2004 Dakota, 4.7, 2WD, 545RFE automatic. Transmission came out of a 2007 Chrysler Aspen that got totaled with 37K miles on it. I have put 16K miles on it with no problems until yesterday. It has mainly been used around town as a daily driver, never towed anything, and we have never rawhided it. I was 5 miles from the end of a 300 mile road trip to the beach, and the truck just kind of hiccupped and the check engine light came on. Cruise was set at 70 mph, and truck went right on like nothing happened. Got to the end of the off ramp, and when I went to pull out.....the trans hadn't shifted back down. I pulled it down in low, and shifted it manually, and it seemed fine. I drove it to Autozone today, and got the dude to run the scan tool on it. No codes stored, and it had seemed fine on the 10 mile trip up the interstate, to get to Autozone. When i left there, it did it again, but this time, it also did not shift into OD when I got back on the interstate. Luckily, my wife has her car here at the beach too. Now I gotta take her car back home, hook the car trailer to my diesel, load her car and go back to the beach. Then load the Dakota up to bring it home when I go home from the beach on the 10th. Lot of work and driving, but cheaper than getting it towed!
Anybody have trouble with a 545RFE like this before? I called my trusted transmission guy at home, and he said it might be solenoid packs in the transmission. Fluid is full and clean, and there are no leaks. He also said he has seen some Dodge trucks have connector problems under the bottom of the underhood fuse box. Any help or ideas appreciated.

I don't know how the aftermarket code readers work, but on the factory scan tools you may not get trans codes in the engine codes. It is a separate system. If the MIL is on there is a code, you just need to find the correct system to read it.

Most autozone type scanners are only gonna pull engine codes, if your luck there is a P700 that tells you there is a tranny code but not what the code actually is.

Those trannies are very reliable, one of the most common problems I have seen is the filter in the pan seperating plastic from metal at the seam and then it sucks air and does all kinds of weird stuff. This problem can be magnified if the fluid is even a tiny bit low and covered up slightly if the fluid is slightly high, THAT IS NOT THE SOLUTION! But it can be a helpful diagnostic tool. Even if the tranny is actually toast they are very cheap to buy good low mile used ones because the engine is usually condemned due to timing chain noise nobody wants or knows how to fix.

Yeah.....I originally bought the transmission that is in the truck, to go in a 70 Duster with a 5.7 Hemi swap. I kinda shelved that idea, and ended up putting it in the 4 door Dakota I bought dirt cheap with a bad motor. Trans came out of a 2007 Chrysler Aspen that had 37K miles, and worked like a champ until the other day. We were 3 miles from the end of a 300 mile run the truck has made many times in the last 2 years, so it really surprised me. I bought a remanned 4.7 from Powertrain Products, and have had zero problems in the 16K miles we have put on the truck since we got it going. I appreciate the responses, and will report back what he finds when I get it home to him.

A little update. I hauled it home from the beach, and took it the trusted transmission shop. He plugged in and pulled the codes, and I forget the numbers...but it showed a shift solenoid malfunction. He cleared the codes, and added almost a quart of fluid and said to drive it and see if it sets another code and turns the light on again. He said it should do it within a hundred miles or so, if it was going to. He said these transmissions are very finicky about being even slightly low of fluid, and that I may get lucky and that caused it. I've run the hell out of it for a little over a hundred miles, and it's still fine. I'm gonna run it some more and see, but so far....so good!

Tim

They are only that "finnicky" about fluid level when the filter starts separating.

Yeah, he said the same thing. The salvage yard that I bought the trans from is a big, professional operation. They drain fluids and install tags to refill before use. The trans came out of a wrecked 2007 Chrysler Aspen with 37K miles on it, and had probably been sitting for a few years when I bought it in 2013. It then sat sealed up in my shop until 2019 when I installed it in the Dakota, after I ditched the idea of putting the 5.7 Hemi and 545 in my 70 Duster. All that time sitting makes me wonder if the filter separated due to being mostly dry and sitting. I've run the living hell out of it, both on the interstate and around town since he said to drive it, and it has worked flawlessly. I may just go on and get them to fix it, rather than wondering when it will F up again.

Well....the wife and I drove the Dakota on about a 140 mile trip to Charlotte over the weekend. Went down there just fine, with no troubles at all. When we were on the way home, it hiccupped again at around 70 mph and kicked out of OD. A few seconds after it did it, the check engine light came on again. I just slowed down to around 60 mph to keep the RPM's down, and drove it the rest of the way home. It's at the transmission shop now, and they are going to check the fuse box for bad connection to trans, and if that's ok...replace shift solenoid and change fluid and both filters.

Tim

Just got a call from the shop a while ago, that it's fixed. It was the shift solenoid. I'll pick it up tomorrow.

Hopefully.....it's fixed for good now. I drove it 311 miles to the beach yesterday, and ran 80 mph most all the way on the interstate. Never had a problem! The guys at the transmission shop checked the pickup filter that splits, and said it wasn't split or cracked. They still tossed it and installed both filters new. They said there was zero debris in the bottom of the pan, and said they cut the filters apart and zero debris in them either. They put in a factory Mopar Shift solenoid instead of aftermarket, so my guess is that SloJoe and Co. will kill the truck before the transmission messes up again.

Tim