Got around to doing a transmission fluid and filter change a while back. I had a rough 1st to 2nd shift on cold starts, and with the new filter and fluid that is mostly fixed. Sometimes if it tries to shift without building any RPM to fill the torque converter up a bit first it'll still have a bit of a hitch, but it is substantially improved.
I'm going to start off with a bunch of different options on the fluid and pan/filter, including a couple metal pans that have replaceable filters instead of needing to replace the entire plastic fluid pan every time you want to change the filter.
I personally went with a Mopar 68408606AB. This is a full kit that uses a more traditional stamped metal pan and a separate replaceable filter. It appears to have been made for 2019+ Jeeps with the USA-built 850RE, but it bolts right up to the 8HP50 and works perfect. I assume FCA didn't want plastic pans on off-road focused vehicles.
List of OEM pan/filter options:
68408606AB: Jeep 850RE metal pan with replaceable filters, full kit (pan/magnets, gasket, filter, bolts). These use a different gasket design/part number which I'll have pictures of below. Unfortunately I do not have part numbers of all the components of the kits, and these kits are discontinued, however the Jeep dealer parts systems can look up the individual components for you if you give them the 68408606AB part number. Availability at current time is questionable. Worth shooting an e-mail to MoparOnlineParts, they claimed to have the individual parts but I snagged the last kit in stock on RockAuto instead.
UPDATE 01/2024: The new part number for these is 68362041AC. The gasket was revised, and it looks like new screws are no longer included.
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52854834AB: Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram 845RE plastic pan with integrated filter, full kit with gasket. These are made in USA pans so prices in north america are a lot lower than the German-made pans, and there are some cost-savings on the design, the biggest one being there's no drain plug on the bottom of the pan. Frankly with the location of the fill plug this is a non-issue, a basic suction gun will get the few quarts above the pan level out in a minute.
68225344AA, 68261170AA: Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram 8HP70/8HP75 plastic pan with integrated filter, full kit with gasket. I'm assuming these are Euro-made, they cost a pretty penny here. They look identical to the pan that came on my 8HP50, including drain plug.
There is no functional difference between any of these options other than the visual differences and obviously metal vs plastic. While the 8HP75 is a bit beefier inside, the 8HP45 (845RE), 8HP50 (850RE), and 8HP75 pans are identical according to ZF's service information. You're welcome to try other car brand's 8HP45-75 pans, they're probably fine.
BMW 24119503407: This pan is aluminum and used on a handful of BMW vehicles. It does seem to hang a bit lower, but obviously it has functional cooling fins. The filter is a separately replaceable component similar to the Jeep pan above but not identical.
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List of aftermarket pan/filter options:
PPE cast aluminum pan: Transmission Pan - Heavy-Duty Cast Aluminum - ZF 8-Speed
This pan looks nice but isn't cheap. Installation is finnicky, you need to transfer the metal bolt hole bushings from your OEM plastic pan to the bolt holes in the PPE pan. I've also read a review where PPE drilled the holes for the filter in the pan off-center and asked the person who got that pan to file the holes in the filter to move it over, which is completely unacceptable. You're also at the mercy of their third-party filters being in stock/the company not disappearing.
I would avoid other aftermarket pans, while there's some cheap looking pans with replaceable filters, there's a lot of reviews of them leaking. It's not worth the hassle of dealing with a leak, especially with what the OEM fluid costs.
List of OEM fluid options:
ZF LifeGuard Fluid 8 (S671 090 312)
Mopar 8 & 9 Speed ATF (68218925AB)
Petronas Tutela Transmission AS8
There's a few other options from other OEMs like BMW/Audi but the ZF LifeGuard and Mopar fluids seem to be available for much less. Check ZF's TE-ML 11 document for a full list.
List of aftermarket, non-approved fluid options:
Valvoline Max-Life Multi-Vehicle ATF (red bottles?)
Pentosin ATF8 (1058110, 1058210)
AMSOIL Signature Series Fuel-Efficient Synthetic Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATL)
AMSOIL OE Fuel-Efficient Synthetic Automatic Transmission Fluid (OTL)
RAVENOL ATF 8HP Fluid
MOTUL ATF VI
You will need at least 6 liters of fluid for a change, 7 to be safe. I used just a hair over 6 liters.
Personally I wouldn't run aftermarket fluids. On ALL of the aftermarket brand spec sheets they're slightly thicker than ZF's fluid, so they're clearly not equivalent. Considering you're probably only servicing the transmission every 60-70,000 miles is it really worth saving $50-100 on fluid to get inferior fluid in a nice car like this? I don't think so.
