Ford sealed tranny questions

[AUG]

I have a 2002 Ford Explorer V8 with the 5r55w transmission. Well, thanks to the never ending wonderfull ideas of our friends at fomoco in Detroit my vehicle has the "sealed for life" transmission.

Has anyone done a T-tech service to this vehicle?

How about just a common pan drop fluid change?

I really want to change the fluid (currently 49K miles) because I just can't make peace with a "sealed for life unit". Ford calls for the first service of the transmission at 150K miles. I guess sealed for life means 150K miles to Ford and I typically keep my vehicles until they die or I sell them to buy something new and this is usually around 300K miles.

This vehicle lives a pampered life and the only towing it has seen was a riding mower for about 15 miles.

Just looking for expierences and tips with this SPECIFIC trans.

Please keep in mind I am not seeking opinions on sealed transmissions as a whole. Just want to know about this specific trans and it's service options.

Thanks

 

[AUG]

This is odd. It seems I have found a topic that no one on BITOG cares about.

 

[Bio-T]

The board has been up/down the last 24 hours, so not many posters were on. The server had problems, and Joe rebuilt our board.

 

[Whimsey]

Aug, nobody ignored you. The site unfortunately has had some difficulties. Lord I missed Bob this morning

. My wife has a 2002 Explorer with a 4.0L and "sealed" 5 speed transmission. At 30,000 miles we had the dealer do a "fluid exchange" of the transmission. Even though it's a "no maintenance" item according to Ford. It cost $110 at the Ford dealer and it did make a difference in the shifting quality. It's just Mercon V fluid so there is no way it's going to last past 30,000 miles unless you are leasing the vehicle and turning it in @ 36,000 miles and don't care. At 60,000 miles I'll pay to have them drain the pan and put in a new ATF filter before they do the fluid exchange. It seems with these newer sealed transmissions you need to have a special machine that can measure and change the fluid properly. Unfortunately it's not like the older transmissions with dip sticks

. But for $110 every 30,000 miles it's cheaper than buying a new transmission at 80,000 miles.

Whimsey