Ford 10R80 - TSB - Help

[BrendanC]

My 2005 4.8 4L60E even does this. It's annoying but whatever it takes to keep it from dying I guess.

you don’t want to tune it out on a 60e either. i have it removed from my 80E but its built from the bottom to the top. i still occasionally flip on tow haul when its bumper to bumper traffic to keep it from eating the 1-2 shift over and over again.

 

[350Rocket]

you don’t want to tune it out on a 60e either. i have it removed from my 80E but its built from the bottom to the top. i still occasionally flip on tow haul when its bumper to bumper traffic to keep it from eating the 1-2 shift over and over again.

Agreed and yeah I do that too, or sometimes put it in 2nd for driving over a bunch of speed bumps, to keep it from shifting needlessly.

 

[meep]

Right, you said that before and I trust your experience, but there’s got to be some other variables going on. Just wondering, when (if ever) was your trans software updated? I took mine in May ‘22 for the occasional clunky downshift and of course the dealer claimed they couldn’t duplicate my issue, and would not do the update, even though I would have paid for it.

(Side note, it’s also the dealer that drained my 800-mile old Ravenol DXG and did an oil change I didn’t ask for; when I complained the service manager said he would “comp” the oil change since it was their fault. I later realized that JA had simply charged it to the points on my RewardsPass account. Karma did her job though; about 4 months later that dealer lost their Ford franchise, and went out of business last month.)

Back to the story… I’ll have to call Dave and see if their 10R80s are on the latest software, or if any of them have had the CDF drum replaced at any point. I’m wondering if your negative issues can be isolated to a single variable: is it that the fluid is “too thick”; is it a limitation of a certain software version (or age of software); could it be tied to a given CDF drum revision; or is it because there’s already some wear or misalignment in your CDF sleeve that is “helped” by the thinner fluid flowing thru the partially-misaligned sleeve? And I’m speaking in general 10R80 terms, not just yours. Like, if someone had a brand new 10R80 with the newest drum revision and newest software, would the thicker fluid be able to be adapted to?

The biggest problem IMO is that Ford still hasn’t figured this out, it’s such an expensive issue to fix if not under warranty, and it’s not really easy to verify if any of these intermediate steps actually “fixes” the issue. We’re all kinda just waiting for a failure to occur.

All excellent points, truly.

was my trans updated? The dealer claims to have done a firmware update when I brought it in. The main difference is it let the engine rev higher, especially when cold. I didn’t particularly care for this update, as one of the sweet things I like about the 2.7 is it runs really well at low rpms. thankfully, it seemed to not affect warm operation much.

about the only detail I think I can add to your questions and my theory on the viscosity is this - three other times in three other vehicles I have experimented with alternate fluids, or corrected a previous owner’s mistake, or changed viscosity with a fix in a bottle to coax something a little longer. The change in shift timing - in how a thicker fluid affects the timing and feel, has been reasonably consistent throughout all of them, so I’m “ya know, reasonably comfortable” in putting this fourth experience in the same bucket, but by no means beyond correction. Oh, add one more, when I switched a high mike AW4 from dexron III to dexron VI. With 240k miles I was slightly afraid it would blow up. Rather, it drove even better and the shifting was quicker, less “felt,” and more seamless, a pleasant surprise (and it didn’t blow up).

reading all this, I may have saved my own bacon with the early fluid changes I did. Caught early, it’s at 65k and at the moment at least drives very well. I am reasonably convinced that a 1 part LV to 3 parts ULV is tolerable in the unit, and will get the fluids on hand to save for a nice day to do it. HOWEVER, note in my case the viscosity did NOT help the actual problem, not a single bit - the lubeguard additive was the key. All this viscosity thinking is more to protect the bushing surfaces.

i should add - this unit saw interstate towing during all of this time, but less so more recently. Certainly it made several out of state trips pulling a travel trailer before the problem appeared.