F150 Transmission Fluid change

#1

I have an '06 F150 that I bought off of a chick ~7 months ago. It had 107k miles on it when I bought it and since it was owned by a chick she was vague about any maintenance that had been done on it. After towing it to events all year, I figure that it was time to have some decent maint done.

I’d changed the oil already, but not the tranny, diff, nor brake fluids. Belt, filters, plugs, and plug wires all needed to be changed.

Surprise #1. 14qts of tranny fluid is needed @ $6 ea.

Surprise #2. Ford 5.4l V8 spark plugs are problematic to remove. They tend to break and the shop needs a special tool and some experience dealing with this. Expect more labor hours then you’d figured.

Surprise #3. Total cost for all parts and labor was ~$1100. Which is about $900 more then I’d figured on for what was really just a whim. Xmission fluid was ~$90, Diff fluid ~$35 $300 of labor for removing the plugs…it just kept adding up.

Surprise #4, my tranny temp is now running 40deg cooler. Now that was a helova surprise.

#2

Wow, thanks for the heads up! I was just getting in the mood to do some maintenance on my '04 F150 and had never heard about the plug problem. A quick internet search now has me scared to death!

#3

you can fix the plug issue yourself.

Check out timesert.com

#4

What do you make of the tranny running so much cooler? That kinda spooks me. I don’t know a damned thing about automatic transmissions.

#5

Ranger wrote:

It’s November.

#6

Steve D wrote:

[quote]Ranger wrote:

It’s November.[/quote]
I don’t think that’s what was going on. My tranny temp has been about 10deg cooler than my oil temp all year. Sure the oil temp varies a bit with the ambient temp, but that 10deg delta held true. But this past weekend the tranny temp was all the sudden 50deg cooler than the oil temp.

One of the things I’ve learned from my oil cooling adventures is that because oil has lousy heat exchange properties it takes a helova oil cooler to get much cooling. I would have to suddenly bolt on a tranny cooler on the order of 315 sq. in. to get 40deg of cooling. That’s half the size of the E30 radiator. 40deg of oil (tranny fluid) is a lot of cooling.

#7

I am guessing they changed the Transfilter as well, if your old one was really clogged could lead to poor circulation???

Just a guess I know nothing about auto trans, They are just metal cases filled with magic and fluid.

#8

Ranger wrote:

[quote]I don’t think that’s what was going on. My tranny temp has been about 10deg cooler than my oil temp all year. Sure the oil temp varies a bit with the ambient temp, but that 10deg delta held true. But this past weekend the tranny temp was all the sudden 50deg cooler than the oil temp.
[/quote]

your transmission has probably been fine all along, what concerns me is that your oil temps have gone up and will probably lead to motor failure if you don’t take immediate and drastic action. i suggest plumbing in the largest oil cooler you can find, along with a secondary thermostat and a few more temp sensors just to be sure. plus an auxiliary dry sump is cheap insurance, and a remote oil filter setup will make your life easier in the long run.

#9

dealer labor is stupid expensive you should have known. trucks are easier to work on than an e30 you don’t even have to use your lift. I’m going to see if the toyota truck maintenance plan of complete neglect will work on my dodge.

#10

turbo329is wrote:

Lets you and I make a bargain. I won’t treat you like an idiot if you commit to the same.

I’ve no desire to screw with spark plugs that tend to break in half. They soaked them for 2days in penetrating oil and still broke 4 of them and had to use their tool to get them out. I’d be just screwed if a piece of plug ended up in a combustion chamber. I’m ok with 3 1/2hrs of labor for that effort. It’d taken me 2 days.

Apparently to change the tranny fluid you get under the tranny and remove a steel plate the size of a dinner plate. Then 14qts of fluid drops in your face. I’m not putting the truck up on jackstands and getting under it, and removing that plate with 14qts right on top sounds unpleasant too.

Those were the major tasks. I figured if they were going to do those, they could to the brakes and diff too.

And of course it wasn’t a dealer. I bought the stuff at the parts store that sponsors me with a discount and the shop that did the work is the indy that sponsors me with free tire work. The same indy I have a 15yr relationship with.

#11

jtower wrote:

I’m actually surprised that an F150 has a tranny temp gauge that actually reads out in temperature instead of just hot and cold. I believe that the OEM sensor might not be accurate enough and that a second one tapped into the tranny drain pan should probably be added along with some kind of datalogging to verify that his tranny temps are that high before adding the additional oil plumbing.

#12

King Tut wrote:

http://www.edgeproducts.com/product.php?pk=90&pvk=277&pname=Ford+Gas+New+Evolution&pvname=2004-2008+F-150+Evolution+Programmer

I got this because I wanted to monitor oil and tranny temp, and I wanted to be able to program the tranny to use more abrupt shifts when towing. Soft shifts when towing are hard on automatic transmission.

#13

Okay that makes me feel better. I didn’t think an F150 would have an accurate OEM gauge. I figured you had actually already added an aftermarket tranny temp gauge to your truck. I haven’t looked at programmers for my Tundra yet, but I will check them out now.