After blowing up two transmissions in the past month (under esp warranty) I decided to speak to a VERY reliable source about the problems I encountered and what I could do to improve the reliability and performance of the 4R100w trans. In our discussion he stated that when ford has a transmission failure under warranty they (ford) is required to install an inline trans filter to help catch any debris that may have been left in the trans cooler after the flush. The lack of this filter most likely caused the failure of my second transmission. I had my truck on the lift to service and I began looking for this filter, and guess what? NO FILTER! I called the dealer that did the work to get some answers. It has now been almost a week with no response. Ford is so worried about mods and having their techs make warranty time that they FORGOT? to install this filter. This $2. filter costs them a trans + labor, costs me a tow, down time, and a partial loss of confidence in the MANAGMENT of this particular dealer. Has anyone else had a trans failure and had this filter installed? I am sure this practice is also meant for other ford vehicles.

 

Mark,
I rarely ever see that filter that comes with the trans go anywhere but the trashcan. Most good techs will flush the cooler lines out with the machine. I seriously doubt that your sceond tranny failure was due to not having that filter. I hate to say it but in my opinion RPM transmissions Engines etc are junk. Example. this week i did and explorer engine replaced it with what ford provides RMP (remanufactured parts). I started the truck and not to my surpirse it knocked its *** off and was pouring out out of the oil filter housing. The knock is internal and whomever rebuilt the engined failed to install the rubber o ring between the block and housing for the oil filter. So i got to spend my saturday pulling the engine back out to install another one now keep in mind this entire job pays like 10 or 11 hours and while i am not a speed demon but i might just break even as far as hours on this job. This is why techs are always trying to prove that mods caused the failure of your broken parts. It comes down to the fact that warreny work pays jacksh$t. Just something to keep in mind while your beating your service manager up on monday !!! good luck ,,kyle

 

The filter kit is required, says so in the reference manual, but it's a $90 part. I'd think it's needed, any time you fail a tranny, it cuses some debris, and this gets into the radiator, there's no real way to get it out without replacing the radiator, but a filter catches it before it gets back to the tranny and that would prevent any further damage.

G