First off its a 2012 F-150, 3.5L EcoBoost, auto, 4x4 SCREW, 188K miles

Driving home Saturday with cruise set at 70, outside temp was 102. Wrench pops up on screen, wife is driving. A little while later I look over and the trans temp is high, I scroll to it and its 240ish. We pull over in the next town and let it run in neutral and cool it down to 200. Take off again to drive the last 30 miles home and it gets back up to 235ish. Never slips, never acts up, runs and drives perfectly normal. I pull the code when I get home and its P0741 ( Torque Converter Clutch Circuit Performance/Stuck Off). I call a reputable tranny shop and he thinks the trans is slipping, causing the high temps and causing the code to throw. I don't know....Its never given so much as a hiccup otherwise....It had the lead frame replaced before I bought it, according to the previous owner, but I can't verify that 100%.

Anyone else had this issue? I see quite a few that get the code when I search the forums, but no one really says anything about high temps. I'm looking at a $4K rebuild if the tranny is shot, so I want to exhaust every effort to test and verify beforehand. I love this truck, and dumping it for another one is not an option at this time.

Thanks

 

Don't know if related, but when's the last time you've had the tranny serviced, fluid/filter change.

also, do you have the aux cooler in front of the radiator, will have with tow package.

 

Things to check...Were you towing anything substantial? *If so... Was tow/haul mode enabled?
.

 

And the wiring, make sure none of the wires are broken. That code points to the solenoid shorting (either wiring or it's dead). Not sure why a shop would jump to 'mechanical rebuild'. Maybe just giving you a worst-case scenario.

 

I crawled underneath and checked the fluid last night. When I pulled the cap off the fluid came basically shooting out, leading me to believe it was over full. I ended up drawing out about 1.5-2 quarts before it was right in between the A zone and the B zone on the dipstick. The fluid did look bad.....IDK....Is the solenoid inside the trans? Do I have to drop the valve body to get to it?

- I wasn't towing anything when it happened
- It has the max tow option, and the cooler on the front is clean.
- The guy I bought it from said the trans was serviced at 150K, I'm leaning towards that being complete BS at this point. But I didnt know about the dipstick on the side of the trans until now to check the fluid. Not having an actual dipstick in the engine compartment is quite possibly the stupidest idea ever...

 

One other thing I will point out...and this could be completely unrelated. When I'm going about 45ish mph and go to accelerate to highway speed I will get a strange noise from the passenger side of the engine. I've tried to research it ,and I believe it to be a wastegate noise of some sort, but I'm not certain. Its a howl kind of noise and if I lift off of the gas it goes away right away. I only mention this because on this particular 4 hour one way trip, that noise happened several times. Just throwing that out there and looking for answers. I love the truck and hope to be able to save some coin repairing stuff at home.

 

when you checked the fluid level, was the engine running and trans at operating temp. If not, it wasn't overfull, fluid IS high when vehicle not running.

1 1/2-2 qts is about the amount between engine running and not running.

 

I understand that, but how do you check the cold level then? If its so full when its cold, that its coming out of the hole when I take the cap off? Not being a smartass, I just don't understand transmissions at all. And maybe I shouldn't even be worried about a cold reading?

Now that its "low" should I let it get up to operating temp and then check it again? The placement of the dipstick makes it a pita to check when the exhaust is hot.

 

No matter how you check the level (hot or cold) the engine must be running. A cold check is just checking it say first thing in the morning with the engine on and not up to temp.

When the engine is running it sucks up about 2 quarts and then fluid won't be flowing out and you're checking it. Once the engine shuts off, fluid slowly starts to pool back into the pan.

 

You also have to have it running to put that oil back in. For reference, if you do a simple drain of the pan you'll get around 7 quarts out. When you put that back in, you can only do about half, then you need to start the engine to be able to finish filling it.

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