transmission service

[brianyeates]

looking for advice on servicing the 8 spd auto behind my 2015 ecodiesel. Can anyone give me specifics about fluid change intervals and other maintenance. My truck has 202000km on it and sometimes, when dol, the transmission "hunts" when upshifting at low throttle and most particularly from a stop. Feels like this could be a 2-3 or 3-4 shift. thanks

 

[Tremper126]

Supposedly it’s “lifetime” fluid. I was going to change mine at 200k miles, well at 150k but never got to it lol do you have the transmission tuned with the engine? Or an engine tune? I ask because before I tuned mine, it would do the same, like it wasn’t happy with any gear it picked at the lower speeds near idle. Theres a service procedure for it that’s about 6-8 pages long with step by step requirements.

 

[Tremper126]

Correction —— 80,000-120,000 km or 8 years max.

 

[Pbarker2]

I have a 2014, on the 8 speed the transmission people say every 100k, or if you tow alot then between 50 and 100k. you can also reset the adaptive shifting which I did and made a world of difference. if you get too many shift issues, these are the same trans that go in bmws and land rover, jaguars so there are solenoid replacements available from The CTSC and videos on installing them on bmw’s.

 

[Pbarker2]

Watch out going to a dealer on this with a pre 2019 ram. there was a class action suit against Stellantis because they thought they could not deal with pre 2019 vehicles and they cancelled all the codes for these vehicles. then the lawsuit reinstated them. when I went in for a trans service and an intermittent shift problem they told me I needed a new trans for $9k. a trans shop did the service for about $600 and said there were no codes or problems other than maybe trans service.

 

[SeanPwnery]

I recently did it on mine. Coming from a BMW background, the "lifetime" fluid to me is somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-100k depending on how it's driven. The ZF service is super easy. Feel free to take a look at how I did it along with a pan upgrade.

 

[BTdriver]

Generally, I do a drain & fill on my 2015 at 60k mi. I don't tow, and try to drive mostly highway. Back before I did the first service, I researched alternatives to the spendy ZF8 fluid. Valvoline states that their Full Synthetic, Maxlife Multi-Vehicle ATF (Part# 773775, 1 gallon) is a suitable substitute. I have done three drain and fills (184k mi on truck) with the Valvoline and no issues. The service will use just about the whole gallon. One thing I noticed is the Maxlife ATF is a little bit thicker than the ZF8, and my trans shifted a little firmer. Also, my trans had a little less gear noise.