Dealing with the increasingly common pin-fit problem
I want to talk a little bit about a common diagnostic misstep or overlooked problem that is prevalent in the automotive repair industry and seems to be on the rise. Pin-fit or tension can deal us a fit sometimes (pun intended), especially if we do not have the proper tools to determine if this mode
Scope testing the Ford 10R80
Recently, we at Certified Transmission had a chance to do some work with the Ford 10R80. We have easy access to test vehicles since our owner also owns a used car dealership. For our R&D testing we used a 2019 F-150 equipped with a 5.0L engine and the 10R80 transmission. I got to play around
Mystery transmission problems: When the code doesn’t match the complaint
This one was a learning experience for me, and I hope my journey will help others if they run into this same scenario. A 2012 Nissan Quest with a 3.5L engine and the RE0F09B transmission came into our shop with the complaint that the CEL was on, there was a loss of power and the
545RFE Transmission with Hard Forced 3-2 Shifts
A while back, one of our retail locations received a 2011 Dodge Ram 2500 equipped with the 545RFE transmission and the 5.7L engine with a neutral condition in higher gears. The customer stated that the transmission has had shifting issues for some time but did not elaborate on those issues. As I began the verification and
Scoping Out A Jeep Issue
This article is a “case study,” but the procedure used to find the root cause of this issue can be used on almost any application. We’ll use the scope module part of the Snap-On Zeus scan tool; is this the best scope out there? No, but the ease of use and the addition of the
Scoped Out
Chris Adams, Certified Transmission diagnostician, shares the story of a 6R140 and stresses the importance of control.
Expect the Unexpected
A 2011 Chevrolet HD2500 6.6L equipped with a LCT1000 transmission came into the shop with a customer concern of no reverse and the indicator under the “R” is flashing.
Shaking Loose
One of our retail locations had a 2015 Ram Promaster show up on the back of a tow truck a few weeks ago, and this truck is a service vehicle for a local grocery store. The driver said he was traveling at about 40MPH when he felt like he ran over a boulder in the road, heard loud noises, and the truck stopped moving.
The Jeep Patriot with a really bad rolling surge
One of our shop locations had a 2011 Jeep Patriot that came in on the back of a tow truck. The customer stated that it started making noise and then quit moving. This one was an easy checkout; the vehicle didn’t move in any direction, had metallic-looking fluid, a horrendous bearing noise, and had a P0777 (secondary pressure control solenoid stuck on) code stored. Even though this one was pretty much a slam dunk in the way of diagnosis, we still needed to go through our complete evaluation procedure.
CVTs Are Here; You Can Profit from Them
As CVT transmissions are appearing in our shops with increasing frequency, there still seems to be a degree of hesitance for some shops to take on these jobs. Even if shops do not want to build these units in-house, there are reliable sources for remanufactured units out there that enable them to capture profit on R&R rather than sending a customer down the road to a competitor.
Programming Can Be a Source of Profit
For those of you who perform J2534 programming, you may have noticed that there have not been any updates to the Ford Module Programming (FMP) since the last release of FMP 105. Although it had remained functional as long as your subscription was current (or at least up until the writing of this), it won’t be long before you will have to start using the new software that is labeled as FJDS (Ford J2534 Diagnostic Software).
‘Rebuilt’ salvage-yard transmission, hmmm …
We had a local general repair shop bring us a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.6L V-6 engine equipped with a ZF 8-speed (845RE) transmission; they had just installed a “rebuilt” transmission that was sourced from a salvage yard. The customer’s stated concern was, “The place that built the transmission just said it needed to be programmed.” Needless to say, we knew that this was going to be an adventure.
