How to make ptu reliable and water pump problems:( and more ptu questions sorry it's a lot I have so many wonders about this car still

[FordTauruspllu evebodyrun]

Hi guys I daily a ford Taurus sho 2015 but I'm looking at making this thing a very reliable daily with some performance or aftermarket upgrades that changes were ford messed up I know from basic knowledge ford has had many ptu problems especially with the sho so if anyone knows how I could fix these and what are the best things to do I seen a post were a guy was talking about a heat gauge on the ptu was thinking this may be a good place to start because I know I lot of the problems are due to the ptu getting hot any tips help I am 17 tho just recently have started really working on cars my dad inherited a 63 VW bug and we have been restoring that and I have been doing all the maintenance on my car myself and some mods myself obviously with help from my dad were needed also my water pump is going out or at least we think there is a very small leak under the ac compressor wouldn't of seen it if I didn't have to do an oil change(also I know you should check if the oil is Milky it was not) had some people look at it and they think it's also the water pump going out so I am only driving when necessary also when I increase rpms sometimes I hear a whining noise thought at first it may be the ptu ofc but I believe it's the water pump now discovering the leak I should be able to get it in the shop within a week or two it is such a small leak I keep checking my coolant levels and they really don't change much at all I'm just telling you guys this to think if I should stop driving it immediately or if you think the whining could be the ptu I don't smelling burning or anything when I got it to wine this is why I don't think the ptu needs replaced and I bought the car at 95k and it's now sitting at 105k and had its ptu replaced at 80k I believe or 90k can't remember either way once it gets above 50 here In nw Ohio I will be giving it a good flush of the fluids so if anyone has any suggestions for that to that would be great

 

[SM105K]

SM105K's SHO BIBLE/BUILDS/LIFE

First things first. Thank you @SHOdded for helping me with the information below. His knowledge and experience with this platform is immense. What to expect: Post one: General knowledge of the SHO and what to expect. Post two: The Story of M, my SHO. I posted all of my mods, current mods...

shoforum.com

Start there.

 

[Jake0811]

Unfortunately these PTU's for these cars do fail for a few different reasons. 1st is heat. I can't stress that enough that due to its location it gets heat soak from the exhaust/catalytic converters because its tucked up under the car. 2nd off is abuse. Hot rodding it constantly without letting it cool down will definitely shorten the life of it. Also changing the fluid inside it will help prolong it. There is no drain plug for it. You can only fill it but you will have to use a suction bottle to extract the fluid from it. It's doable but the area is also tight. Ford has the performance package of the SHO that included a PTU cooler to help alleviate any heat build up but the SHOs that arent the PP usually are susceptible to failures. Now the smell you will notice is an additive they use that emits a sulfuric smell of rotten eggs. That's an anti wear additive. The water pumps on these cyclone engines are also prone to failure as they are an expensive maintenance item that has to be done around the 90k-100k mile mark. I had mine replaced at 127k as i noticed the leak very early. I replaced the timing chain with the updated one. Had it done in December. Any ford dealer will charge about $3k for a water pump & timing chain job. A shop will quote about 13hrs labor. I got it done on mine in roughly 11hrs. It's a big job but it can be done. Internal water pumps are a dumb design but if you caught the leak early stop driving it immediately if you can. You'll risk more damage as the coolant can enter the crank case and mix with the oil IF you continue to drive it. Best of luck to you. I hope i was able to help!

 

[Chemdawg82]

I just had the water pump and timing chain done at like 142,000. It was a $3,600 job. Like 14 hours of Labor........

 

[Austin2013SHO]

Water pumps not a bad job time consuming but pretty easy, let me know I did it prob 3 months back and have ample video of it and photos. The noise you hear, is it coming from driver side floor board area starts at about 34-40 mph and carries on the faster u go the louder it gets? From my experience it is 1 of 2 things. Your rear drive shaft is going bad and having crazy resistance on the PTU ****** to turn it and the extra stress begins to wear out the output bearing. Or the internals of PTU are shot, drain fluid and check for greyish paste or greyish oil when drained. Some metal is ok but big chuck or solid grey color or burnt smell are all signs. This just happened to me recently and I couldn’t figure it out so I kept driving 3 months with the whine until one night I had enough and full sent it off the line. Photos are end result.

