Any insight would be great on this one. I have a 2000 f150 5.4 with 155k miles on it. I havent owned it that long, purchased from a friend who never towed and all highway miles. They have never performed any tranny service ( drain/fill ). The fluid still looks decent and doesnt smell too bad. I did take out 2 qts via dipstick and put 2 more in and then drove around for a day and did it again. I wanted to slowly introduce some new fluid - i've heard once you get into really high miles leave it alone, and i've heard get new fluid in -soo???

Anyway - I towed our 6000lb travel trailer about 60 miles - highway driving at 60mph (overdrive is turned OFF) and RPM's are at about 2400 at that speed. Not a super hot day - 80 or so. No steep terrain on the drive ( holland to wayland mi). Once I arrived at our campsite, an hour or so later i noticed a small fluid leak on the concrete (3 inch diameter). I climbed under and it looks like it was coming from the filter pan. I cleaned it up really good - and drove it without the trailer on and it and i climbed back underneath afterwards and no leaks without a trailer. I did check all the bolts on the filter pan and only one needed a 1/4 turn to tighten it up a touch. I dont think that was causing the leak though.

I'm nervous to tow the trailer home now with what i just experienced. Has anyone else experienced this ? Is this because of the excess pressure from shifts ? Should i install a shift kit ? Should i just leave it alone ?

Any insight would be great !!

Thanks
Tom

 

I've heard and read about this happening in Fords when the fluid gets really hot. It comes out of the shaft seal at the bell housing and that's what you see. When it cools down and does not get that hot again, all is fine....

I've not personally had that happen to my F150, but my brother in law has a POS Ford Astro Van AWD and when it's hot out and he drives a long way, it starts puking out trans fluid.. Once it's cooled down, it's fine... Just about a qt low on fluid is all, since it just puked it out...

I've heard this on an RV towing site as well as here.

Not sure what to tell you on changing the fluid.. I've heard the same thing about changing original fluid with a ton of miles on it... Some say it's BS, others believe it...

Personally, I tend to believe that fresh fluid is better than old fluid and if there is a problem with the trans, it's already there and all the new fluid does is expose that existing problem because it's actually doing what it's supposed to do...

I did a full fluid swap about 11 years ago when I first got the truck with 62,000 miles on it. Since then, I've been just doing pan drops and about 6 qts of fresh about once a year. I've now got 238,000 miles on it and tow a #5000 TT in the summer time and have never puked out any fluid..

That's just my experience with it.. By no means an 'expert' at all in it...

Good luck!

Mitch

 

thanks mitch

 

It's easy enough to do a full fluid change - you have a drain plug on the torque converter.

I do NOT like mixing new fluid with old fluid.

 

The Astro Van was a Chevy, not a Ford.

 

Aerostar is what I meant.. It's still a POS..

Mitch