Changing MTX fluid

[Camarok]

Is there any way shape or form of hurting/damaging my MTX by changing the fluid?
My luck is that if i try to help my car it breaks. For instance, i syphoned out some power steering fluid out of my resivor to put clean new fluid it, because the fluid in there was slime. SO i did that and now i have no power steering. headbang My guess is that it is too viscous for the old seals on the pump, and now i need a new pump. I took it in and ford says i need a new pump.

But anyway, any real special precautions i should take. I really don't want to lose a trans if i don't have to. lol

 

[Shoaz]

Camarok:
Is there any way shape or form of hurting/damaging my MTX by changing the fluid?
My luck is that if i try to help my car it breaks. For instance, i syphoned out some power steering fluid out of my resivor to put clean new fluid it, because the fluid in there was slime. SO i did that and now i have no power steering. headbang My guess is that it is too viscous for the old seals on the pump, and now i need a new pump. I took it in and ford says i need a new pump.

But anyway, any real special precautions i should take. I really don't want to lose a trans if i don't have to. lol

Well, there's always a way to screw something up. There are some jobs that I would have thought were difficult to screw up, but some of the more creative folks here have found ways to hose up some pretty trivial jobs, so we know that it is possible. wink

That being said, freshening up the fluid shouldn't hurt anything. Your power steering pump was probably on its way out anyway, and adding fresh fluid shouldn't contribute to the failure of a healthy pump.

I'd add two things:

1) For an MTX driven normally (or even a bit hard), there isn't much going on to wear out the fluid. The MTX is a sealed system, so there's no way for dirt to get in unless you have failing seals or a crack somewhere, or somebody else pulled the plug to change fluid and let a bunch of dirt in. In other words, think about not changing it unless you have a reason to believe that it really needs to be changed.

2) The only real risk to changing the fluid in the MTX is that you're creating an opportunity for dirt to get in if you're not careful. You need to suck the existing fluid out (or install a drain plug), and pump fresh fluid in. If the extracting or filling pumps are dirty, you may be hurting more than helping.

 

[Camarok]

cool, thanks, i'll think about not changing it

 

[yamahaSHO]

195k.... I would change it. You will find your fluid to be VERY dirty. Mine was very dirty at 59k. While you are at it, you could put in a drain plug. This will make it much easier and you can experiment with different fluids easily.

 

[HopefulSHO]

The fluid in my tranny @ 150k (and who knows if it was still the same or not), was a nice dark grey/brown ooze. It looked more like the oil that came out of my old 2.2 Sundance after it blew a headgasket.
At 195 I would definatly change, but that's just me.

 

[drivinhard]

I would change it every 4th oil change, or at least once a year. Takes 5 mins and costs 6 bucks.

Install a drain plug, makes life easy.

 

[WaterRooster]

Can you explain the procedure and the amount of fluid it takes....Also how to do the drain plug ??

I have hard shifts and no 4th gear...so I am hoping to get some of those back with a fluid change

 

[olympic]

It holds three quarts and drain plug instructions are on www.shotimes.com Basically you drill a hole, tap threads into it and then screw in a brass plug. If your nervous about that procedure, get a chunk of aluminum and practice drilling and tapping until you get a feel for it. This can also help verify that you are using the correct drill bit,thread tap and plug.