68RFE How long will it last?

[mpaulson]

Had 220K on my 07.5, chipped it's whole life after 10K at the 50hp gain +/-. it saw 240 and 260 degrees a few times and half those km's were towing my trailer and hauling my redneck contraption and all I every did with it was had to have the valve body changed due to cross leakage within the valves, no big hard parts. I personally would not be afraid on buying another one as long as I knew it HAS NOT BEEN CHIPPED.

 

[realfine409]

A little late to this thread, but here's my $.02. I bought a used 07.5, it had 66k on the clock. Don't know if the previous owner had a programmer on it tho' I suspect so. Drive shaft was bowed, and a couple of suspicious
wires were under the hood after the dealer told me to be wary of anything with thin grey wires!! mine had one or two! Anyway after working through driveline issues, I 've towed 5ers for the last 4 years in excess of 15 kmiles / yr. Last winter I had my first evidence of something amiss at 140k. Trans Engineer responded to my distress post, and accurately diagnosed and recommended the right cure. The first year apparently did not have anodized VB's and Pump bodies. Five grand later and a couple of clutch paks later it's shifting flawlessly and never misses a beat in mountains or freeway. Its a good transmission.

 

[SRay]

An update on my previous post from March 2015.

My buddies 2010 mega cab trans failed several months ago at 236,000 km.

it is now rebuild with heavy duty hardware and upgraded torque converter (2 of them, one TC failed).

Now they seems to be happy with how well their truck hauls the mail at level 5 all the time.

 

[Shadrach]

Here's my own personal experience. My 08 now has 125k kms (about 75k miles) on it and I have owned it a year now. I have only put on 10k kms (about 6k miles) on it myself. I have towed my 28' TT on 3 big trips thru the mountains so far. On each and every trip the light on the dash came on once and all 3 times it was the same codes - to do with the torque convertor lock up circuit open. It also at times downshifts hard when you suddenly release the throttle. I will be changing the valve body solenoid pak to the Mopar updated version, hopefully before I take the trailer out again later this month. It will get new fluid and filters as well. Other than than It works fine. Truck has an H&S programmer in the trans and a deep pan. The TC has also been upgraded. Fluid and filters have been changed at least once before I bought it.

David

 

[AKetay]

Update to my earlier post, 423,000 miles and it had to go into transmission shop. The solenoid block gave up the ghost. Shop mechanic said they rest of the transmission is in really good shape for the miles. Keep running it til the wheels fall off, or 500,000 miles when I get a new truck. Still happy with the performance of this transmission.

 

[jomobco]

I bought my 07 used in 2009 with 39k on it. It was rode hard. I was getting slight slippage towing my gooseneck last summer and I could see the transmission getting hot. This was at 130k or so. My tcase went out (it was really a hub issue) and wouldn't engage and while they were in looking at that I figured since we're taking everything out lets just have the whole thing done. So at 140k or so I bit the bullet. The rebuild is nice. Nothing special just the usual upgrades but it's a much more civilized unit now. Quick shifts, little hunting for gears and it pulls much better. I had an 08 with the manual transmission. I would take this any day over that. Just my $.02

 

[KenHwy61]

Before I bought my 2012, I test drove a 2009 with 275,000 miles on the original 68RFE. The truck drove well and shifted fine but I decided to go a little newer.

 

[jdross440]

Call Blumenthal transmission in Oklahoma City (888-236-4800). They are the factory rebuild company for most of Chrysler product transmissions. They can tell you what the normal failures are. I had my manual NV5600 rebuilt (and upgraded) by them. I dropped the truck off and 2 days later had it back. He told me there are some common failure points in the 68RFE (which I have in my 2007.5 with 160K miles and no problems). When I had the fluid, filters changed and installed AFE deep pan at 100K the fluid looked new. I don't remember what he said as this was 2 years ago.

 

[zmos]

Wow, someone in OKC can do this? I love Oklahoma. But it seems I always have to go out of state to find anything. Thanks for lead!

 

[klaybus]

172k miles knock on wood....

