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Transmission fluid change?!

H

Harvey773

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Alright guys, so I’m halfway pulling my hair out about the trivial trans fluid change on the 8 speed 5th gens.. Just picked up a 2021 rebel with 78k miles for a really good deal. No issues with the trans, but out of preventative maintenance and also not knowing what in the world the previous owner did as far as towing etc goes, I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do it. I found one dealer that claims they do it fairly regularly and actually recommended to do it, they quoted me 800$ even for the job. It’s a smaller town dealer in Texas btw if that matters…

Anyways to the point, is it the right call to change the oil on these? And or in my situation..
 
Ill try to keep this is short as possible..

-don’t pay a dealer $800 to change fluids it’s not hard. Do a pan drop and drain not a full on flush (thats what tends to give issues)

- yes change it even at 78k. Ram says lifetime fluid.. which think about it, theres no fluid that will last forever. Lifetime to them means… long enough for the typical buyer to trade vehicles in. ZF the actually manuf of your trans recommends it at 60-70k depending on usage.


^ tons of info and gives you a video so you can see how simple it really is they also sell the kits or you can source elsewhere.


Do your front/rear and transfer case fluid.. depending on if its 2wd or 4wd
 
Welp against better advice from purpleRT, I had the dealer change it. After quizzing them on the procedure, they seem to have known how to do it so I felt comfortable enough to have them do it.

So far it seems to have helped, I can tell the trans is a little happier and the shifts seem quicker than before with the new fluid.

Now to hope they got the pan on there correctly and no leaks.. I could not inspect today cause it was raining when I picked it up 😑
 
yeah, i'm gonna get the stuff from blauparts and do it myself for 300.
justin wheeler "high mileage edition" has not serviced his trans for 249k mi he has shown/proven the reliability of the DT1500
 
1791 said:
yeah, i'm gonna get the stuff from blauparts and do it myself for 300.
justin wheeler "high mileage edition" has not serviced his trans for 249k mi he has shown/proven the reliability of the DT1500
Click to expand...
Yea I’d say it’s a good call to do your self if you’re ready for it. It’s not rocket science.. What turned me away however was the need to jack the trans up off the frame an inch for the pan to clear the exhaust and be removed. *genius design by the engineers I might add lol

On my 2004 ram much easier job with no obstructions to the trans pan and plenty of room to work. I changed that one in the dirt half hazardly and had no issues. Of course tho it’s much easier when the trans actually has a dip stick 😉
 
Even that part isn’t the difficult part, a bottle jack and either a cinder block or piece of wood to give you enough height for the bottle jack to work and eazy peazy.

Really hardest part of the whole thing is making sure the trans is within the right temp range during the refill process.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Harvey773 said:
Alright guys, so I’m halfway pulling my hair out about the trivial trans fluid change on the 8 speed 5th gens.. Just picked up a 2021 rebel with 78k miles for a really good deal. No issues with the trans, but out of preventative maintenance and also not knowing what in the world the previous owner did as far as towing etc goes, I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do it. I found one dealer that claims they do it fairly regularly and actually recommended to do it, they quoted me 800$ even for the job. It’s a smaller town dealer in Texas btw if that matters…

Anyways to the point, is it the right call to change the oil on these? And or in my situation..
Click to expand...
I had mine done about 3 months after I bought it 5th gen 8 speed , Big Horn 4x4 , dealership was 450.00 so look for a new place , the pan is the filter, thats the largest cost you will see, the tech and fluid is not to high.
 
PurpleRT said:
Even that part isn’t the difficult part, a bottle jack and either a cinder block or piece of wood to give you enough height for the bottle jack to work and eazy peazy.

Really hardest part of the whole thing is making sure the trans is within the right temp range during the refill process.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
funny as i watched that video i thought the hardest part was the temperature portion
 
RHO said:
I had mine done about 3 months after I bought it 5th gen 8 speed , Big Horn 4x4 , dealership was 450.00 so look for a new place , the pan is the filter, thats the largest cost you will see, the tech and fluid is not to high.
Click to expand...
I'd like to see the receipt of what was included for $450. I'm guessing the pan/filter is $300-400 and the fluid is 6 quarts at $20-30 at the dealer.
 
Fortunately as time has gone by the dealer prices have dropped.
It started off well above $1K, like $1500 or so. Maybe by the time mine hits 50-60K (likely 2 years plus) it will get even lower than the $800 the poster found.
 
1791 said:
funny as i watched that video i thought the hardest part was the temperature portion
Click to expand...

