I recently purchased a 2005 screw xlt 5.4 4x4. When I bought it it had 2 owners with 111,000 miles roughly and it drove pretty well mechanically. I've gotten up to about 114,000 miles now and my tranmy is giving me a fit. My dad said he noticed some leaking for about a month now and I thought it was just air conditioning dripping but it's tranny fluid. I was going off i40 and my dash blinks tranny fault and I'm at 3300rpms at 10mph in first gear it finally shifts to second and does the same thing gets to third and fourth and drives fine. Dipstick showed when I pulled over it was low I put 2 quarts in and was running fine. Week later 3rd gear shifts to fourh and sounds like running over a rumble strip and torque converter locks really hard then fourth gear just revs and won't catch. I got on a slight hill in downtown and it wouldn't go into gear at all. I rolled down a one way street the wrong way in the slums and it wouldn't do nothin. Went to oreilly 2 miles down the road and threw 2 more quarts inside the tranmy it got about a mile down the road and it messed up again now it barely moves Enuf to get on the trailer it cools down and moves and heats up and stops. Sounds like the gear band broke and some clutches burnt up I put a edge Evo on it about 2k miles ago about 1000miles after I had it. It drove flawless before I bought the programmer. I got to get tranmy rebuilt I've accepte that issue but my question is could the programmer have caused this to happen? Or could it just have been the right time for it break? It's shifted really hard err since I put the programmer on there and drove a little rougher

 

Most tuners provide for firmer shifts, which are supposed to be better for an automatic transmission, as the clutches do not slip as much, which is what causes wear and heat. Keep in mind though that a transmission with high mileage might not like these firm shifts due to their already worn clutches.

I'd guess in your case the fact that it was leaking and was down 2 quarts did not help the transmission at all. Heat is the number one cause for automatic transmission failure, and being 2 quarts down did not help that; most likely aggravated the situation.

If the trans fluid was original (never changed/flushed), and the previous owner towed or worked the transmission by pulling trailers, then 111K is about the average for these truck transmissions. Some folks get much more, but that's because they are maintained, and/or towing is not done.

Do you know what, if anything was done as maintenance by the previous owners? Any records?

When the rebuild or replacement transmission is installed, add a transmission cooler if it doesn't already have one. That will help the new one outlast this first one. And replace the fluid every 30 to 50K, depending on how you use it.

 

edge evo kills tranny . i have 2005 also soon as put evo on truck had problems.tranny died after 2 months

 

Seeing as how the motor oil was completely black when I changed it as soon as I got the truck I doubt the tranny was ever maintained. The additives probably depleted which shrink he seals causing the leaks and the rest just was a result of that.

I was hopin no one would say that about killin it lol. My 2 buddies had one and they ran it on extreme 91 octane and ran 87ocyane in theirs and 30-50k miles later their trucks still run fine. It would be my luck tho. Was there anyway to prove the evo did it to maybe get them to pay for damages?

 

Good luck with that theory! Again, the big difference here is that your buddies installed tunners on what sounds like much lower mileage trucks than yours, and maybe theirs have had fluid changes done as good maintenance preventative measures. Since you did not mention it, I'm also assuming theirs do not leak fluid. Even if they did/do not, the mileage difference is why their transmissions are fine with the tunners, and yours is not.

Should you decide to attempt to call the manufacturer of the tuner, do not mention your transmission was/is leaking. They will not need to hear that when you are providing your case. Even if you don't mention it, you will get nowhere with them.

But you can try....

 

Well I'm gettin it rebuilt anyway only gonna cost $1300 bc we know em and I'm takin tranny out myself. So with it being rebuilt entirely do I need to go a certain amount of miles to let it break in before puttin my programmer back on there? I'm going to get it upgraded to a gryphon but same concept would still apply I'm assuming I've driven manuals my whole 3 yrs of driving I've had six vehicles already and my manuals haven't really given me any problem but they all had under 60k miles to

 

This is off topic but does your truck sound like a diesel and have a top end tick when warmed up like a lot of the 04 and 05's? Just wondering because the truck seems like it has been lacking in the maintenance department and there is a lot of speculation as to why these 3V engines are ticking and failing. Asking because you mentioned the oil being very black.

 

Yes it does sound like a diesel my dad has an 04 ext f150 110,000 miles and it makes similar noises but mine sounds far more like a low idle with ticking

 

But that is probably bc the owner before me didn't change it. The father owned then he gave it to his irresponsible 25+ yr old son who beat it to hell it sounds like

 

Don't tell me my engines fixing to blow on me too dubldury