How to avoid tranny problems

[Wess]

As a recent addition to the SHO community, I've grown increasingly concerned about tranny problems. I've talked to a lot of regular Taurus owners who've had problems, and it seems to be the same in the SHO community.

I'm wondering if anybody has gotten through their years of SHO ownership without a transmission blowing up. If so, what is the secret of success?

 

[ArkanSHO]

Park it or putt less then 1.000 miles a year on it.
Seriously, try to minimize the length of time spent in the triple digits and flush yearly would be my advice, but that by far is no garantee it will last any longer. I know an old lady here that lost her's in two years time with less then 30,000, dealer serviced by the book and she never got it to 60.

 

[AutoSHO]

Well, my gen II had 115K on it when I sold it. Changed the fluid once after a cooler line blew off and ran the tranny dry. Never rebuilt, never take special care of, tranny filter changed once at about 100K. Guess I was lucky! Owned since new, and driven by my mom (read: never beaten on) for most of its life.

 

[olympic]

25-30K mile flushes/filter changes and a big tranny cooler are the best care you can give you're tranny. They're usually destroyed by heat or dirt so by doing those things, you eliminate the most common causes.

 

[Ian Macoomb]

My car has got about 81k miles on it now with the original tranny (I think). The valve body didn't however last that long. It went south at the convention and I got it fixed at FPS pretty cheaply. I had a scare a couple of months ago, I lost OD, had hard shifting, etc, but it went away after I changed the battery. Since then it's been fine (knock on wood).

I've had the car for 34k miles and I've driven it hard! I've changed the tranny fluid 3 times in the past year and each time the fluid was fine.

I'm not convinced that abuse or bad fluid is responsible for all the tranny fluids. I have a hunch that it might just be badly designed parts wearing out (not abuse related). I think that the tranny seems to shift better when you're being ******* it. Maybe that's why mine isn't dead yet.

 

[stephen newberg]

I am at 92 K without any problems. I drive ******* the back roads, and very fast, but I do not stoplight race much at all. I suspect that doing a lot of quarter miles is pretty ******* the xmission. This machine was not designed to be a drag winner.

pax, smn

 

[91 Plus]

Sell it....