Premature wear in the transmissions of Ram ProMaster commercial vans built between 2018 and 2021 may cause the park gear not to work properly. That could increase the risk of the vehicle rolling away, and has led to a recall.
Ram first became aware of the issue in August 2022, and launched an investigation. It discovered that it had two customer assistance records and 64 warranty claims relating to parking gear issues.
The automaker sought to find out what was causing these issues, and discovered that the lower clutch retainer was failing prematurely in 62TE automatic transmissions. That allowed debris to interfere with the parking pawl, preventing it from fully engaging.
Read: Ford Recalls Nearly 1,000 Vehicles Because They Might Run Away In Park
If the parking pawl doesn’t fully engage, it increases the risk that the vehicle could roll away, even if the gear selector indicates that the vehicle is in “Park.” Naturally, a roll away vehicle, especially a commercial vehicle which is frequently loaded with heavy items that need to be loaded and unloaded, could be dangerous for people around the vehicle.
Fortunately, Ram is so far not aware of any injuries or accidents related to the issue in any market. However, it anticipates that the issue affects 165,503 ProMasters that were built between July 2018 and November 2021.
Ram has decided to conduct a voluntary recall to remedy this issue, and will start getting in touch with owners on June 16. It will replace transmission components where necessary, but believes that, in certain cases, it will only need to perform a Powertrain Control Module calibration software update to prevent the issue from occurring.
Any and all repairs related to this recall will be performed at no cost to the owner, and those who have had to pay out of pocket to remedy this issue on their own can be reimbursed by Ram.
