[stone]

The " oil cooker " strikes again. I have calmed down by now. Must admit are feeling a bit dissapointed. Recently cooked my automatic gearbox oil. Anyway dilemma has been rectified. The service technician dumped the gearbox oil and pumped in some new oil.

:worry: Must confess that it is my fault. Big Chris has indicated that our ford SUVS are only designed and engineered for mild offroad use. Admittedly my offroad exploring must have been excessive, so accordingly the oil virtually cooked and stressed out the tranny. It all began on one of those signposted ' Dry weather road only' tracks out in the " Barossa valley" wine region. The overdrive light symbol on dash began flashing. :worry: Oh! no . What's the problem this time?

I knew by instinct it was related to the gearbox. So for about six kilometres the ' Overdrive' warning light flashed and then it stayed off. Travelled into adelaide so that i could use a pressure washer. Washed the excess red, black and clay soil off. When driving home the cruise control was set to 100kmh on the freeway. The whole car from front through to rear end immediately began shuddering. Basically it had a very severe shake. :censor: :cuss: :wall: :rant:

In my owners handbook, there is a reference that if the overdrive light blinks there is possibly a transmission problem. The mechanic ( service tech) read the ecu with a lappy to see what code was presented. Yes there was a gearbox problem as in the oil became cooked. Totally perished in quality. So now i have new tranny oil. The escape seems to perform quite competently at the moment.

Feeling a bit disgruntled that an issue occurred on a new car. My softroader only has about 74,000 kms clocked up. By the same token it would have been self induced, because the mudding was a bit hard core. The mechanics have even advised that it was only designed for mild exploring.

Yes! it was quite frightening feeling the whole car shaking from back to front. My offroad safari adventures have been discontinued. :shrug:

 

[arbs]

bummer. changing the tranny oil is on my things to do list! (as recommended by Chris btw!) is it apparent from the colour/smell when things go bad? i must admit i've no idea even where to start - its my fiirst auto car - is there some kind of sump plug like with the engine oil?

 

[jonas1022]

bummer. changing the tranny oil is on my things to do list! (as recommended by Chris btw!) is it apparent from the colour/smell when things go bad? i must admit i've no idea even where to start - its my fiirst auto car - is there some kind of sump plug like with the engine oil?

Not that I am aware of, it has a pan that is easily removed and drained. Inspect the fluid and other contents of the pan for "foriegn" matter. I suppose that means something that looks like it doesn't belong... :doh:

 

[Squishy]

They do have a drain plug which takes a 3/8" drive extension (no socket, just the square). The only pan that I am aware of is vertical and allows access to the valve body - not part of routine maintenance. There is no replaceable filter.

 

[arbs]

great - will have a looksee

 

[Squishy]

We have a How-To with pictures: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=328

 

[Blood Junkie]

bummer. changing the tranny oil is on my things to do list! (as recommended by Chris btw!) is it apparent from the colour/smell when things go bad? i must admit i've no idea even where to start - its my fiirst auto car - is there some kind of sump plug like with the engine oil?

DO NOT rely on the colour of tranny fluid on the dipstick. It will look light red regardless of the state of the fluid. Also, stick with Mercon/Dexron 3 fluid. I bought 4 x 5 litres off eBay a few years ago, I've done 4 dump 'n' fills, and still have about 6/7 litres left.

Yes there is a drain plug. You shouldn't need to jack the car up, but I've driven the front wheels up onto a couple of bricks to give me a bit more clearance.

As stated above. The drain plug takes a 3/8" extension bar (No actual sockets are needed). Get a big bucket or something similar. Remove the plug and the fluid will come pouring out. (It'll probably be a dark wine red colour. If it's brown, you've cooked the fluid. Be careful if you've only just driven the car. It'll be very hot! :yes: )

You'll probably get around 3 - 3 1/2 litres or so out of it. This will vary depending on whether you're on level ground, or if the front of the car is pointing up or downhill.(take an acurate measurement, so you know exactly how much to stick back in. Parking facing uphill seems to get more of the old fluid out in my experience)

The plug is magnetic to catch any microscopic bits of metal that may be floating aroung the trans. Clean off the plug. Re-install, just don't over tighten it (I don't use a torque wrench, I go by feel. I also use a couple of turns of PTFE tape on the plug thread.)

Stick a funnel in the fluid tranny dipstick hole and re-fill the same amount drained out with fresh fluid. (You'll realise just how dark the old stuff is when you see the new stuff. The new stuff is the same colour as cherry-ade)

Check for leaks.

Take for a drive.

Check for leaks.

The fluid level should be checked with the engine running and fluid up to operating temperature, on level ground.

I only ever really use the Maverick to carry my drum-kit about. It's not super heavy, but it's not light. So I do a dump 'n' fill (that's the short name for the above process) every 5,000 miles. If you drive with no passengers, and do a lot of motorway miles, you'll probably be fine with 10,000 mile intervals. If you go off-roading a lot, you might wanna do it even more regular than 5,000 miles.

Personally, for the relative ease in inexpense of changing the tranny fluid, against the cost of a new trans, I don't see why a 10,000 mile change shouldn't be mandatory.

 

[arbs]

great post chris - cheers!

 

[camusdarrach]

Ok, forgive my stupidity here, but does the same apply for a 2.0 manual box? :shrug:
Just wondering, as the stories about the transmissions really scare me at times :shock: