Trans getting hot and whining…

[loudog3114]

I just bought a 19 with 83k on it for a song but after its first road trip I noticed the trans temp sits at 240 cruising down the highway without towing anything, and there is a subtle whine. Much less subtle if you stomp it. I also noticed the fan is running on full blast desperately trying to cool the thing. It calms down below 50 but obviously there is something wrong. It’s going back to the dealer but I thought I would see what you guys think might be the issue.

 

[Trooper4]

I just bought a 19 with 83k on it for a song but after its first road trip I noticed the trans temp sits at 240 cruising down the highway without towing anything, and there is a subtle whine. Much less subtle if you stomp it. I also noticed the fan is running on full blast desperately trying to cool the thing. It calms down below 50 but obviously there is something wrong. It’s going back to the dealer but I thought I would see what you guys think might be the issue.

Good luck.

 

[c3k]

I just bought a 19 with 83k on it for a song but after its first road trip I noticed the trans temp sits at 240 cruising down the highway without towing anything, and there is a subtle whine. Much less subtle if you stomp it. I also noticed the fan is running on full blast desperately trying to cool the thing. It calms down below 50 but obviously there is something wrong. It’s going back to the dealer but I thought I would see what you guys think might be the issue.

Good eye on the temps. Something is off with that. Hopefully, just a sensor. (Yeah, I know.)

 

[Trooper4]

Good eye on the temps. Something is off with that. Hopefully, just a sensor. (Yeah, I know.)

Sensors don't whine or make noise.

 

[SD Rebel]

That's not normal, your trans temps should rarely go beyond 200F without a load, even with a load that's too high. I suspect the tranny is low on fluid and probably damaged at this point. Hopefully the selling dealership will take care of you.

 

[J-Cooz]

Something definitely wrong. These ZF 8 speeds run cool all the time, even when towing heavy. Take it back to the dealer and hopefully they take care of you.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

 

[loudog3114]

Well this is going to be a nightmare. I brought it back to the dealer (a ram dealer) and they had a "senior" tech look at it and he's reporting the temp is normal. So my response was to say I've owned a lot of trucks and I have never seen the trans temp get that high, and whining with the heat is certainly not normal. He more or less said there's nothing he can do as they cant find any damage to the trans.

Edit: Almost as if he saw the post the service guy called back and said they will open a case with chrysler to ask them about what is going on.

 

[J-Cooz]

Well this is going to be a nightmare. I brought it back to the dealer (a ram dealer) and they had a "senior" tech look at it and he's reporting the temp is normal. So my response was to say I've owned a lot of trucks and I have never seen the trans temp get that high, and whining with the heat is certainly not normal. He more or less said there's nothing he can do as they cant find any damage to the trans.

Edit: Almost as if he saw the post the service guy called back and said they will open a case with chrysler to ask them about what is going on.

Yeah that's total BS, it's shocking sometimes what some of these "service" guys try to say is normal.

Your trans should be running 180ish temps. Even while towing mine doesn't move. 240 is way too hot.

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[SD Rebel]

That's crazy, as mentioned the tranny runs cool compared to all other temps you should see.

TFL truck did the Worlds Toughest Tow test with the Rebel, towing with max tow & payload up the IKE Gauntlet, which is a 8 mile road with a 7% grade and tops out at (11,158 ft). By the time they reached the top, they had oil temps up to 289F, coolant temps at 240F, crazy higher than normal, but the tranny was still at just barely over 200F!!!

There is something clearly wrong with your tranny temps if its that high at any condition, even towing shouldn't be much over 200F. The only thing I can think of is your tranny temp sensor is off and they checked your temps on the OBD reader, which was showing a lower correct temp. But that doesn't explain your whining tranny.

Here was their temps at the end of the run:



Here is the video at the end of their run:

 

[c3k]

^^^
Great real-life example.

No how, no way, should that tranny be the HOTTEST item under your hood.

 

[loudog3114]

Yeah, agreed all. Chrysler got back to them and said to replace the tranny heater. Maybe it was opening and offloading too much heat to the tranny from the engine coolant. We will see what happens. They also did some software updates, which I saw in another post helped oil/coolant temps. Obviously thats not my issue but it may help here as well.

 

[SD Rebel]

Yeah, agreed all. Chrysler got back to them and said to replace the tranny heater. Maybe it was opening and offloading too much heat to the tranny from the engine coolant. We will see what happens. They also did some software updates, which I saw in another post helped oil/coolant temps. Obviously thats not my issue but it may help here as well.

It's good they are doing something, however my worry is the overall health of the tranny getting so hot. But hopefully it wasn't enough to hurt the tranny in the long terms.

 

[c3k]

Yeah, agreed all. Chrysler got back to them and said to replace the tranny heater. Maybe it was opening and offloading too much heat to the tranny from the engine coolant. We will see what happens. They also did some software updates, which I saw in another post helped oil/coolant temps. Obviously thats not my issue but it may help here as well.

That may be a start. Keep us posted.

 

[loudog3114]

It's good they are doing something, however my worry is the overall health of the tranny getting so hot. But hopefully it wasn't enough to hurt the tranny in the long terms.

Same. The good-ish news is I got the allstate bumper to bumper warranty because of the miles. So if it does explode on me, it should only cost me a couple hundred bucks.

 

[SD Rebel]

Same. The good-ish news is I got the allstate bumper to bumper warranty because of the miles. So if it does explode on me, it should only cost me a couple hundred bucks.

That's good to hear, then you should be good, if the tranny is having issues later you will know, but good thing you covered yourself here.

 

[loudog3114]

After a two week wait they replaced the heater. I took it out for about 45 mins to test it and I still managed to get it up to 227 by cruising along at 85mph until I found some traffic. Not totally sure it wouldn't have just kept climbing if I was able to keep going along at that speed. It also still whines under hard accelerations... sounds like a supercharger honestly. But the service manager was basically just like 'well there isn't much else we can do, we have the paper trail to go to if something does happen'.

 

[SD Rebel]

Just to confirm, the 227F is from the tranny right? Because it shouldn't go much beyond 200F even under the most extreme of towing. If indeed from the tranny, that's ridiculous.

 

[Dookie]

Probably a bearing in the trans or torque converter is about to take a dump...Whining is a tell-tell on bearing failure. Actually, if the bearing is whining, it has already failed and is just prolonging the inevitable death by destruction. I would run the hell out of it and make it $h!t the bed and force them to replace the trans. At this point, that is what will likely happen anyway.

 

[c3k]

I'm no transmission expert, but my truck's transmission rarely even touches 190F.

There's gotta be a ZF spec sheet that gives the normal temperature range of the 8HP70/75.

 

[loudog3114]

Yep to all the above. My initial thought was a failing torque converter actually. Just not locking up and generating heat well into highway speeds... The more heat the faster I go. Pretty chilly here today, too. 46 degrees. Can't wait to see what happens in Florida in a few days but they're not giving me much choice in the matter. The weird thing is the whine seems to only come on when it gets hot, and this time around I did have to cruise at 85 for a bit to get it that hot. So it is marginally better. I won't do that normally, I usually stop hitting the up button on my cruise at 82, it's just not worth the MPG fall off.