Transmission Fluid change.

[Vortechtral]

Hey, so I never really thought about it till it was "too late"  Has 180k KMs (around 111k miles) but nearly all highway driving.  Shifts like a dream still at all speeds, and in reverse.  Would it be safe to still change the fluid, or would this cause slipping to occur?  I know its WAY past what I should have done it by, and I would like to fix my problems of being dumb and doing nothing.  I assume the answers will be "change at your own risk" as there probably is no clear answer, id think anyway.  However who knows, maybe I will get lucky and someone will tell me it will be okay!  But yeah, over 95% of driving is all highway, with only a small bit in a small city/large town?  No real stop and go traffic ever, go prairies!

 

Any help would be of great help, thanks.

Michael

[fishx65]

I wouldn't have a fluid exchange done but wouldn't hesitate to do a quick drain and refill once or twice.  I'f I remember correctly,  a drain gets about 5 quarts out.

[1004ron]

8 hours ago, fishx65 said:

I wouldn't have a fluid exchange done but wouldn't hesitate to do a quick drain and refill once or twice.  I'f I remember correctly,  a drain gets about 5 quarts out.

I'd recommend the same.

 

I did multiple drain and fill just last week at 46K miles, and each drain was a fraction over 4 quarts.

 

I used almost 12 - 13 quarts - last quart was used to top off and get level exact.

[Vortechtral]

No I was never going to do an exchange, just a drain and fill.  I wish I started long time go, and wasn't such a blind doofus to it.  

[akirby]

13 hours ago, Vortechtral said:

No I was never going to do an exchange, just a drain and fill.  I wish I started long time go, and wasn't such a blind doofus to it.  

 

Just remember a drain and fill only gets about 1/3 of the fluid at a time.

[mike dexter]

On 9/18/2019 at 10:53 PM, fishx65 said:

I wouldn't have a fluid exchange done but wouldn't hesitate to do a quick drain and refill once or twice.  I'f I remember correctly,  a drain gets about 5 quarts out.

 

Agreed.  You will get the benefit of some new fluid, and hopefully avoid the sudden shock of 100% new fluid.  If your transmission has no problems, then drain and refill again.

 

When I drain, I get about 5 quarts.  

[erikrichard]

Ford's maintenance schedule says to replace fluid for the first time at 150k miles. Not sure if it's a good idea to wait so long, but there it is. I'd drain/refill without any hesitation whatsoever if I were you.

[Vortechtral]

Well, its nice that my transmission is of the year they still have dipsticks.  It also pleases me that the fluid on the dipstick is a nice red color, with no smell.  I heard things that if your fluid stinks then you don't change it.  I'd have thought that the fluid would have been all black after this long.  But for it to be a nice clean red color still makes me happy.  Fingers crossed the fluid coming out of the drain hole will also be a nice red color!  Ill be picking up some fluid on Wednesday, and do a drain on Thursday.  Let it go for maybe a month, then do another if no slipping occurs.  Thanks for the help.

[TNEdgeOwner]

On 9/23/2019 at 12:37 PM, Vortechtral said:

Well, its nice that my transmission is of the year they still have dipsticks.  It also pleases me that the fluid on the dipstick is a nice red color, with no smell.  I heard things that if your fluid stinks then you don't change it.  I'd have thought that the fluid would have been all black after this long.  But for it to be a nice clean red color still makes me happy.  Fingers crossed the fluid coming out of the drain hole will also be a nice red color!  Ill be picking up some fluid on Wednesday, and do a drain on Thursday.  Let it go for maybe a month, then do another if no slipping occurs.  Thanks for the help.

You are buying correct Motorcraft fluid, correct??

[1004ron]

On 9/23/2019 at 12:37 PM, Vortechtral said:

Well, its nice that my transmission is of the year they still have dipsticks.  It also pleases me that the fluid on the dipstick is a nice red color, with no smell.  I heard things that if your fluid stinks then you don't change it.  I'd have thought that the fluid would have been all black after this long.  But for it to be a nice clean red color still makes me happy.  Fingers crossed the fluid coming out of the drain hole will also be a nice red color!  Ill be picking up some fluid on Wednesday, and do a drain on Thursday.  Let it go for maybe a month, then do another if no slipping occurs.  Thanks for the help.

The bold part - isn't it the opposite?

 

Would have been great if you could replace the filter on this model.

