Regular Maintenance Matters

[TJC]

Here are a couple of pictures demonstrating my point.

First up is my UPR dual valve catch can. 25K miles on the truck. I installed it Aug 2020 with 1.500 miles on the truck.

This second image is more interesting to me. I began having Transmission issues at 5K miles and they grew progressively worse until I was ready to unload the truck at 18K miles. I took the advice of several forum members and changed the fluid and added LubeGard Platinum. I then changed the fluid 3K miles later, and will be changing it again at this oil change (25K Miles - the truck is on the lift ready to have the work done tomorrow),

I saved both jugs of fluid, letting things settle out, and today emptied them. Here is a picture of the bottom of both empty jugs. The sludge is real in the first fluid jug!

Click on image to see full size image.


FWIW, my transmission has been trouble free since changing the fluid and adding LubeGard Platinum

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[Burnt Money]

I changed my Transmission Fluid for the first time yesterday with 85k miles on the odometer. I suckled out roughly 5qts. It was black. I’m going to change the filter very soon. I also added the Lube Guard.

 

[Dereku]

I changed my Transmission Fluid for the first time yesterday with 85 miles on the odometer. I suckled out roughly 5qts. It was black. I’m going to change the filter very soon. I also added the Lube Guard.

Black at 85 miles???

 

[Burnt Money]

Black at 85 miles???

I forget the K after the 85 and couldn’t figure out how to edit it lol. 85k miles and it looked like dark coffee. No clue how Ford thinks it will go 150k before the first service.

 

[Dereku]

I forget the K after the 85 and couldn’t figure out how to edit it lol. 85k miles and it looked like dark coffee. No clue how Ford thinks it will go 150k before the first service.

Ok makes sense. I should have assumed. Mine was black water at 75k. It also exploded that same day. Im on 30k intervals myself now.

 

[Cmar]

Yep sure does, when I first bought my truck (secondhand) the first thing I did was change all the fluids being darkly suspicious of "dealer servicing" which it had previously had. One thing was the diesel fuel filter which is absolutely imperative with a common rail diesel. Mine came out as black as the ace of spades. I replaced it with a new one and ever since I've been using a diesel additive which cleans and lubes the injectors and more importantly disperses water, and fights diesel bug, which is a real issue in our tropical climate. Even if your car is clean you can pick it up from a dirty servo tank.
This stuff is pretty good, it was a local startup 10 years ago which so impressed BP that they took up the marketing and replaced their own product with it.
My next filter change, it was so clean I was tempted to put it back in!

 

[TJC]

I changed my Transmission Fluid for the first time yesterday with 85k miles on the odometer. I suckled out roughly 5qts. It was black. I’m going to change the filter very soon. I also added the Lube Guard.

Mine was black as coal at 18K Miles. Take a good close look at the residue in the bottom of the first jug. I suspect it is clutch material.

 

[Cmar]

Mine was black as coal at 18K Miles. Take a good close look at the residue in the bottom of the first jug. I suspect it is clutch material.

Not good, you have to suspect line pressure not clamping hard enough or else the shift logic erring too hard on "soft" engagement.

 

[ctechbob]

Not good, you have to suspect line pressure not clamping hard enough or else the shift logic erring too hard on "soft" engagement.

Or that there's just a shittload of clutches in there and it does a comparitive shittload of changing gears.

There's 28 (or 26-27 depending on if the Ranger has one less) friction disks in there. Not counting the steels.

As for clamping, I haven't seen anything yet that questions 10R80 line pressure. Most things point to that being ok. As for soft shifts, some of them have to be (soft'ish) or they'll bind.

 

[Canadian Ranger]

I've caught a lot of abuse for this in the past, but I accidentally solved my transmission 'gear hunting/hesitation' the day I changed my transfer case fluid. I have NO idea how it worked, but it did.

 

[Dereku]

Or that there's just a shittload of clutches in there and it does a comparitive shittload of changing gears.

There's 28 (or 26-27 depending on if the Ranger has one less) friction disks in there. Not counting the steels.

As for clamping, I haven't seen anything yet that questions 10R80 line pressure. Most things point to that being ok. As for soft shifts, some of them have to be (soft'ish) or they'll bind.

Its a line pressure monster. Think it pushes 300+ psi I read. A tune help with softness. All my vehicles are tuned mostly for trans comfort. Because some made zero performance improvements.

Gale Banks explained all this when I was younger and it really stuck. But its true. Soft shifts=slipping, firm (not harsh) shifts=less slipping and heat.

 

[21rangerCactus]

At 67k my transmission fluid was dark red. It had the typical amount of residue in the pan that I've seen with other autos. No real change in how it acted after the fluid and filter change. I'm at 94k now so far so good. I'll be doing a fluid exchange here shortly.

 

[5thranger]

Its a line pressure monster. Think it pushes 300+ psi I read. A tune help with softness. All my vehicles are tuned mostly for trans comfort. Because some made zero performance improvements.

Gale Banks explained all this when I was younger and it really stuck. But its true. Soft shifts=slipping, firm (not harsh) shifts=less slipping and heat.

Exactly.

 

[ctechbob]

Its a line pressure monster. Think it pushes 300+ psi I read. A tune help with softness. All my vehicles are tuned mostly for trans comfort. Because some made zero performance improvements.

Gale Banks explained all this when I was younger and it really stuck. But its true. Soft shifts=slipping, firm (not harsh) shifts=less slipping and heat.

Only sorta. (these days that is)

It is true you never ever want shifts to flare, that will destroy the clutches in short order. Soft shifts aren't great, but you have to understand the gymnastics that these 8/9/10 speeds have to go through in order to make a gear change.

Back in the days of the 3/4 speeds it was mostly simple. One clutch came on and engaged a gear while another came off. (Gross oversimplification).

Now you have 6 clutches to do a total of 11 (10+ Reverse) things. Solenoids and clutches can only move so fast and a lot of the time you have to make absolutely sure that one clutch is completely off before the next one ramps on. If you don't you're going to end up with at minimum a bind, and maximum a lot of crunched up parts. You can only speed that up so much. The old 3/4 speeds could have this issue as well but not nearly as severe as the new units.

RE: Line pressure. Racing guys are figuring out in a big way you don't want to ramp it to the moon in '10R/10L' units. Some of them have been actually cracking valve bodies.

 

[TJC]

Not good, you have to suspect line pressure not clamping hard enough or else the shift logic erring too hard on "soft" engagement.

Or shift solenoids sticking causing crazy shift patterns, sporadically not closing/opening fully. At one point I could hear them taking 5 seconds to close, chattering, then the shift would occur.

That's when I turned around and parked it for a month. I had already went the dealer route and was told "it was normal... they all do that!"

Saying something doesn't make it so. This was before the epidemic of transmission failures.

It runs perfectly now, but I wonder just how much needless wear occurred.

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