Trans oil change

[John S]

Engineers fought for dip sticks, drain plugs, vents that don't ingest water, and anything but plastic oil pans on all the 10R family of transmissions. (The CDF sleeve walking risk was also a recognized design flaw relying on only press-fit tolerances for retention because Management wouldn't pay for positive/mechanical locking provisions.) Many fleet customers do their own routine maintenance, including transmission oil/filter replacements, and they demanded drain plugs and dip sticks but Dearborn (the Finance weenies) still interfered. sometimes, the more you know about the inner workings of the auto industry, the more you don't want to know. It's the culture of penny pinching that comes right from the top, starting with Billy Ford, going along with the greed driven Wall Street investors setting the tone for the company (no different than any publicly traded company.) Dearborn interfered with so many technical decisions, don't blame Engineering for poor design/quality decisions and all the countless recalls infecting Ford, Engineers know better. It's challenging to set the correct ATF level with the hot catalytic converter getting in the way and many dealership technicians aren't getting paid enough to spend the time to dial it in at operating temperature. The factory-fill oil level was low on my son's 10R80 and we ended up installing a PPE aluminum oil pan, fresh oil filter, and fresh oil the initial sediment from break-in was collected by the original filter and magnet. For peace of mind, I'd change out the oil and filter every 50K miles or whenever the oil gets hot enough (250+ degrees F ) to turn brown and burn off the oil's additive pack after extended tracking or trailer towing. Transmission oil coolers are your friend if you plan on towing or racing.

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[robvas]

Fords 150k mile change interval on transmission fluid is insane.

But people will go right along with their oil change recommendations...

 

[Justpassingas]

I was recently at the dealer for an oil change and inquired about getting the transmission serviced. They quoted me $695 to drop the pan and change the fluid, filter and gasket @ 2 hours labor and $300 to flush. Theres a performance shop not far from me that does my alignments, so I'll get a quote from too.

 

[John S]

They quoted me $695 to drop the pan and change the fluid, filter and gasket @ 2 hours labor and $300 to flush.

Ridiculous! It's quick and simple to drop the pan and install a new filter, especially if you have access to a lift instead of lying on your back and spilling oil on yourself. The gasket is a controlled compression design that's reusable so they've baked in a ton of profit plus the flush is outrageous since most of the fluid is already drained and has to be replaced, anyway. (The residual oil in the torque converter and cooler circuit is fine if this is just a routing maintenance oil/filter change.) The biggest challenges for doing it yourself is not making a mess draining the oil from the loosened pan and getting the car level and accessing the fill port to tweak the proper level at operating temperature. If you're not equipped or comfortable doing it yourself, find an independent shop that won't rip you off, maybe even purchase your own authentic Ford/Motorcraft filter and eight quarts of Mercon ULV (stick with OEM branding) and pay a fair price for them to do the labor?
https://ford.oempartsonline.com/oem...duct/automatic-transmission-fluid-p4000076489

 

[John S]

Another attempt at attaching the oil and filter links for estimated pricing:

https://www.ford.com/product/automatic-transmission-fluid-p4000076489

https://ford.oempartsonline.com/oem...MIsbbqt5aZlAMVNEr_AR2u8h6OEAQYAiABEgLw9fD_BwE

 

[Keeffa]

I reckon if you pump the fluid out before dropping the pan it shouldn't be to messy even. I've reused the rubber gasket a couple of times with no problem, has anyone else done that.

 

[G.T.]

It's been mentioned a number of times around here the gasket is reusable and has been reused with no problem.

I saw that too late though and put in a new gasket when I had my own fluid changed.

Ford Tech Makuloco has a video on Youtube that has some nice tips on how to minimize the mess while doing the change on a 6R80.

 

[Jccams]

If anyone knows of a place in SE Michigan that knows how to do the 10R80 properly please let me know.

 

[John S]

Bill Brown Ford is the largest Ford dealer in Michigan and they would coordinate with Ford Livonia Engineering in getting early transmission failures diagnosed and returned to Ford Engineering for analysis; But that was in the days when Ford was actually launching new transmissions and Ford Livonia was a fully staffed transmission engineering facility. I don't know if they are like most dealers charging outrageous rates plus they've been bought out by Penske so that's the only dealer I would even consider based on past Ford Engineering experiences. For affordable independent shops, sorry I can't offer any direction. (I'm fortunate to have a lift and I do my own mods and repairs.) I would go to one of the local Auto-Cross events and survey the racers to see where they trust their vehicles for proper repairs?

 

[Jccams]

Bill Brown Ford is the largest Ford dealer in Michigan and they would coordinate with Ford Livonia Engineering in getting early transmission failures diagnosed and returned to Ford Engineering for analysis; But that was in the days when Ford was actually launching new transmissions and Ford Livonia was a fully staffed transmission engineering facility. I don't know if they are like most dealers charging outrageous rates plus they've been bought out by Penske so that's the only dealer I would even consider based on past Ford Engineering experiences. For affordable independent shops, sorry I can't offer any direction. (I'm fortunate to have a lift and I do my own mods and repairs.) I would go to one of the local Auto-Cross events and survey the racers to see where they trust their vehicles for proper repairs?

Thanks John. A lift would be awesome. I do my own maintenance also but draw the line at laying on my back under a car trying to not burn myself getting the fluid level right. I have heard Oval Auto in Plymouth is good, I plan on driving over there and checking them out. Thanks for the tip on Bill Brown, did not know they were involved with Ford engineering. BTW...I'm in Hamburg, North of Dexter.

-Jeff

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