As everyone knows the auto tranny has no dipstick and is sealed. The dealer told me every 30K miles the tranny should be flushed via the cooler. Has anyone done this, is it a sound method, how is the fluid level checked once flushed?
You are being lied to. First, the transmission does not need any service. Second, the correct drain and fill method is via the drain plug on the bottom of the pan. I build the 5R55S every day as an OEM supplier. For my car, I'll change the fluid at 100,000 miles. This is a new design, using new fluid, new clutches, and new friction plates. It is serviced in a different manner and the old thinking does not apply. Ask the dealer to show you the service procedure for fluid change. It is not via a cooler. Lastly, when service is completed, there is a special filter that needs to be installed. We ship the filter with every unit.
You are being lied to. First, the transmission does not need any service. Second, the correct drain and fill method is via the drain plug on the bottom of the pan. I build the 5R55S every day as an OEM supplier. For my car, I'll change the fluid at 100,000 miles. This is a new design, using new fluid, new clutches, and new friction plates. It is serviced in a different manner and the old thinking does not apply. Ask the dealer to show you the service procedure for fluid change. It is not via a cooler. Lastly, when service is completed, there is a special filter that needs to be installed. We ship the filter with every unit.
Ford does recomend the fluid to be changed at 100k, BUT from my experience the fluid look like mud in these units if you leave it in that long. The fluid used in these trannies from the factory is mercon 5 a synth fluid and they have used it since the late 90's on tranies that had 30k mileage service intervals.
I strongly disagree with ford on the 100k mile service interval, for two reasons.
1. These extended service intervals are used as a sales tool to sell the car or truck when new, ford does not care about your transmission after 36k or at most 100k miles if you bought a extended service plan.
2. I have been a ford service tech for close to 10 years and I have seen them recomend these extended service intervals on coolant, tranny fluid and air filters ( deisels, 2.3 focus) because of these I have seen rotten cooling systems , plugged air filters causing CEL's and brown to black tranny fluid coming out of the very same 5r55s's
I strongly disagree with leaving your fluid in for 100k miles, if you are using this car for any type of performance driving or care at all what happens to this tranny after the warrenty period is up then you should change your trans fluid or flush it.
BTW you can drop the pan and change the filter, but when you put the pan back up fill the pan itself up with fluid first then install it, then remove the female hex plug from the center of the plug on the bottom of the pan to check the level and add fluid, you want to add fluid with a suction gun or the ford special tool untill you get a steady stream coming out of this hole.
when you drop the pan you will see the way this works, there is a tube that is raised to the correct fluid level when hot, then if there is any extra it will flow out of this tube and out fo the pan, if there is not enough fluid in there you will only see dripping or nothing at all.
The flushers work even better than a normal pan drop and fill because it connects inline with the cooler and exchanges the fluid as it is pumped from the trans, you can even see the difference in fluid color in the flow tubes as the machine flushes it. if it was supposed to be changed at 100k then why is it filthy on cars with less than 30k on them..
Plus how is the fluid changing different on the 5r55s than any other tranny the only difference is the lack of a dipstick, so you chack the level and top it off slighlty different..
The way I do it is I fill the pan then install the pan full and then pull the plug to check the level and top off, other than that it's a standard swap filter and refill.
Plus how is the fluid different than any other ford trans, mercon 5 is now used in all trannies as 3 is fazed out, plus 5 has been out since the late 90's and those cars had 30k fluid change intervals.
the ctv's and the tourqeshift have different fluids but all the other ford trannies use mercon 5