Who wants to hear the weirdest Mustang story ever?

[BurningRubber]

You know what's kinda funny though? I'm half asleep over here, and even I noticed that the three people who replied before BR just replied to me, like they knew it was my story, and he thought this was one of those "look at this dumbass" or "check this ugly poor mustang on Ebay" threads regardless. :Teh-Win:

Hahaha yeah, im not in my right state of mind tonight. I read where you said it was from another thread and figured it was someone elses car.

Damn tests and finals all this and next week has my brain on the edge of spontanious combustion...

 

[astronut1885]

I want one of those little badass name tag things you guys have, but with some campaign type slogan for changing your tranny fluid. Who do I have to sleep with around here to get one of those?

 

[Mustang5L5]

I only changed my diff fluid because I had an axle seal let loose at 50K miles. I can't complain though. 50K miles and that was the first thing to ever break. never even had to take the car in for warranty work.

But i agree with you Diff fluid SMELLS. I used Mobil 1 and that stuff is like $8/quart and you need 3

 

[astronut1885]

Haha, I don't miss college. Coming up on 1 year out. Of course, I also hate being a career man, but I do like the money, and walking out of school and into a 60k starting pay is schweet. I'm an RN.

 

[Mustang5L5]

I miss college. I'm 4 years out Something about 40-50 hour weeks that really gets you down. I'd rather be back partying with friends, drinking til 2Am and shiwing up to 10AM Calc 3 tests hungover.

But the $$$ is sweet. I'm an engineer.

 

[astronut1885]

"All it takes is 3+4/5 quarts a year, and you too could save a poor transmission in the world. Call now."

 

[astronut1885]

If it weren't for the $, I'd still be whooping around my old rotted out 87 with hell under the hood. I bought the 04 as my graduation gift because I knew I would be able to make the payments happen. It's still tight, because the student loans people have my balls in the biggest of vices, but I got my car, and that's all I need.

 

[Mustang5L5]

My '03 was my grad gift to myself too. I drove my '88 around through HS and College but i still have it.

 

[astronut1885]

Mine was rotting out in all the little places foxes like to rot. It needed so much money to get back up to snuff, I just couldn't justify it. It was hard tearing it apart knowing it would never run again, I built the car with a friend who has since passed away from cancer, and he taught me most of what I know about cars simply by having me do it. But I think overall he'd have been supportive, he was always about bigger, better, nicer, faster, and my new car is just that. I'm actually still trying to get ahold of his old stang, an 85 vert with a crazy carbed motor, full roll cage, fuel cell, full suspension, tranny, ignition. This car was a bad mamma-jamma lol. Since he passed, it's been sitting in his mom's yard, and she refuses to part with it even though it's just falling apart. His ex wife is my cousin, and she's trying to get the car to me so I can restore it and run it again.

 

[40th GT]

5L5: Could have been, there was still silicone perfectly on the plug threads that were sticking out, like it was never really torqued in there. And the shifting is SMOOOOOOTH. Considering I went from a shot 150k mile T5 to a 29k mile TR3650 I was already impressed, it just got really smooth. Almost too smooth for me, as I like a notchier shift. I have a Tri-Ax on there, and it's like butter. It took about 30 minutes to do it. I had the car on ramps looking for the leak anyway, but it's one plug, drain and replace. Remove the shifter bezel area, pull the shifter boot and then the shifter. 3 4/5 quarts of your preferred Mercon down the hole, a nice ring of blue RTV around the top edge, and then bolt the shifter back on, reassemble, and enjoy. I bought the top dollar synthetic stuff mostly because I had 20.00 on my Autozone rewards card. It was like 650 a quart or something. Not necessary, but nice knowing it's in there.

So how many quarts did you put it? Like 3.2?

 

[astronut1885]

3 4/5ths is what autozone said it called for. That's what I put in.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Isn't there a 3650 TSB that calls for slightly lower fill amount and to run a non-synthetic fluid??

 

[astronut1885]

I dunno... maybe. But so far, so good, and I can't see how running a non-syn fluid would change anything. They should all be made to perform at a set specification, the synthetic should just be more durable, precisely produced, and heat tolerable...

 

[Mustang5L5]

I think it had to do with the non-syn being less slippery allowing the synchros to grab better and make smoother shifts.

Actually if i remember correctly Tremec was recommending a non-syn fill as a "fix" for the 1-2 grind.

I'm not reading through the 100-page 3650 thread to find out though

 

[astronut1885]

Lol. I don't blame ya. Honestly, I had a slightly notchy shift when it was cold around here, but with the condition of my fluid as it was, I can't blame the tranny. Right now, that thing is so smooth it's not funny. I guess it being warm around here helps now, but once it's up to temp, it feels better than ever. And if I remember from one night where I actually tried to plug through that monster thread ( right after I bought the car, I was trying to educate myself on it), they more or less addressed the issues in 04 cars. I think it was mostly early run 3650s that had problems, but again, reading that thread made me partially delirious.

Also- Sounds to me like tremec was copping out on the fluid for the problem. Going to a less lubricating lubricant? That's a bit backwards lol. Total band-aid fix. If you did a longevity test, I bet a 3650 with synthetic lasts longer than the conventionally lubed tranny. Tremec: "our synchros grab like shyt, and people aren't happy about their new cars shifting like crap. What do we do?" Tech #1: "recall all the trannys, fix them, and loose alot of money." Tech #2: Put less viscous fluid in there to create more friction, wear parts faster, but fix the problem long enough for people to then blame wear and tear when the issue resurfaces, only worse." Tremec: "Tech #1, you're fired. Tech #2, you're now Senior Tech. keep up the good work."

I am too bored lol. I spent all day installing new shocks and struts and remounting my subwoofer, so just to be on my butt for a few minutes is nice.

 

[astronut1885]

Well, the problem is back. I noticed the pinging again, and the tranny getting notchy. I looked underneath, and now it's leaking all out the rear seal where the driveshaft goes in, and burning up on my prochamber. It was pooling up there, so I never saw the puddle. The tranny is getting F'in hot, and making alot of noise. It's going into the local Ford dealer's tomorrow since I bought an extended warranty. I'm going to try and get them to give me a whole new tranny, because compared to the Mach 1s I've test driven, my tranny sucks. I really hope they don't just slap a new seal in the back and send me out, because this thing has clearly been over stressed at this point and is just waiting to fail.

 

[BurningRubber]

That sucks to hear man, good luck with it.