. I really hope not. Speaking of 90's chrysler mini-vans- I just sold my 92 plymouth voyager with 208,000 miles. On it's third trans and that one was on it's way out! I'm starting to get a bad vibe about all of this.

That's right on schedule for it's 70K rebuild. Heard Intrepids were just as bad.
I don't intend to give them the chance to screw me on this one, if it's going to be an issue, this thing is gone. You don't want to even think about the bill to rebuild that trans.

Goglio704 · **Posted:** Sun May 21, 2006 10:15 pm

I'll admit that I'm spooked about the trans in the CRD, but I also know that DC can build a good automatic. I don't know the model of the trans, but my employer has a 99 1 ton Dodge, 24 valve Cummins, 4WD. The truck has 240k+ on the original trans, and it has pulled some serious loads in its day.

Ranger1 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:40 pm **Posts:** 1137

Probably a 48RE.... the 47RE with the Cummins was problematic so after some time the 48RE was issued on newer trucks. From what I've read, it beefed up most of the failure areas of the 47RE. However, I don't know if the 48RE was out in 99.

Maybe another torque converter

Who is online