Hi,
I've read the discussion board on my spare time and I've started thinking that I have to change fluid in my truck's tranny J From other hand I've heard that unless you have a problem, like the fluid has changed the color/smell or it's leaking, you should not mess with it. Do you agree with this?
It would be nice of you, guys, if you can help me to make myself to do the job.
I have 4R70W transmission and I don't do any hard job like towing a lot or something. The tranny doesn't leak and color/smell is fine. But I've already made more then 30000 miles and it's time to please it…
I found that I need MERCON V fluid for the tranny and originally it comes filled with Exxon Type "B" oil (WSS-M2C202-B). It looks like Exxon doesn't sell it. Instead it sells AAMCO® Synthetic Blend ATF which is MERCON V type. Do you know if this is the same product? Do you know where I can buy the stuff? What would be the best replacement for Exxon?
Another thing – do I need to change a filter? I have around 100000 miles on the vehicle. What filter should I buy and where?
Thanks a lot,
Alex.
'97 F-150 supercab, 4.6L V8

 

Yes, you should change the fluid. It's the same situation with engine oil. You don't leave the original engine oil in forever, do you? Changing the transmission fluid every 20K-30K miles is the best way to prevent a transmission failure.

Make sure you change all the fluid, not just the 5 quarts in the pan. There is a good article at Ford-Diesel.com http://www.ford-diesel.com/faq/1999f...ance-AutoT.htm on how to change the fluid. It was written for the SuperDuty that requires a different fluid, but the procedure is the same.

I change my filter every other fuild change. If there is enough material to clog the filter, the transmission is already toast.

I don't know if the fluid you mentioned is the same as the factory fill. I believe that any MERCON V rated fluid will work fine.

Mark

 

Mark,
Thanks for the quick reply.
Still, could you tell what filter do you use and where to buy it?
Alex.

 

I just go to the local parts store and ask for a filter. I don't know what brand it is.

Mark

 

THANKS!

 

Am I rading correctly that you have over 100000 miles on it? Has it ever been changed? If it's never been changed (and I may be misreading the comment about making it 30000 miles) then the most popular advise I've heard is let it be and don't service it. Serviceing it after going that long not serviced can be the death of it.

Now for the explanation of why! I'm not sure. I think it has to do with new clean ATF cleaning out crud that is at this point being used as a seal. You clean all that out and you just eliminted most of the "seals" causing major leaks and "poof", it's dead.

I hope someone can come along and save me from this weak explanation. And if I mis read what you said, then nevermind!

 

I can't save you from this one. In the 60's I had a Ford Fairlane I ran just under 110,000 miles never a problem with the transmission and had never serviced it. I for some reason decided to be really nice to it, and drained the fluid, cleaned it all out, put a new filter in it, nice new trans fluid, and within 500 miles the tranmission was dead. I'm not sure I understand all the dynamics here, but I know it happened.

 

Familyride - you hit the nail on the head. After that many miles, the tranny is full of nasty stuff that is sticking in various places in the tranny. If you drop new fluid in, the new fluid almost works as a solvent and resuspends all the crud, causing major damage.

 

Hi,
I do have around 95000 miles on the truck. I bought it used around a year ago and it was a good looking truck - a lot of aftermarket things installed...
I used to do at least 70 miles a day... It gives around 40000 by now...
Like I told before the color is OK - light reddish and it's "transparent", you know...
I hope it was serviced at a dealership before they sold the truck to me...
Alex.

 

I changed the fluid in my '97 F-150 for the first time at 70,000 miles. Like yours, my fluid was still transparent red and didn't have a burnt smell. I had also driven my truck conservativly and only towed a small fishing boat a few times and never had a problem with shifting or the torque converter. I debated having the dealer flush or changing it myself and in the end thought that I'd be better off doing it myself and found that it was quite simple and didn't cause any problems.

It's only a theory of mine but I decided against flushing the system because I felt that with so many miles, the presure would push too much crud into the valves and small passages in the transmission and cause failure soon after.

To simplify fluid changes in the future, you may also look into either buying a new tranny pan with a drain plug or drilling a hole and installing one yourself. This makes changing the fluid just slightly more time consuming than changing the engine oil so you'll be more apt to change it when needed.

Another point to make is that the '97 came from the factory with regular Mercon, not Mercon V. Although you cannot substitute Mercon if a transmission requires Mercon V, your transmission will accept either. Ford has a TSB about Mercon V causing leaks in older tansmssions but this TSB does not include yours so you can use whichever you prefer.

I put regular Mercon in mine just because that's what the manual and dipstick stated.

 

AjRagno,
So do you just change the fluid in the pan, around 6 qtrs?
I think that if you do that quite ofter you should be able to "change" the entire 14 qtrs...
How ofther do you do the change? And you don't touch the filter, right?
What about compartibility... I don't know what brand I have in the tranny, can I use just anything?
Alex.

 

Alex,

I dropped the pan, changed the filter, and then drained the torque converter as well. I needed a very LARGE bucket.

I didn't bring up how to actaully do it because I had figured that you'd already found the posts about draining the torque converter.

I've only changed it once so far but I plan on changing to Redline Synthetic as well as adding the Transgo shift kit in the spring and adding the pan drain plug so I can change it every year. I changed the filter but you don't have to change it every time. Many owners never change the filter.

To get all the fluid out, you'll first need to drop the transmission Pan. You can also change the filter. Just pull down and it pops off. You''ll also see a collection of metalic gunk in one corner of the pan. That's the magnet. You need to pull the magnet out and whipe the metal shavings off.

The tranny gasket is reusable as well and will not leak unless you over-tighten it.

The torque coverter is actaully easier to drain than the transmssion. Line up the torque converter drain plug before you drain the transmission. To do this you'll need a breaker bar (just a long socket wrench) to rotate the crankshaft and line up the drain bolt.

The torque converter drain bolt is hidden behind a silver dollar sized, black plug on the bottom of the torque converter. After you pull off this little plug, you need to turn the crankshaft clockwise and watch for the drain bolt to show up at the bottom so you can access it.

After you remove the drain plug you should let the fluid drain for about an hour or so to because there is a lot in there.

The Haynes and Chilton's manuals help you through the transmsiion pan drop as well as refilling procedures but they don't explain draining the torque converter.

As far as fluid, I'm not a transmission guru so I can't tell you exactly what you need. I used Valvoline Dexron III/Mercon. I think I added about 13-14 qts but I'm not certain. You shouldn't have any compatibility issues because the '97 4R70W transmssion can use either Mercon or Mercon V.

 

AjRagno,
Thanks MUCH!
Actually I've already talked to some shops and they pretty much agreed that you should not flush a tranny if you don't know it's history. They did hear stories when a tranny started leaking or something after a flush. However some of them told that flush itself was not a reason for that. The tranny already had a problem but the flush "revealed" it.
Anyhow I am not that risky
I am going to drain converter and pan as you've described.
Again, thanks all - I've learned a lot,
Alex.