 

[SpinalCoarse]

Hi guys I daily a ford Taurus sho 2015 but I'm looking at making this thing a very reliable daily with some performance or aftermarket upgrades that changes were ford messed up I know from basic knowledge ford has had many ptu problems especially with the sho so if anyone knows how I could fix these and what are the best things to do I seen a post were a guy was talking about a heat gauge on the ptu was thinking this may be a good place to start because I know I lot of the problems are due to the ptu getting hot any tips help I am 17 tho just recently have started really working on cars my dad inherited a 63 VW bug and we have been restoring that and I have been doing all the maintenance on my car myself and some mods myself obviously with help from my dad were needed also my water pump is going out or at least we think there is a very small leak under the ac compressor wouldn't of seen it if I didn't have to do an oil change(also I know you should check if the oil is Milky it was not) had some people look at it and they think it's also the water pump going out so I am only driving when necessary also when I increase rpms sometimes I hear a whining noise thought at first it may be the ptu ofc but I believe it's the water pump now discovering the leak I should be able to get it in the shop within a week or two it is such a small leak I keep checking my coolant levels and they really don't change much at all I'm just telling you guys this to think if I should stop driving it immediately or if you think the whining could be the ptu I don't smelling burning or anything when I got it to wine this is why I don't think the ptu needs replaced and I bought the car at 95k and it's now sitting at 105k and had its ptu replaced at 80k I believe or 90k can't remember either way once it gets above 50 here In nw Ohio I will be giving it a good flush of the fluids so if anyone has any suggestions for that to that would be great

I change ptu oil with every oil change and it’s always black. You can drill and tap for a drain plug. Filling is kind of a B@$?* but doing it more is better than not doing it? Lol

 

[2011 SHO]

Water pumps not a bad job time consuming but pretty easy, let me know I did it prob 3 months back and have ample video of it and photos. The noise you hear, is it coming from driver side floor board area starts at about 34-40 mph and carries on the faster u go the louder it gets? From my experience it is 1 of 2 things. Your rear drive shaft is going bad and having crazy resistance on the PTU ****** to turn it and the extra stress begins to wear out the output bearing. Or the internals of PTU are shot, drain fluid and check for greyish paste or greyish oil when drained. Some metal is ok but big chuck or solid grey color or burnt smell are all signs. This just happened to me recently and I couldn’t figure it out so I kept driving 3 months with the whine until one night I had enough and full sent it off the line. Photos are end result.

Soooo,,, what was the cause and any lesson learned you might share so our SHO's do not grenade themselves?

 

[SM105K]

SM105K's SHO BIBLE/BUILDS/LIFE

First things first. Thank you @SHOdded for helping me with the information below. His knowledge and experience with this platform is immense. What to expect: Post one: General knowledge of the SHO and what to expect. Post two: The Story of M, my SHO. I posted all of my mods, current mods...

shoforum.com

Directly from this thread.

PTU! Understanding why it fails and ways to prevent failure. If you smell a propane/rotten eggs smell from your car it is most likely the PTU. Also if your PTU is making noise.....it is cooked. Please read below.

Yes that thing. Here is a very good explanation by a member on here named Mr.HighCaliber.


"PTU's don't fail at least not from a power handling perspective. These only fail from lack of maintenance. Spun bearings and galling of the gears from lack of lubrication.

High Heat dries up the lighter oil molecules in the ****, which causes more heat due to lack of lubrication (thermal runaway) which leads to the remaining gear oil turning to thick black paste which clogs up the vent tube in the ptu which cause pressure buildup in the ptu which forces the remaining, non-congealed fluid out past the shaft seals. Now the only left is a thick paste thats easily flung off of the gears, sticking only to the case. After this chain of events, the bearings run dry and begin to fail, next are the gears. Tolerances widen or things begin to sieze. Bearing and gear noise are usually the first signs of mechanical failure.

But the PTU internals are stout. The weakest part of our powertrain is the RDU Atc coupler. (The electronic coupler in the rear differential). At least in terms of tq capacity and power handling."

 

[Austin2013SHO]

Soooo,,, what was the cause and any lesson learned you might share so our SHO's do not grenade themselves?

I have learned quite a bit during this process. I also did a lot of while I’m in there’s too. But I had a few problems I think all contributed to this, of course this is all speculation as it’s real hard to pinpoint an exact thing but I think it all contributed to make one big problem. I will list problems found along the way and how or why I think it was a contributing factor.

1.) bent rear rim
2.) shot carrier baring on drive shaft.
3.) leak from PTU seals on passenger side
4.)grinding into PTU output side of housing internally.

So during my adventure I found I had a bent rim which caused a good little vibration starting at 70 mph and dying off around 85mph or higher but majority of my driving is avg 80 on interstate. This caused me to always have a slight shake traveling down to the drive shaft which caused more stress on the carrier bearing and wore it out. This made it more difficult to spin in general causing more stress on the out put bearing of the PTU. This eventually led to a small vibration from driveshaft to PTU which began slowly grinding into the inside of the case of the PTU. It wore the bearing out causing more resistance in general and eventually wore the PTU case down on the out put side and got it hot and broke it right off. I also think with it leaking just a tad but faithfully it would have been less fluid than I’d like which helped it heat up faster wearing internals out in general.hard to know exact amount but I had changed fluid within 3 weeks. Fluid was like it should be but smelled Burnt.