Yea it's still not as simple as it used to be due to design. There is also a difference between transmission level and truck level, which can make a good quart or so difference in fluid and deter a lot of people from trying.

Just an awful design all around. Since mine is having transmission issues, I'm glad it's not something I had to do lol. 25k so far and at least it'll have new fluid for the lifetime I plan on keeping it once/if the replacement ever happens. Fingers crossed.

But as others have stated, I'd be shocked seeing a quote for less than $700 including labor from a service department. Hell, the one near me wanted $800+ just for the difs and transfer case on my families 2500, and over $1,000 for the transmission. Insane.
 
Montana_ said:
Yea it's still not as simple as it used to be due to design. There is also a difference between transmission level and truck level, which can make a good quart or so difference in fluid and deter a lot of people from trying.

Just an awful design all around. Since mine is having transmission issues, I'm glad it's not something I had to do lol. 25k so far and at least it'll have new fluid for the lifetime I plan on keeping it once/if the replacement ever happens. Fingers crossed.

But as others have stated, I'd be shocked seeing a quote for less than $700 including labor from a service department. Hell, the one near me wanted $800+ just for the difs and transfer case on my families 2500, and over $1,000 for the transmission. Insane.
Click to expand...
My first problem was even finding a competent dealer that didn’t tell me “oh the fluid is lifetime…”

again I understand that folks have ran theirs to 200k without a fluid change no problem. However I’m an engineer and grew up wrenching on stuff and understand that with time and temperature the fluids break down, viscosity changes etc.

On the pricing point the 400$ was quoted to me for a trans flush which is not the right way to do the transmission fluid change, the increase to 800$ was partly for the OEM pan part. I could have saved a few dollars and got a aftermarket pan but the dealer then would have probably not warrantied against any leaks etc after installing it.
 
I just upgraded to the PPE pan. The only real reasons it’s not super easy are the dumb details not designed for ease of service.

The stock drain plug sucks.
You have to remove the trans mount bolts and jack the driveline up.
Two or three of the pan bolts can’t be accessed with a torque wrench so tightened wirh my calibrated hands.
The quart pump hose won’t stay in the fill hole because it makes a direct 90° down turn just after the threads.
The fill hole drains as much fluid as possible onto the exhaust and the cat is very close and will be super hot by the time the trans fluid reaches checking temperature.
PPE pan hits the plastic guard on the drivers side pan rail.
Even jacked up you have to use a hex key removed from a socket and a wrench to get the drain plug loose.

If the exhaust was just routed differently it would be pretty darn easy as far as trans services go.
 
Trans was really easy and didn’t require messing with any rusty exhaust bolts etc.

Still should be something you don’t need to do but here we are.
 
2021QCBH said:
I just upgraded to the PPE pan. The only real reasons it’s not super easy are the dumb details not designed for ease of service.

The stock drain plug sucks.
You have to remove the trans mount bolts and jack the driveline up.
Two or three of the pan bolts can’t be accessed with a torque wrench so tightened wirh my calibrated hands.
The quart pump hose won’t stay in the fill hole because it makes a direct 90° down turn just after the threads.
The fill hole drains as much fluid as possible onto the exhaust and the cat is very close and will be super hot by the time the trans fluid reaches checking temperature.
PPE pan hits the plastic guard on the drivers side pan rail.
Even jacked up you have to use a hex key removed from a socket and a wrench to get the drain plug loose.

If the exhaust was just routed differently it would be pretty darn easy as far as trans services go.
Click to expand...

I just went through this trying to install a B&M pan on my truck. If there was any good excuse for longtube headers and a dual exhaust the transmission pan makes a very good case for them LOL

I routed my fill pump hose over the exhaust and then zip tied around the hose/exhaust and that way the filler end stayed inside of the transmission. Before that it was a Pain in the @ss
 
Next time I’m going to bend up a 180° “hanger” tube to put in the filler hose so that it will hang in the trans fill hole while pumping.

Now that the drain plug is accessible I plan to drain and fill at 40k and filter/fluid at 80k. At 78,xxx my fluid looked excellent and the magnets had literally 0 trace of any metal.

Was happy to see that. Picked up enough filters to get me to 300k on services.

I ended up getting about 7 quarts in it before I ran it through the gear procedure then an additional .5. It wasn’t leaking anything at around 90° and from that to 100° it was very over filled. I’d say high 6 to 7 is probably the perfect fill. Might require a small top off at temp. I had a very small but steady stream out of the plug when I put it back in (rear end on jack stands and pan rails level to earth).
 
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