 

Edited September 25, 2019 by 1004ron

[akirby]

1 hour ago, 1004ron said:

Would have been great if you could replace the filter on this model.

 

 

Any transmission engineer will tell you that if your filter needs to be changed that your tranny is already toast.

[Vortechtral]

On 9/25/2019 at 3:54 PM, TNEdgeOwner said:

You are buying correct Motorcraft fluid, correct??

Yessir, went to the dealership and got 10 liters of Mercon LV.  Now I have plenty for next time as well, and a bit extra in case some kind of accident happens!  I also have an idea to why my fluid was still so very cherry red and clean.  My PTU was defunked and they had to put a new one in when the vehicle was still under warranty, so they changed the fluid around i think it was about 70k kilometers, so without me actually doing anything and being dumb, it still got changed and I had nothing to worry about.  I'm just happy that the fluid coming out was a rich red and not brown/black!

[14AWD3.5]

I plan on trying the transfer siphon pump thru the dipstick tube approach. Already bought 5 qts of Mercon LV and the $17 hand pump (which I see from YTube is likely the same as the HF version for $7).  Anyway, despite wasting $10 (I could have gotten another qt of Mercon...) I hope to get appx 3 qts out of the pan that way, refill, drive about 10 miles, then do it again with the last 2 qts. Thats not 50% due to mixing old and new but its still a decent start at it.  
Dealer wanted $225 plus tax so about $245 to do a flush, I’d rather just do it over time myself.

I will report back next week when its done.

Edited March 14, 2020 by 14AWD3.5
Typo

[1004ron]

2 hours ago, 14AWD3.5 said:

I plan on trying the transfer siphon pump thru the dipstick tube approach. Already bought 5 qts of Mercon LV and the $17 hand pump (which I see from YTube is likely the same as the HF version for $7).  Anyway, despite wasting $10 (I could have gotten another qt of Mercon...) I hope to get appx 3 qts out of the pan that way, refill, drive about 10 miles, then do it again with the last 2 qts. Thats not 50% due to mixing old and new but its still a decent start at it.  
Dealer wanted $225 plus tax so about $245 to do a flush, I’d rather just do it over time myself.

I will report back next week when its done.

Keen to hear if you get more out using the oil extractor through the dipstick vs the drain plug.

 

Most folks use a lot more than 5 quarts to change over a higher percentage of the total volume.

Edited March 14, 2020 by 1004ron

[14AWD3.5]

21 hours ago, 1004ron said:

Keen to hear if you get more out using the oil extractor through the dipstick vs the drain plug.

 

Most folks use a lot more than 5 quarts to change over a higher percentage of the total volume.

I will try it Sunday or Monday and report back.  I have 8 qts of Mercon LV fluid now, which when mixed likely won’t be much more than 50%, if that, of really new fluid.  
I only have 64K on it so it’s not like it’s really old.

I will measure how much I can pull out of the dipstick tube so peeps know how that works.  
 

Edited March 15, 2020 by 14AWD3.5
Shorten response

[14AWD3.5]

Well I started it today, the Harbor Freight pump is exactly the same as the one from the auto parts store so save yourself $10 and go to HF.
 

The problem with their included hose is that it kinks easily.  The second issue that I found is that if you tape up the hose to pump connections (so the hose doesn’t come out of the siphon pump itself), then the hose collapses on itself as it creates too much of a vacuum.  (See update below)

Last and biggest problem is that there is a restrictor in the Edge’s dipstick tube which only allows an 1/8 inch diameter tubing to go down into the transmission pan. The 3/8” tube that comes in the syphon will not go down the fill pipe. Fortunately there was a short length of 1/8” included in the siphon kit.

 

I could only get 2 quarts out, and it was a slow process because the tube still tried to collapse upon itself and the 1/8 inch did not allow for a large volume transfer. Probably took me 20 minutes to get out that 2 qts. (See update about temp of fluid)

 

With less than 50,000 miles on this transmission fluid, it was browner than I would have liked (No red, all brown). So I’m going to continue with a slow process of extracting 2 qts at a time.  If you have a floor jack and the necessary ways of blocking your car up with, you likely will find it much quicker to drain out the 3 or 3 1/2 quarts by using the drain plug.
Sadly, I do not have a floor jack or anything else, and frankly it’s not worth $150 or more in parts to buy a floorjack and jackstands.  I don't wrench much.

