We're talking about a 70k mile truck that hasn't hauled anything but my butt and a box of air. I drive it instead of a car because I live in Houston and the freeways are outrageous.
Ford claims that the six speed trans in my truck has fluid that will last to 100k and beyond. Okaaaay... So let's take a look.
The dip stick which is located on the passenger side of the trans looks like this when pulled out.
You pull that crazy dipstick out and then use it to measure the trans fluid level.
A few pictures of the dipstick and fluid
The old fluid on a paper towel
I pulled 3 quarts out of the transmission and carefully measured it to make sure I put exactly the same amount in. Picture of old fluid in measuring cup.
I used my Griots Garage top side oil sucker to pull the fluid out of the trannie. I used the brake fluid attachment with a small plastic tube stuck in it to reach the bottom of the pan
Picture of the brake bleeding head and plastic tube in the trans and a sucking away..
I never finished pulling all the fluid out of the trans pan; strange animal Fords trannie; after pulling 3 quarts out of the thing the fluid level was right where it was when I first pulled the dipstick. At any rate, I only had 3 quarts of fluid so that's where I stopped the sucking operation. Time to load up the Motive power filler, which is really just a fancy bug sprayer with a pressure gauge.
Motive device all filled up and pressurized and ready to go...
The Motive power filler had neat curved tube which was ideal for filling the trans...
Because the fluid level was level with the hole where the dipstick went in I had to start the engine a begin filling while it sucked the fluid level down..
Half way there..
After putting all the fluid in I closed her up and took her out for a drive. While I pulled the fluid out of a cold trannie, the level has to be validated with the trans fully warmed up. The trans shops make a big deal out of this, but my truck has a trans temp key you can select and I simply drove the truck until it was at normal temperature (195F). When I got home I pulled the dipstick/cap assembly out and checked the level while running in park. I got lucky because the level was spot on according to the dipstick.
A few notes; as you can see the old 70k mile trans fluid held up really well, heck it smelled just like the new stuff I was putting in! It was barely discolored and seemed to up to the test of running to 100k. I use my trans temp setting quite a bit and I have seen trans temps all the way up to 203 and this fluid never flinched at the heat. Ford's Mercon LV is pretty stud duck in my book. I plan to change the filter at 80k (when it cools off here in Houston and from there on swap out 3 quarts of trans fluid every oil change (which is 4k miles).
I hope the pictures all make because I'm new at this posting pictures and have been known to screw up a time or two...
Cheers all!
Ford claims that the six speed trans in my truck has fluid that will last to 100k and beyond. Okaaaay... So let's take a look.
The dip stick which is located on the passenger side of the trans looks like this when pulled out.
You pull that crazy dipstick out and then use it to measure the trans fluid level.
A few pictures of the dipstick and fluid
The old fluid on a paper towel
I pulled 3 quarts out of the transmission and carefully measured it to make sure I put exactly the same amount in. Picture of old fluid in measuring cup.
I used my Griots Garage top side oil sucker to pull the fluid out of the trannie. I used the brake fluid attachment with a small plastic tube stuck in it to reach the bottom of the pan
Picture of the brake bleeding head and plastic tube in the trans and a sucking away..
I never finished pulling all the fluid out of the trans pan; strange animal Fords trannie; after pulling 3 quarts out of the thing the fluid level was right where it was when I first pulled the dipstick. At any rate, I only had 3 quarts of fluid so that's where I stopped the sucking operation. Time to load up the Motive power filler, which is really just a fancy bug sprayer with a pressure gauge.
Motive device all filled up and pressurized and ready to go...
The Motive power filler had neat curved tube which was ideal for filling the trans...
Because the fluid level was level with the hole where the dipstick went in I had to start the engine a begin filling while it sucked the fluid level down..
Half way there..
After putting all the fluid in I closed her up and took her out for a drive. While I pulled the fluid out of a cold trannie, the level has to be validated with the trans fully warmed up. The trans shops make a big deal out of this, but my truck has a trans temp key you can select and I simply drove the truck until it was at normal temperature (195F). When I got home I pulled the dipstick/cap assembly out and checked the level while running in park. I got lucky because the level was spot on according to the dipstick.
A few notes; as you can see the old 70k mile trans fluid held up really well, heck it smelled just like the new stuff I was putting in! It was barely discolored and seemed to up to the test of running to 100k. I use my trans temp setting quite a bit and I have seen trans temps all the way up to 203 and this fluid never flinched at the heat. Ford's Mercon LV is pretty stud duck in my book. I plan to change the filter at 80k (when it cools off here in Houston and from there on swap out 3 quarts of trans fluid every oil change (which is 4k miles).
I hope the pictures all make because I'm new at this posting pictures and have been known to screw up a time or two...
Cheers all!