New Gladiator Owner w/First Time Automatic Transmission

[GoHack]

I've always own manual transmissions w/my Jeeps, so I do know how to use them.

With that said, this past summer I bought a new 2024 Rubicon w/a 6 speed manual.
After around 1500 miles, the transmission started grinding when I would downshift from 4th to 3rd.
I brought her in, and they confirmed the damage, including draining the transmission and finding metal chips. When they pulled the transmission, they checked the clutch assembly and found a broken spring there.

They ordered a new transmission/clutch assembly, which took a month and a half to get. When they finally got them, they installed them, and I picked her up.
Driving her, including some offroad, everything seemed to be OK, but w/in a week, some error lights came on. I brought her back in, and after two weeks they determined that a sensor on the clutch petal went bad. They replaced it, but it required tearing the dash apart. I got her back w/no more error lights but was bothered by the tearing of the dash apart, so I traded her in for a new Gladiator (Rubicon), but w/an automatic transmission, my very first.

That said, being new to automatics, how do you break them in?
I did around 500 miles local driving, taking it easy driving, but went on a long trip for thanksgiving. I went and changed the engine oil/oil filter, before leaving.
I drove over 1900 miles on the interstate but kept her at the speed limit using cruise control.
My RPMs averaged around 2K, when doing 65 to 70 mph, but when I would come up to a hill, she would down shift w/the RPMs jumping up to 3 to 4K. Is this OK w/a transmission, as well as the engine, w/only 500 miles?

Other than that, the transmission seems to work OK.

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[bd100]

Varying speed and RPM, an occasional half-power acceleration burst for a moment. Don't tow for a while. Check the manual for semi-nebulous details.

 

[Janster]

Just drive …… I’ve never heard of any break-in period for regular (non sports car type) vehicles. If there was, the dealership should’ve made that totally clear when you bought it. I bought my ‘24 back in March and I was towing our bass boat (3,500lbs) only a couple weeks later. I’m pretty sure - as long as all the sensors are functioning properly, the Jeep will shift accordingly and if something were to go wrong…go into a LIMP mode.

For some sports cars …. My husband has a BMW M4 Competition.and they have a specific ‘break-in’ period for the first 1200 miles. The cars have special fluids in them specifically for breakin. No spirited or racing. They purposely ’limit’ certain things. You take the car in to BMW for its first service - a special service they do after the break-in period and enable/unlock the car to its full potential.

I was a bit surprised on the JT ….with a vehicle that tows 6,000 lbs, there wasn’t any sort of “Tow Haul Mode” like other trucks have.

 

[Hunter#1]

I let engine warm up a bit, more so in winter. I wait for the RPM's to drop before putting trans in gear. Then I drive below 30 mph till I get out of where I live, then follow 40 MPH posted sign till I can pick up speed. An old mechanic told me years ago to never race a cold engine and trans. One thing I have never had was a bad Jeep trans , even with Jeeps that hit over 200k. My 2023 JT is my daily driver, the only off road it see's is driving the beach for surf fishing. I'm more concerned about the batteries because I take short drives to work. Most trans problems and Jeep problems are from owners beating the crap out of the Jeep, and some mods . Don't rely on the dealer to tell you about what you should do for a new engine and trans. I was in the auto business for 34 years. I could write a book about what people do to there cars and trucks. What other people do with there jeeps is there thing. The tail of the tape is when the truck gets a couple of years old. I think I read with the 8 spd trans you don't need a tow haul mode. The JT with the 8 spd auto is a towing machine.

 

[Mr._Bill]

The break-in instructions should be in the owners manual. What I read for my 2020 was something like 300 miles with a no towing restriction for the first 500 miles.

 

[Figmo]

When I bought my Mojave, the dealer gave me this long speech about how the computer would “learn” my driving style for the first 200 miles and automatically set transmission shift points to adjust to me.

Scared the hell out of me because I bought it from a dealer that was 200 miles away from where I live. Told the guy, “but the first 200 miles I put on this thing is going to be all interstate driving at 75MPG - is there a way to reset it back to “learn mode” when I get home?”

He no clue. Made a couple calls to service department guys and basically came back and said “don’t worry about it”. A very unsatisfying answer but it was late and I had a long drive home so I just blew it off and never did notice anything “weird“ about the transmission shifting for the year I owned it.

To this day I still wonder about that. But in the end, it didn’t really seem to make any difference so, who knows….maybe just some mumbo jumbo they tell the sales guys? Or something that continually adjusts itself?

 

[GoHack]

Thanks everyone.

I took it easy the first 500 miles, driving locally, and of course, had to Christen her offroad, as well as breaking in the transfer case shifter, especially going into, and out of 4Lo.

 

[ZeeJay]

Most automatics anymore operate with an adaptive strategy from new, it runs on a 2D curve and most have a prognostics feature imbedded in the calibration to compensate line pressure and shift hysteresis. This happens on the 2D curve based in temp, engine load, engine speed, requested torque etc, and driving style. It will learn your particular driving style and adapt to it. Being new a few hundred miles for it to learn you and that’s about it, once it sees a load behind the truck it WILL know it’s there pretty damn quick.

 

[jac04]

FYI, from the 2024 Pwner's Manual:

 

[Janster]

When I bought my Mojave, the dealer gave me this long speech about how the computer would “learn” my driving style for the first 200 miles and automatically set transmission shift points to adjust to me.

Yea….my 2016 GMC Canyon (6 speed Auto) had the “Adaptive Learning” and I hated it…..and/or it was their lack of proper programming. Slow down, make a turn, get on the gas again (normal to lightly), the truck didn’t know how to downshift. You’d get chuggle / stutter from the Rpm’s being too low. Bury your foot in it…and it would finally downshift. It was a widespread problem with the 6 speed. The dealership replaced my torque converter (warranty). That actually worked for a month or so.…. Then, it was back to the same-old-same-old.

Funny thing was…. You know its in the programming when you tow a bass boat in Tow haul mode and it shifts perfectly!

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