2010 tranny fail

NattyG

New member
Okay ya'll I need some knowledge. I have a 4dr unlimited sport 3.8 automatic 30,000 miles ...running on 35's and a 3 inch coil spring lift. Brought my baby in for an oil cooler line leak. They replaced it under warranty. Then the day after it was repaired my transmission took a dump and wouldn't go into gear. Because I have modifications Chrysler has denied my warranty. So it needs a new tranny. Should I change the gear ratio? The dealership claims my tires are what ran my tranny into the ground. So any advice about the gear ratio solution would help me tons :)
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Honestly, that sounds like a load of crap but unfortunately, you are at your dealerships mercy. With 35" tires and on a Sport, running 4.88 gears and calibrating your speedo to match will help restore your Jeep's performance to about stock again but to be clear, this is in your differentials and not in your transmission.
 

OverlanderJK

Resident Smartass
Something similar happened to jelliott076 on here. He had a tranny flush and soon after the trans shit the bed. I'm not buying the tires caused the damage. You could always pay for it and use them in small claims court.
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Something similar happened to jelliott076 on here. He had a tranny flush and soon after the trans shit the bed. I'm not buying the tires caused the damage. You could always pay for it and use them in small claims court.

That's right, I was trying to remember where I had just seen something like this before. I don't buy the gears being the cause of it failing for a second.
 

NattyG

New member
I wasn't buying it either. I told them that my tires had nothing to do with my transmission taking a shit out of nowhere. But I'm a lady so they figured I had no knowledge about about my truck. What I believe is they didn't flush my tranny when they put the new lines or even check the fluid levels. But they won't admit to that. They said they would do me a favor and not flag my jeep though. Super sweet of them. But okay so when the new tranny is put in y'all think it'll run fine with the set up I have already? Just don't want to run into this problem again.
 

TheDuff

New member
Just to clarify, by it won't go into gear, do you mean when placed in drive the jeep won't move, or that you can't place The gear selector into drive?

Sent from my LG-D800 using WAYALIFE mobile app
 

NattyG

New member
I could switch the shifter into all gears but the actual transmission wouldn't switch or move...just made grinding noises
 

Elusive

New member
Before I re-geared my 2011 JK on 35's it used to hunt for gears a lot on hills. The automatic died at 5600 miles. The dealer replaced the tranny and I put 5:13 gears in. No problems for over 50000 miles now.
I think the larger tires DID kill my tranmission in my case when it would quickly upshift and downshift on hills....Though maybe I just got a bad tranny.:idontknow:
All that said....I think you are right and they screwed something up with the flush.
 
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wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Before I re-geared my 2011 JK on 35's it used to hunt for gears a lot on hills. The automatic died at 5600 miles. The dealer replaced the tranny and I put 5:13 gears in. No problems for over 50000 miles now.
I think the larger tires DID kill my tranmission in my case when it would quickly upshift and downshift on hills....Though maybe I just got a bad tranny.:idontknow:

When you were running your 35's, did you make sure to properly calibrate your speedometer to make sure that your shift points were on? Also, when you were on said hills, is there a reason why you didn't turn off your O/D and/or just use a lower gear rather than let your transmission hunt around?
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Just to add to the point, I ran my old 2009 with 35's on 3.73 gears for over 25,000 miles and without any problems. I drove it for an addition 10,000 miles with 37's and the same 3.73 gears didn't have any problems.
 

Elusive

New member
When you were running your 35's, did you make sure to properly calibrate your speedometer to make sure that your shift points were on? Also, when you were on said hills, is there a reason why you didn't turn off your O/D and/or just use a lower gear rather than let your transmission hunt around?

I did re-cal the speedo though it wasn't off by much. The 35's were actually 315/16 procomps so they were only about 2" taller than the stock rubi 32's. My jeep also had 4.11 from the factory.
Strangely my O.D. button has never worked (horrible design that gathers dirt)
It only seemed to hunt for gears when I was doing 60+ mph so I couldn't really downshift. It would up/down shift several times in a couple seconds so I didn't just let it hunt, I'd let off the gas or floor it to keep it downshifted till the top of the hill.
Then it was summer in Borrego and after a hot day exploring it started puking fluid. The torque converter had welded itself to the input shaft.
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
I did re-cal the speedo though it wasn't off by much. The 35's were actually 315/16 procomps so they were only about 2" taller than the stock rubi 32's. My jeep also had 4.11 from the factory.
Strangely my O.D. button has never worked (horrible design that gathers dirt)
It only seemed to hunt for gears when I was doing 60+ mph so I couldn't really downshift. It would up/down shift several times in a couple seconds so I didn't just let it hunt, I'd let off the gas or floor it to keep it downshifted till the top of the hill.
Then it was summer in Borrego and after a hot day exploring it started puking fluid. The torque converter had welded itself to the input shaft.

