I took my '97 F150 to Precision Auto Tune to have the transmission flushed. This was suppose to be a typical routine maintenance kind of thing. When I picked the truck up, the power steering pump was making a horrible noise.

Come to find out, there was no fluid in the power steering system. I have had NO leaks or problems with the power steering system in the 3 years that I have had the truck. To fix the problem, Precision filled the power steering fluid back to a normal level and I left puzzled - trying to figure out why my power steering level was so low when they SUPPOSEDLY did not touch the powere steering system at all.

When I got home, I realized, after much investigation and reading posts on this site, that Precision probably mistankingly flushed the power steering system and not the transmission system like they had thought. In addition, when they re-filled the power steering system, they did not fill it with ATF like Ford specifies. To net it all out: I have the wrong fluid in the power steering system now, the transmission hasn't been touched, and I am $80 poorer.

I will reply when I get the problem rectified.

Has anyone esle had problems like this? Where should they have hooked up the machine to flush the transmission. What type of fluid should they put in the transmission (E40D)?

 

Wow, right there is why no one else touches the fleet...

Do you really have the E4OD? What is the trans code on the door jam?

Depending on what you figure out, the E4OD (code E) takes Mercon, and the 4r70w takes Mercon 5.

The powersteering pump isn't too picky on what goes in, but I just use Mercon because thats what I have sitting around.

Adrianspeeder

 

Sounds like very incompientnt techs work there

 

Huh, I wonder if this is what has happened to me. Took my truck in and had the tranny rebuilt and after getting it back, I am now getting a noise from the power steering whenever sitting at a red light when in "OD". If I turn the wheel from side to side, the noise fluctuates. Then when I hit the gas or if I shift into another gear, the sound goes away.

Going to check my fluid level in the morning to see if that is the problem.

 

They should have disconneted the lines running to the radiator to flush the trans.
What I believe they saw was the power steering cooler mounted in front of the radiator and thought it was a tranny cooler.
My F-250 LD has one and at first I thought it was an engine oil cooler till I traced the lines.
Since they may have thought it was the trans cooler, check your oil level in the trans to be sure they didn't over fill it.

BTW I did hear that the power steering pump and such neess to be flushed every so many miles. Mine has 130,000 and has never been touched. I guess it's way overdue.

 

I have seen these issues alot after tranny rebuilds and here is why. When the transmission gets pulled out the vehicle gets pushed outside without the engine running. When you steer the wheels on most ford vehicles without the engine running it pushes the power steering fluid out.
Alan