I have a 06 FX4 with 29,000 miles and I was told I need to consider changing my fluid and filter at 30,000. What do you guys recommend? Also, when I change the fluid is there a drain plug in the converter to drain the fluid? If not, is it worth taking somewhere to have it flushed? I plan on doing as much as possible myself. Thanks in advance.

 

My service schedule says to change the ATF @ 30K, 60K, 90K, 120K. I asked my Ford Dealership service department about dropping the pan & changing the filter, and I was told that it was better to use the flush machine since it gets out all of the old fluid and replaces every quart with fresh fluid. The thinking now is that it is better to leave the factory seal on the pan in place, just let the filter do it's job, and depend on keeping the fluids fresh. Chances are, you won't have the truck for hundreds of thousands of miles, so don't worry about it.

 

Yup, I do mine about every 35k miles. Seems to do it good, aside from a recent tranny rebuild???? Probably unrelated, o/d was shot.

 

There is no torque converter drain plug on your 06.

A simple drain/fill every 30K is an excellent way of keeping the fluid fresh without the expense of a flush. If you're dropping the pan you might as well change the filter though I don't believe it has to be changed every 30K.

An oil extractor or hand pump can be used to empty the pan without dropping it if you're not going to change the filter.

A full transmission service, flush with a filter change, is $250 at my local dealer. Not cheap. If I went that route I'd go 50K or 60K in between services to get my money out of it.

A pan drop will require approximately 5 quarts of fluid to refill. Opinions will vary on which brand to use so I'll just remind you to use a Mercon V approved fluid.

 

Go to your local parts store and buy a B&M trans. pan plug kit.When you remove your pan the first time install it.After that,if you don't want to change the filter that often,just drain and refill!

 

Just had mine serviced at 30 thousand. The sevice manager said its best not to mess with the original seal until at least 60 Thousand miles to change the filter if needed.

 

I have a 2002 Explorer with V6 4.0 auto tranny and the tranny is sealed. Who knows hoe good this system? Thanks.

 

Just did a pan drop/filter change and flush on mine at 30k service. It was less than $150 for all of it at my dealer and well worth the peace of mind. Don't forget to change the transfer case also. It only holds 2 qts of Mercon V and mine was pretty dirty when changed and the truck's never been offroad.

 

Thanks for the info. I will probaly drop the pan and change filter this time and do a flush at 60,000. Do you guys recommend a synthetic fluid? Thanks again.

 

Mercon V is just fine.

 

Mercon V is fine, but synthetic is better, and if you do switch over to synthetic do a complete replacement, not just a pan drop, and make sure the synthetic mets Mercon V specs.

 

Synthetic Mercon V fluid such as Mobil 1, Royal Purple, Amsoil or Redline will mix with the Motorcraft Mercon V your truck came with. Mobil 1 at less than $6 a quart at Wal-Mart is the cheapest and easiest to find synthetic ATF. If you plan on dropping the pan and changing the filter with synthetic fluid every 30K there's no need to do a flush at 60K.

 

Switch to Amsoil now and flush the wole thing, not just a pan drop. Amsoil's recommended service interval is 50,000 miles under severe service or 100,000 under normal. If you're going to switch to any other full syn brand, you do want to flush the system though. You want about a 90% purity rate with a new fluid, but a full system flush will easily give you that.

I installed Amsoil ATF when I installed my valve body. Put about 35,000 miles on that fluid normal driving, then went out and bought a big *** toy hauler and started pulling that around. Pulled the trailer all this past summer and even heated up the fluid pretty darn good on two or three occasions...I mean I burried the needle on my 240* temp gauge.

I flushed/changed the fluid because it now has 55,000+ miles on it and I was installing a new tranny cooler anyways. the fluid, I'm not kidding, was almost the same shade of color as the new fluid, and had absolutely zero burnt smell to it. Smelled like new tranny fluid. I could not believe it. I regret that I didn't send in a sample of that fluid change just for kicks to see how good a shape it was in or how much further it will go.

I do change my Amsoil every 50,000 because towing the trailer would put you under the severe service category, but I would not even bat an eye at running this fluid 100k under normal conditions.

 

Thanks again, your info is always helpful in deciding what to do.