When is a good time to change the transmission fluid?? I have 41000 miles now.. thanks in advance

 

your gonna get quite a few different opinions.... firstly id check the owners manual.. secondly id do it now... not that it is to late but not a bad time either.. the biggest problem with tranny fluid is people wait till 80K plus and then think they are doing something good by changing it... well I have seen vehicles over 100K get the tranny fluid changed and tranny go out...

Personally id replace it, the rear end lube with either royal purple or amsoil products.

You have to understand that this is just my opinion and it doesnt make it right or wrong.... just different.

 

Suggest to change it now.

 

instructions need to know what suprises there are when open it up.

i heard there is a plug and i heard there is no plug in the torque converter.

are there any opinions on
http://www.troyerperformance.com/cgi...P%20-%204R70VB

it looks cool if it works

 

What year is your truck? I think it was around 2001 when Ford did away with the plug in the TC.

I would have it flushed, drop the pan and change the filter.

I am thinking about getting that same shift kit from them too. I am going down and see them sometime soon to get my tunes check. I was thinking about getting this shift kit while I'm there.

 

The local dealer here chages $ 139 for what he calls a transmission
service and flush. As I understand it, they do not drop the pan so
whatever service they do is a bit of a mystery to me.

My truck is a 1997 F - 150 with the Type AODE transmission.

The pan is held in place with 14 bolts, 10 mm head. I bought a
large aluminum pan used for roasting Turkeys at the Dollar store.

They have two style Turkey pans, oval and square. The square was the biggest so that is what I used.

I loosened most of the screws a bit using an electric screwdriver
then went around and removed them as described in Chilton's manual.

The truck was parked on grass and well blocked. I put down cardboard and a lot of newpaper to catch any drippage. Once the
pan was loose, I cleaned it with rags and Kerosene then replaced the
transmission filter. Get a lots of dry rags for cleanup. Make sure you
buy a long funnel for replacing the fluid.

It took six quarts of Mecon to refill the transmission.

Total cost was about $ 32.00 for parts and fluid from O'Reilly's Auto Parts. Probably two hours of work, including cleanup.

I did not see any plug on the Torque converter.

My total savings was about $ 100 for two hours work.

Just take your time and make sure you keep everything clean
and have all the supplies on hand prior to starting to do this job.

Please let us know how it comes out. My only problem was figuring out how to get the filter out of the valve body but once you look at the new one and compare it to the one installed, it is pretty obvious.

Enjoy.

Ken H.

 

If you didn't, you need to spin the torque converter to find it.

Here is a thread I posted when I did mine https://www.f150forum.com/f72/servicing-your-transmission-pan-filter-4r70e-4r75e-2004-2008-5-4l-3v-3304/

You might have saved 100$ but dropping the pan doesn't even change half the fluid that it holds. I would still get it flushed at some point.

 

You might have saved 100$ but dropping the pan
doesn't even change half the fluid that it holds.
I would still get it flushed at some point.

Why is it necessary to replace transmission fluid that appears to be
in good condition ? The transmission fluid was not discolored nor was there any excessive amount of crud in the bottom of the pan. The old
filter was very clean even though the truck has 62,000 miles on it.

I have a problem with changing something out if it is not needed.

Certainly the dealer service would not have changed the fluid.

Ken H.

 

You don't want to wait until it's bad before you change it. My service contract I had on my truck through Ford included a flush at 30K. Most will agree that it should be flushed every 2 years or 30K miles. I did both a flush and filter change on mine at 30K.

BTW, the filter isn't really much of a filter. It's nothing more than a screen.

 

So, this is my first post but I figured I'd jump right in. It seems that the general consensus is that if the ATF hasn't been changed for quite a while it's better to just let it be. This is of interest to me as I just bought a '94 with 170k and I've been thinking about changing out the ATF just as a part of the list of maintenance items I'm trying to get done. If I'm not supposed to change out the ATF then what am I waiting for, the transmission to just die?