Terryallan wrote:
Easiest fix. Turn OFF overdrive. It will not shift so much, and will down shift a LOT less. As you see. When in overdrive it is well below the point where it makes any power. It is lugging, which can cause it to burn oil later, and does push fuel past the cylinders, and out the tail pipe.
Turning off over drive will put the engine in the power band. That will keep the trany from building heat from shifting so much, and will even give you better MPG. It will make the motor much happier running free in it's power band, and burning all the fuel going to it.
The '04 doesn't have the ability to lock out O/D. The '03 did. My '05 2500HD was the same as the '04. Chrysler corrected this issue with the Cummins powered '04 with a software update but not the Hemi powered Rams, the ones that really needed the software correction. It was annoying but, the 5-45RFE in my 2500HD Ram used to tow our then 10.400 lb actual weight high profile 5th wheel never showed any signs of trouble in the 120k miles I owned it. Strong transmission but very poor software program by Chrysler's drivetrain engineers.
There IS a TSB to update the software to help prevent excessive shifting. This might help. Otherwise, just let it do what it wants to do. It doesn't seem to hurt it.