 

I’ll let you know how things continue. Oh, you will need a long neck filler funnel to get down to where the transmission fluid opening is, your standard funnels will not reach. I had to cut the bottom out of a 1 liter water bottle and invert it.  Sigh.  Amateur follies!

 

***Update, later same day.  When the fluid is fully warmed up the hose doesn’t kink as much yet it still takes a good 10 minutes to siphon out 2 qts.  I did that twice more so there's been 7 qts changed out now.  I still have 2 more qts to do later this week, which will get me roughly 50% changed out, give or take. I'm going by the color of the fluid, as I have no idea how well the fluid has been diluted and thus has been replaced...

 

So is using the siphon pump worth it?  Not really, if you give your time any value. However, if you are like me and see no need to buy a floorjack and stands just to do this service then yes, it's ok.

 

One advantage of the siphon is that if you don't want to deal with 3-3.5 qts flowing out onto the ground/floor and then pouring all that off, it is easier to just pump out a "measured amount" like 1-2 qts, then pour that fluid into the new/old 1 qt containers and recycle that.

 

One last "plug" for only draining a portion as opposed to a complete flush for those who have put off changing their fluid to like 90-100K miles. There's so much controversy on the internet and on YouTube videos about whether or not you should do a complete flush. All I can tell you is that my local Firestone now will not do a complete fluid flush on higher mileage vehicles just because of the liability for the transmission... They refused to do mine, and I only had 63K.

 

Edited March 16, 2020 by 14AWD3.5
Added info

[1004ron]

Thanks for the update - I'll stick with the drain plug.

[14AWD3.5]

So where do you jack up the front from?

What suspension component do you use with a floor jack to raise the front up?

[1004ron]

4 hours ago, 14AWD3.5 said:

So where do you jack up the front from?

What suspension component do you use with a floor jack to raise the front up?

I think I did the transmission drain with it on ramps.

 

Just this past weekend I had it up on stands to rotate tires and replace the front brakes - the position of the floor jack lifts it level.

 

 

[handfiler]

And the Samuel Adams keeps the owner level ?

[14AWD3.5]

Ok thanks.  I may buy a set of ramps one day.

 

i changed out 2 more qts of ATF this pm,  the fluid is now reddish-pink.  Getting there...  6 more qts sometime next month and that will be it.  

Total cost will be less than 50% of the dealer’s price and that includes the pump.  The other thing will be not “shocking” the trans with all new fluid (if you subscribe to the belief that fluid changes can upset the delicate solenoids).

[1004ron]

1 hour ago, handfiler said:

And the Samuel Adams keeps the owner level ?

I added that to show a friend that I got "paid up front", .......by myself.  LOL

 

Damn good beer.

 

The rotor laying on the floor is the 8 month old 9K mile Power Stop that started making a growling noise and slight vibration at low speeds - they promptly sent a complete new kit, but will go with solid rotors next time.

[Cerberus]

On 3/16/2020 at 9:19 PM, 1004ron said:

The rotor laying on the floor is the 8 month old 9K mile Power Stop that started making a growling noise and slight vibration at low speeds - they promptly sent a complete new kit, but will go with solid rotors next time.

I had a similar problem with slotted rotors on my old 2011 Fusion sport.

I figured out that it was the slotting of the rotor that was causing the noise, it sounded somewhat like a bad wheel bearing or flat spotted tire but only while on the brakes.

Don't be surprised if the new ones do the same thing..

 

[14AWD3.5]

Back again. Borrowed a set of ramps (actually were old style steel and really too high, probably 9-10’” of lift), the pan was tilted backwards so I backed the car down 1/2 way on the ramps, chocked the rear tires and that leveled it out.  Then pulled the trans plug bolt. That’s a small bolt, fooled me (7/16” I think).  I was expecting a lot larger, like 5/8 maybe.  
Then drained 5 qts, I only had 4 qts of Mercon LV but found 1 qt of Mercon L from a p steering fluid change so in it went.  
I should be about 85-90% changed now, this is easier once you have the ramps figured out. And it is still cheaper than the dealer.

I will just make by own 2x8”or 2x10” wood ramps, a lot lower height though.

[aplustool1]

 "I backed the car down 1/2 way on the ramps".....Scary thought... I know the front wheels are locked by the tranny, but that is a lot of weight pushing in an angle.