 

[jdross440]

After my above post, mine went out in late October. Got to where it wouldn't stay in lockup, especially 5th and 6th. Shifted through all gears ok. Took it to transmission shop and he figured it was the torque converter had gone as when we were towing in early Sept it went into limp mode in city traffic towing our 40 ft 5th wheel (only second trip towing it) and I couldn't get out of traffic as nowhere to pull over with the 40 footer. Of course it overheated to the tune of 265 degrees (that's where shop said light comes on). We had shop there check it out and they changed fluid and filters. Towed back home (225 miles) with no problems. Temp stayed around 140. When the local shop took it apart they found all the forward clutches lining was gone and the metal plates were warped and basically welded together. He couldn't figure out how it had all 6 gears. $4600 later I have a total rebuilt updated transmission with a billet triple disk converter with a stall speed 300 rpm lower than stock. I haven't got to tow with it yet.
The guy said these trannys are generally good. The week link is the torque converter as the factory converter is designed to lockup smoothly and slip as they do. He said he had friends towing well over 20K pounds all the time with programmers pulling lots of power with no problems. You just have to not overheat them. Like any transmission heat is a killer. Of course if you can get a truck with the Aisin you are way ahead since Dodge didn't put the Allison in them.
As a side note he has converted some trucks ( mostly pre 68rfe trucks) to Ford 4R100 trans.

 

[CBlack]

Since my last post I've had to replace the valve body. Since the OEM is backordered I bought one from Revmax and it's been running great since.

226,000+ miles now.

 

[CBlack]

...
As a side note he has converted some trucks ( mostly pre 68rfe trucks) to Ford 4R100 trans.

Was that BTS? I've looked at doing that but the shop that was recommended in San Antonio wanted $15k for the whole thing.

 

[jdross440]

No, it was Quality Transmission in Jacksonville Arkansas.

 

[RVTRKN]

I'll jump in now. I know that I will never buy a CTD with the 68rfe, after driving one for 30K miles, but that CTD I drove also had a 3:42 rear diff. I would buy a G56 equiped 2500 CTD if the Aisin is still not available for 2500's. More than likely I would get a DRW 3500 anyway, so its a mute point for me. But the company I used to work for, purchased a CTD 2500 68rfe work truck, and it was adequate at best.

 

[pcarlson]

I have 72,000 trouble free miles. Course I don't do boosted launches or burn out with it, just towing the 5er and other truck related stuff.

 

[Jim Brewer]

Sorry about the late chime in on this thread - I'm just now getting caught up on TDR forum reading!

I went through 2 68RFE's in the last 4 years. I frequently tow a 16K lbs 5th wheel toy hauler up over the Rocky Mountains. The 68RFE's worked great for many miles until they didn't work great anymore. At about 170K miles, the first stock trans just stopped going into forward or reverse gear after gently driving over to the store. I replaced that with an ATS stage 1 68RFE with triple lock converter that lasted until 220K miles, when it lost the overdrive clutches and went into limp mode.

ATS stood behind their warranty 100% but said that the 68RFEs have a basic design flaw in the way they shift in overdrive and are too small inside to put in really large clutches. Their recommendation was to do the swap I have in my sig (4R100 with associated PCM & torque converter) and so far it seems to be working quite well.

It's a little weird having a older Ford transmission behind my Cummins 6.7L, but hey, if it's stronger, I'm ok with it!

 

[JR]

I can't really imagine giving up 2 gears for a daily driver/tow rig....been there done that too many years with a 47RE

 

[Jim Brewer]

I can't really imagine giving up 2 gears for a daily driver/tow rig....been there done that too many years with a 47RE

You know, I had the same hesitation (I used to have a 2001 ISB w/a 47RE also). I looked at the 4R100 ratios and knew I'd be giving up a little low and the low side and a little high in top gear. For low stuff, I have a 4x4 so if I really need low, I just go into 4 low (which I've definitely used a few times), so that was no big deal.

On the high side, I was less concerned after having to drive to California and back in 5th gear since my 68RFE's overdrive clutches (for 6th there are 2 that need to be engaged) were slipping and overheating the trans.

As for between 1st and 6th, I noticed that when both towing and unloaded, the 68RFE really didn't use 2nd or 4th very much at all (except in limp mode :-( ). Actually most of the time it was hard for me to tell the difference between the intermediate gear shifts and the TC locking. So in all practicality, I was ok giving up 2 gears in exchange for having beefier clutches and simpler shifts sequences.

So JR, what makes you "been there done that" about the 4 speed?

 

[Fordracer350]

I have a 2008 which I bought with 85k on it. From the records, the transmission was replaced with a rebuilt at about 75k. I don't know what the problem was. I am guessing the trans shop was reponsible for the fact that the bottom of the engine oil pan is caved in (good oil pressure and temperatures so just annoying). Not sure how easy that is to change.
I am thinking of installing a Hy-Mag trans pan and wonder what experience people have had with those, and where you installed a temp gauge on the dash.