If you insist on aftermarket fluid, I would get the Valvoline. I have heard a lot of fleets use this in their Ram's, and they're probably fairly hard on those transmissions.
I'm not going to cover the full service procedure, instead I'm attaching ZF's guide. Follow the procedure on page 5 to replace the pan, and the procedure on page 4 to refill after servicing. I will offer some tips and tricks, including a tool you'll have to make to remove the fill plug on AWD models without removing the front driveshaft.
To get transmission fluid temperature for the fill procedure, use MultiEcuScan or AlfaOBD. After you do the initial fill when you change the pan and torque converter fill-up procedure with the vehicle running, start filling the transmission at 35C and by the time you've got the additional fluid in there you'll be close to the 40C mark to be bang on for fluid level. To get the vehicle level I put a bubble level across the front and rear lift blocks. If you fill the transmission at 40C you get some wiggle room on how level the vehicle is rather than wiggle room on the fluid temperature so to speak.
If you get a metal transmission pan, the bolt torque is 12Nm, the plastic pan is 10Nm. The 4Nm + 45 degrees is for the 8HP90 which is fairly different for the pan design.
Fill plug removal on AWD sucks. The front driveshaft is directly in the way and the fill plug will likely be pretty tight.
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Take an 8mm allen key and cut off a 19mm length piece of it. Cut it off the handle, you don't want to use the hex key itself for removal, just the piece you cut off. Stick the piece you cut off into the fill plug "clean end" first, then put an 8mm box wrench over the 8mm hex piece, and whack it with a hammer. Check after every hammer whack that the hex piece is still fully inserted into the fill plug so you don't strip it out. If necessary, warm up the car a bit to get some heat into the fill plug to loosen it up, but don't use a torch that close to the driveshaft end.
You're more than welcome to try and cut off the other part of the hex key and hammer on that, but good luck. Hex keys are too flexible and absorb the impact you're imparting into it. A box wrench doesn't do that.
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A useful piece of information you can get from the scan tool data is transmission health indicators! MultiEcuScan currently doesn't support these, but AlfaOBD does! You can check the Filling Pressure and Filling Time on each clutch, A-E. The following article has some information on the range of values you're looking for: Gears Magazine - The ZF 8-Speed Transmission Fluid and Filter Change
To summarize, you want -300 to 300 mbar of filling pressure, and -120 to 120 ms of filling time. Check this data either before you change your fluid and/or some time after (with a few drive cycles). If your values were okay before and not after, double check your fluid level.
I'm going to start off with a bunch of different options on the fluid and pan/filter, including a couple metal pans that have replaceable filters instead of needing to replace the entire plastic fluid pan every time you want to change the filter.
I personally went with a Mopar 68408606AB. This is a full kit that uses a more traditional stamped metal pan and a separate replaceable filter. It appears to have been made for 2019+ Jeeps with the USA-built 850RE, but it bolts right up to the 8HP50 and works perfect. I assume FCA didn't want plastic pans on off-road focused vehicles.
List of OEM pan/filter options:
68408606AB: Jeep 850RE metal pan with replaceable filters, full kit (pan/magnets, gasket, filter, bolts). These use a different gasket design/part number which I'll have pictures of below. Unfortunately I do not have part numbers of all the components of the kits, and these kits are discontinued, however the Jeep dealer parts systems can look up the individual components for you if you give them the 68408606AB part number. Availability at current time is questionable. Worth shooting an e-mail to MoparOnlineParts, they claimed to have the individual parts but I snagged the last kit in stock on RockAuto instead.
UPDATE 01/2024: The new part number for these is 68362041AC. The gasket was revised, and it looks like new screws are no longer included.
52854834AB: Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram 845RE plastic pan with integrated filter, full kit with gasket. These are made in USA pans so prices in north america are a lot lower than the German-made pans, and there are some cost-savings on the design, the biggest one being there's no drain plug on the bottom of the pan. Frankly with the location of the fill plug this is a non-issue, a basic suction gun will get the few quarts above the pan level out in a minute.
68225344AA, 68261170AA: Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram 8HP70/8HP75 plastic pan with integrated filter, full kit with gasket. I'm assuming these are Euro-made, they cost a pretty penny here. They look identical to the pan that came on my 8HP50, including drain plug.
There is no functional difference between any of these options other than the visual differences and obviously metal vs plastic. While the 8HP75 is a bit beefier inside, the 8HP45 (845RE), 8HP50 (850RE), and 8HP75 pans are identical according to ZF's service information. You're welcome to try other car brand's 8HP45-75 pans, they're probably fine.
