HELP!! 99 300M How do I drop the Transmission Pan with RTV Sealant?

When using the hammer, did you hit it from the side to shear the RTV? That's the usual way. If it's stubborn, wedge something flat between pan and case as far as you can without causing damage to the pan to stress the RTV, and whack it from the side - the combination may do it.

When you put it back on, consider using the metal/silicone sandwich gasket (dealer might have to order it) - it is put on dry - they work well (no reports with them of any leaks on the 300M Club, and no problem on my Concorde), and it will avoid the removal problem in the future.

Do a search on this newsgroup for the DC part number.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

I was hitting along the side of the pan...but did not try prying while hitting it..

I do have the new metal gasket to put on when I get it off.

Do NOT pry. Get a thin putty knife with a semi-flexible blade, about 1" wide. Tap it into the RTV between the pan and trans housing. Repeat several times around the perimeter of the pan. DO NOT PRY with it, just tap it into the RTV to break the seal in a number of places. Then repeat your whacking with a dead-blow hammer. It should come off.

Well, after an 1 1/2 hours I finally got the pan off...I couldn't believe how much RTV was on that thing....I tried the putty knife and that didn't work so well...I beat on the pan from the side for a bit pretty hard and then went back to prying on the one corner I could actually get a hold of.

Finally it broke loose but the corner of the pan did bend. After getting it off I set it on the floor of my garage and flattened the corner back down. Looked and felt as level as it should have been prior. Put it all back together and so far only a few drops on the pavement, which I believe is coming off the exhaust pipe from the drain runoff.

So today I changed out Power Steering fluid, Differential Fluid, Engine Oil and Filter, and Transmission and Filter...Oh and topped off the washer fluid.

Now for the dreaded 100K mile Timing belt change......

Thanks for everyone's help!

BTW...that metal gasket is wonderful...except for the Price! After messing with that stiff though, it's worth it!

Mike

Not bad at all on a Chrysler 3.5. Very "service friendly" engine overall.

I'm actually not that big a fan of the metal gasket, because I've had a minor leak every time I've tried it. Its definitely 100x better than the old cork/neoprene gaskets, but it still depends on being evenly squeezed to seal (ie, the pan has to be perfect. I use Permatex "The Right Stuff" on the trans pan gasket, not only for the 42LE like yours but now for ALL my Mopars. No leaks- EVER- and I've never had a problem getting one back off with the putty knife trick. Conventional RTV is a disaster in a tube, and I never even buy that stuff anymore.

Why did you take the tranny pan off?

Is taking the pan off part of a regular maintainence item?

Was that the first time the power steering and differential fluid was changed?

How many times has the serpentine belt been changed?

How many times has the coolant been changed?

How about the battery?

On this planet, yes. :-p On virtually all automatic transmissions, the pan has to drop to change the filter and fluid.

Why change a battery until it fails?

Most shops want to do the power flush for a complete flush of the fluids..that's fine but what about the filter...you have to take the pan off to get to the filter.

No flush this time...I dropped the pan to put in a new filter.

Dunno, I bought the car at 95K miles. I'm just trying to stick with the maint. plans guidelines...Figured 100K miles was a good time to do all the fluids. (Differential and PS was due at 90K on the Severe Maint. Schedule, Trans at 96K.)

Serpentine or timing belt.? Timing belt hasn't been change as far as I know. Chrysler pushes the Timing belt change @ 100K miles, however I see Mitchell Repair data shows 105K miles for my 99, 100K for 2000-2002, and

The serpentine belt that is on there now is a Mopar belt......It looks too good to be an original belt...the accessory belts will be changed out when the Timing belt get's done.

This will be done when the timing belt is changed out too, along with a thermostat and water pump.

Battery still looks like the original from I'm seeing...that's pushing 7 yrs old so probably swap that before the winter time.

Do the tensioner pulleys (serpentine and t-belt) then too. They (their bearings) are a wear-out item too these days.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

It's on the list..forgot to list it though.

A reputable shop in my town said Labor would run about $450 for all this work..V-Belt, serpentine and timing belt changed, idler pulleys changed, w/p and t-stat swapped out and coolant flush.

My cost for all the parts will be approx $200. Does that sound fair or comparable to what everyone else is getting charged for all this work?

I just had it done on my '98 Concore 3.2L (essentially same engine as

From a discount Chrysler dealer (shipping $8.49): Water pump 4792195ab $69.95 Water pump gasket 4659430ab $1.93 Hydraulic tensioner 4573347 $83.33

From Rock Auto Parts ($18.86 shipping) (all parts are Gates except the thermostat gasket): Thermostat gasket (Fel-Pro) 35631 $3.86 Lower radiator hose 22420 $7.15 Upper radiator hose 22421 $12.18 A.C. V-belt 7550 $8.70 Accessory serpentine belt K060529 $13.09 A.C belt idler 38040 $13.36 Accessory belt idler 38042 $14.72 Timing belt kit (belt + tensioner - not the hydraulic one) TCK295 $100.99 Thermostat 33918 $6.89

That's a total of $360 for parts - I doubt you'll do any better on parts prices unless you have some inside track. Notice that my list includes upper and lower rad. hoses and the hydraulic timing belt tensioner (not same as the timing belt tensioner pulley/bearing). It probably would have been safe to not replace the hydraulic tensioner, so you could save $85 there.

The shop I used did it for a pre-quoted labor of $300. I suspect that was a better than average price and they would charge a little more if they had it to do over again.

I'm saying you're a little low on your parts estimate based on my better than normal prices and adjusting for the upper & lower hoses and hydraulic tensioner. Your maybe a little high on labor, except you are getting a coolant flush, so maybe it's in line.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

What Dealer do you work with to get the above prices?

I work for a Major Auto Parts Chain...so you might say I have the inside track ; ) Also that comes in handy at the Chrysler dealer too...(though they grumble about giving me a Company discount...)

Notice that my list includes

I only drive about 10K miles a year.....and I don't recall seeing much said about they hyd. tensioner online and in forums. The shop I use said they don't usually replace those when doing timing belt changes.

The shop has always been proud of their labor..but you don't see comebacks for the same issues.

I figure my discount for the parts would offset the higher labor.

Thanks for the advise...Maybe I can get a deal on the Hyd. tensioner and go ahead and get that too while I'm at it.

Not at liberty to say publicly. What state are you in? You should be able to come fairly close to those prices with certain on-line dealers with drill-down parts lookups (such as

That's reasonable.

That sounds pretty cheap to me. The only job on that list that's real work is the timing belt. The water pump comes with it.