I think you meant to say that your JK came with 4.10 gears. If the OD wasn't working, that's more than likely the reason why your tranny failed.
 

Elusive

New member
I think you meant to say that your JK came with 4.10 gears. If the OD wasn't working, that's more than likely the reason why your tranny failed.

yes. 41 teeth on the ring and 10 on the pinion.
I didn't say the OD wasn't working. the OD switch has never worked. The button sticks so I don't use it.
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
yes. 41 teeth on the ring and 10 on the pinion.
I didn't say the OD wasn't working. the OD switch has never worked. The button sticks so I don't use it.

In other words, you never turn it off in situations where you should have and therefore, your transmission was left to hunt for gears and ultimately, it failed prematurely.
 

Elusive

New member
In other words, you never turn it off in situations where you should have and therefore, your transmission was left to hunt for gears and ultimately, it failed prematurely.

No,
in other words the tranny failed after only 5600 miles.
The larger tires CAUSED the tranny to hunt for gears. The hunting for gears was a symptom of that CAUSE.
the root CAUSE of the problem was not the OD switch. It was the larger tires.
If all jeeps tranny's failed at 5600 miles because people didn't turn off the OD switch, there would be a recall and thousands of bad automatics.
 
No,
in other words the tranny failed after only 5600 miles.
The larger tires CAUSED the tranny to hunt for gears. The hunting for gears was a symptom of that CAUSE.
the root CAUSE of the problem was not the OD switch. It was the larger tires.
If all jeeps tranny's failed at 5600 miles because people didn't turn off the OD switch, there would be a recall and thousands of bad automatics.

By all means, blame it on the tires because so many other people have larger tires and it just couldn't possibly be anything else.
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
No,
in other words the tranny failed after only 5600 miles.

No. The tranny failed after only 5600 miles because of how you chose to drive your Jeep.

The larger tires CAUSED the tranny to hunt for gears. The hunting for gears was a symptom of that CAUSE.

Funny, never seemed to be a problem for me when I was running 35's and then 37's on 3.73 gears. Of course, I always made sure to turn off my OD button as needed. I mean, that is why it's there. :rolleyes2:

the root CAUSE of the problem was not the OD switch. It was the larger tires.

You're right, the root CAUSE of the problem was not the OD switch, it was YOU not turning it off like you should have. But, you can keep blaming your larger tires if it helps you to sleep better at night.

If all jeeps tranny's failed at 5600 miles because people didn't turn off the OD switch, there would be a recall and thousands of bad automatics.

Please, you assume that all Jeep owners would drive their Jeep like you and let their tranny hunt for gears instead of doing a simple thing like turn off a little switch that is provided for this very reason. :naw:
 

NattyG

New member
My trans ran good... Off road and street, even with the small oil cooler leak. I did calibrate my speedometer. I won't re-gear then unless I decide to go bigger with my tires. Most definitely never bring it back to the dealership and hopefully the new trans will last me more then 30k :) so question if I change out my 35's to 37's is that when I re-gear?
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
My trans ran good... Off road and street, even with the small oil cooler leak. I did calibrate my speedometer. I won't re-gear then unless I decide to go bigger with my tires. Most definitely never bring it back to the dealership and hopefully the new trans will last me more then 30k :) so question if I change out my 35's to 37's is that when I re-gear?

Well, with 35's you can benefit from a higher gear ratio and if it were me, I'd regear to at least 4.88's now. With 37's, you'd want to be up on 5.13's but, that will leave your front pinion really small.
 

NattyG

New member
No,
in other words the tranny failed after only 5600 miles.
The larger tires CAUSED the tranny to hunt for gears. The hunting for gears was a symptom of that CAUSE.
the root CAUSE of the problem was not the OD switch. It was the larger tires.
If all jeeps tranny's failed at 5600 miles because people didn't turn off the OD switch, there would be a recall and thousands of bad automatics.

No way my jeeps been running with bigger tires this long and now the tranny had an epiphany and decided it couldn't handle it. Same as your jeep. There was most definitely something else causing the problem.
 
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