BMW 24119503407: This pan is aluminum and used on a handful of BMW vehicles. It does seem to hang a bit lower, but obviously it has functional cooling fins. The filter is a separately replaceable component similar to the Jeep pan above but not identical.
List of aftermarket pan/filter options:
PPE cast aluminum pan: Transmission Pan - Heavy-Duty Cast Aluminum - ZF 8-Speed
This pan looks nice but isn't cheap. Installation is finnicky, you need to transfer the metal bolt hole bushings from your OEM plastic pan to the bolt holes in the PPE pan. I've also read a review where PPE drilled the holes for the filter in the pan off-center and asked the person who got that pan to file the holes in the filter to move it over, which is completely unacceptable. You're also at the mercy of their third-party filters being in stock/the company not disappearing.
I would avoid other aftermarket pans, while there's some cheap looking pans with replaceable filters, there's a lot of reviews of them leaking. It's not worth the hassle of dealing with a leak, especially with what the OEM fluid costs.
List of OEM fluid options:
ZF LifeGuard Fluid 8 (S671 090 312)
Mopar 8 & 9 Speed ATF (68218925AB)
Petronas Tutela Transmission AS8
There's a few other options from other OEMs like BMW/Audi but the ZF LifeGuard and Mopar fluids seem to be available for much less. Check ZF's TE-ML 11 document for a full list.
List of aftermarket, non-approved fluid options:
Valvoline Max-Life Multi-Vehicle ATF (red bottles?)
Pentosin ATF8 (1058110, 1058210)
AMSOIL Signature Series Fuel-Efficient Synthetic Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATL)
AMSOIL OE Fuel-Efficient Synthetic Automatic Transmission Fluid (OTL)
RAVENOL ATF 8HP Fluid
MOTUL ATF VI
You will need at least 6 liters of fluid for a change, 7 to be safe. I used just a hair over 6 liters.
Personally I wouldn't run aftermarket fluids. On ALL of the aftermarket brand spec sheets they're slightly thicker than ZF's fluid, so they're clearly not equivalent. Considering you're probably only servicing the transmission every 60-70,000 miles is it really worth saving $50-100 on fluid to get inferior fluid in a nice car like this? I don't think so.
If you insist on aftermarket fluid, I would get the Valvoline. I have heard a lot of fleets use this in their Ram's, and they're probably fairly hard on those transmissions.
I'm not going to cover the full service procedure, instead I'm attaching ZF's guide. Follow the procedure on page 5 to replace the pan, and the procedure on page 4 to refill after servicing. I will offer some tips and tricks, including a tool you'll have to make to remove the fill plug on AWD models without removing the front driveshaft.
To get transmission fluid temperature for the fill procedure, use MultiEcuScan or AlfaOBD. After you do the initial fill when you change the pan and torque converter fill-up procedure with the vehicle running, start filling the transmission at 35C and by the time you've got the additional fluid in there you'll be close to the 40C mark to be bang on for fluid level. To get the vehicle level I put a bubble level across the front and rear lift blocks. If you fill the transmission at 40C you get some wiggle room on how level the vehicle is rather than wiggle room on the fluid temperature so to speak.
If you get a metal transmission pan, the bolt torque is 12Nm, the plastic pan is 10Nm. The 4Nm + 45 degrees is for the 8HP90 which is fairly different for the pan design.
Fill plug removal on AWD sucks. The front driveshaft is directly in the way and the fill plug will likely be pretty tight.
Take an 8mm allen key and cut off a 19mm length piece of it. Cut it off the handle, you don't want to use the hex key itself for removal, just the piece you cut off. Stick the piece you cut off into the fill plug "clean end" first, then put an 8mm box wrench over the 8mm hex piece, and whack it with a hammer. Check after every hammer whack that the hex piece is still fully inserted into the fill plug so you don't strip it out. If necessary, warm up the car a bit to get some heat into the fill plug to loosen it up, but don't use a torch that close to the driveshaft end.
You're more than welcome to try and cut off the other part of the hex key and hammer on that, but good luck. Hex keys are too flexible and absorb the impact you're imparting into it. A box wrench doesn't do that.
A useful piece of information you can get from the scan tool data is transmission health indicators! MultiEcuScan currently doesn't support these, but AlfaOBD does! You can check the Filling Pressure and Filling Time on each clutch, A-E. The following article has some information on the range of values you're looking for: Gears Magazine - The ZF 8-Speed Transmission Fluid and Filter Change
To summarize, you want -300 to 300 mbar of filling pressure, and -120 to 120 ms of filling time. Check this data either before you change your fluid and/or some time after (with a few drive cycles). If your values were okay before and not after, double check your fluid level.
