Dakota Forumz banner

The sad life of my Dodge Dakota transmission

2K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  DanM 
#1 · (Edited)
Around this time last year I bought a 1991 Dodge Dakota 3.9V6 with 4 spd (Automatic) trans.
At the time and until two days ago i was running on the idea that the previous owner had done the normal Maintenance schedule on the vehicle before parking it on '03.
Little did i know ,It seems that he never did a Transmission fluid change EVER.

A few weeks ago it started popping out of gear rather violently and it just got worse,But i thought little of it past "It's old".

So I went camping last weekend and after packing up,I went to leave and i had No reverse,No drive past 25mph. It acted like a manual Trans with a super slippy clutch.

We get it flat-towed to the garage and prop the truck up.

We drop the pan and as we should know,Trans Fluid is Dark-ish red. The fluid was used oil jet black and the filter was so plugged it couldn't let the trans fluid on the top of the filter through. What was actually in the trans smelled incredibly burnt

We change everything out ,using 3 quarts of ATF+4 and a quart of Lucas Trans Fix.

I currently have 3 gears and what seems to be Overdrive.4th is currently non -
existent and i have a loud rattle from the trans in both Drive,Reverse and park.

Now in the morning if I give it full throttle it slips ,but is fine after warming.

No clue what to do about 4th gear now ,probably going to Roadkill it and just deal with it.
-
UPDATE 11/18/18

Transmission has no 4th but i still have the 3 and O/D.

Transmission no longer slips but still rattles.

And i check the fluid every week.
 
See less See more
#4 ·
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I feel your pain, stuff like that has happened to me. Whenever I get a used vehicle, I go through & change every fluid & belt & plugs & cap & rotor & thermostat & etcetera. However I will say that I know folks who live by the maxim that "if it is not broke, don't fix it," & they apply that logic to tranny fluid as well, & I've heard tell of tranny's operated that way that have lasted the life of the vehicle when operated as such. I'd also say that if the tranny fluid was as nasty as you say, that tranny was probably going to dumpsville whether you would have changed it or not.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top