Has anyone heard that you should use dodge tranny oil and not jobber bought oil? I know that I use type 3 oil in it and had the tranny rebuilt but they just put a good type 3 oil in it. A friend told me to buy the oil from dodge. Has anyone else heard of this? Thanks the postman
Dodgevanman
05-10-2006, 06:40 AM
Moving to Caravan section. But no you don't need to buy ATF+3 from the dealer. As long as the parts store carries it, you'll be okay.
shelbydodgeimp
05-10-2006, 10:52 AM
Some people have had no problems with "generic atf3" while some have had problems with it. Either way I would not worry about it UNLESS your van requires ATF4.
Also, the "dexron + additives" does not really make ATF3, surprised companies can legally claim it does when it is no where close.
auto_mran
05-10-2006, 11:49 AM
My dealer doesn't even carry ATF+3 any more, only ATF+4. But they did let me purchase my own ATF+3 from the parts store so the dealer could do the tranny flush. I used a combo of Valvoline ATF+3 and Advance Auto (house brand) ATF+3. That was about 16,000 miles ago and the van runs great. Current mileage on original tranny is approaching 109,000. Just read the labels on the aftermarket ATF+3 and you'll see it is pretty much exclusively for Chrysler manufactured vehicles.
shelbydodgeimp
05-10-2006, 02:08 PM
Yes but chrysler is not the only company with its own specialized fluid ;)
The years of just being able to throw dexron in anything that came in the shop are starting to pass, doesnt seem to matter if its a big 3 or import, more and more are going into the designer fluids.
Thats why its so disgusting when a shop like AAMCO just uses dexron in the flushing machine and will use it on every trans that comes in for a flush, its not like the A604 and A606 are the only ones on the market that die when given dexron or the wrong fluid. Perhaps in 1989-1994 you could argue that a shop could just have "not learned about it yet" but in 2006, there is NO reason a trans shop would be so incompitent as to not know what to use.
Chrysler does not make ATF3 anymore but you should be able to do ATF4 in a flush of an older A604 without problems (hence partly why they dont make it anymore). Don't expect a generic brand atf4 anytime soon however- look how long it took before chrysler licensed the formula out to the generic companies.
I also wonder how long the 6 speed auto (for next gen minivans & jeeps) has been under R&D, since it is based off the A604 I can not help but wonder if the timing of switching to ATF4 was at all related to inticepation reguarding the next generation in computer controled Mopar automatics.
