spunbearing

Hi guys!
As some of you know I just bought my Dodge in April and a month before that the previous owner had the getrag rebuilt at the dealership to the tune of $2200. Occasionally I smelled gear lube when driving the truck and couldn't detemine the source of the smell. When I towed Royta's truck from kettleman we were smelling the gear oil pretty heavy in the cab. Today out of curiosity I loosened the drain plug on the getrag and was shocked to see that the dealership filled it with heavy gear lube.
The transmission pops out of first gear sometimes while towing and generally shifts rough. I'm going to call the dealership on monday and have some words. I think that they should rebuild it again since there is no way to determine how much damage was done in the last 3,000-4,000 miles I put on the truck since I've had it. Any advice? I may even consult with an attorney about this if necessary.

P.S. when I rubbed my finger on the plug and tightened it back I saw fine metal particles on my finger... not happy

Jeff

12valve@heart

Spunbearing,

Good luck. The previous owner of my truck had the trans. rebuilt and I found that my Getrag had been filled with gear oil by the rebuilder as well. I didn't bother pursuing it since it had an input shaft growl when I bought it. I just refilled it with 5 qts of Castrol 5W50 syntec and hoped for the best. One of these days I'll pull it apart to fix that and the throwout bearing noise.

12valve@heart

Spunbearing,

Good luck. The previous owner of my truck had the trans. rebuilt and I found that my Getrag had been filled with gear oil by the rebuilder as well. I didn't bother pursuing it since it had an input shaft growl when I bought it. I just refilled it with 5 qts of Castrol 5W50 syntec and hoped for the best. One of these days I'll pull it apart to fix that and the throwout bearing noise.

wannadiesel

Jeff - Mine was filled with gear lube, too. It glittered pretty well when I drained it. It is normal for trans oil to have metal in it, most of it is normal wear off the synchros. I don't think the dealer is going to do anything for you - any kind of warranty they may have given was to the PO, valid only while he owned the truck. I think shops put gear oil in because it makes the trans run quieter even though it shifts like crap. If the dealer won't fix it ( of course they won't) I'd suggest flushing it with 5W30 to get the gear oil out and then filling it with Redline MTL - that really helped the shifting on my truck, especially in cold weather.

sherod

I had regular gear oil put in by accident (of course). Found out about it the first time I shifted. Did not think too much about it, but not long after I lost a bearing. Had that fixed, and now running full synthetic in it. Could not be happier as it is the smoothest tranny I have ever shifted. Milage on the tranny did not really come in to play, as of last night it has 28700 miles on it. 89 D350.

Go ahead and just change to synthetic. You should be fine as long as you do not have any howls or grumbles going on. If you do, it may be too late. I thought my throwout was bad, but when we pulled everything, it looked great.

Ed

royta

Other than your transmission popping out of first when there is a big load on it, it sounded real good. Of course, the real sounds will come out once you put in the 5W-30 that it is supposed to have.

My transmission is howling; not really too bad though, but certainly noisier than I'd like. I just put in 5 qts of Castrol Syntec 5W-30. It doesn't pop out of gear though, so I'll drive it as long as I can. I can't afford to take care of it now.

spunbearing

I can understand a transmission shop putting gear lube in a getrag as that is what most standards take. I'm having a hard time understanding why a dodge dealership would do that. I guess I'll flush it and hope for the best. But I'm still gonna call and give em a few words. Thanks for the advice guys. Guess I was getting a little more worked up than I needed to.

spunbearing

I read over the fine print of the warranty information on the back of the transmission invoice. It says that the warranty covers for 12 months or 12,000 miles defects in materials or WORKMANSHIP. It does not have a disclaimer regarding the sale of the vehicle to a second party. In my opinion this is certainly a defect in workmanship. I'll let you guys know what happens.

wannadiesel

If you need a photocopy of the fluid recommendations out of my '93 FSM let me know.

royta

Good point.

spunbearing

Ok, heres the deal. I spoke with the on duty assistant manager of the service dept. He told me "85w is the recommended fluid for the getrag and anyone that says different doesn't know what they are talking about" I informed him that my owners manual says different. Then he changed his story to " the transmission had 85w in it already so we put it back in". I said " ok, so you rebuilt a transmission that probably failed because of a lubrication problem and you put the same fluid back in instead of the recommended fluid"? Then he changed the story again and told me that the previous owner requested non chrysler parts which are not under warranty. The previous owner told me that the service manager recommended that he use aftermarket parts and assured him that there was a warranty. I explained to him that in my opinion this was a defect in workmanship not the parts. The plot thickens. lol
I am having the previous owner take it up with the service manager on moday.. not the assistant. Meanwhile I'm not sure if I should go ahead and change the fluid and have it ananyzed to determine the source of the metal or wait until monday.

wannadiesel

I wouldn't do anything until you have pursued the dealer angle to its full extent. Drain the fluid and the evidence is gone. I don't think the popping out of 1st is related to using gear lube, but if you can make them fix it for being stupid, that's great.

royta

Oh man, I just love how the assistant's story changes! Yeah, definitely don't change the fluid.

When you get a rebuilt transmission, you expect it to perform as if it were new. Perhaps I'm not remembering correctly, but I don't recall my dad's '90 popping out of first when it was new. Sounds like you should be getting a nice fresh rebuild.

spunbearing

LOL this keeps getting better. Remember the service asst. managers excuse that the trans already had 85w gear oil in it? Well now I find out that the only service ever done on the trans was when THEY pulled the trans to install a new clutch. So now I'm thinking the last tranny failure was because they put the wrong oil in it last time too. Unfreakinbelievable

wannadiesel

Sounds like a dealer where they do everything "by the book".

"Hey Gomer, whut awl goes in this here gutrag?"
"Well, Cletus, they's a buncha gears in thar, how 'bout gear awl?"