Ford Pickup Dumped Its Transmission Fluid

[Bird]

My son-in-law has a 1991 Ford F150 standard cab, short bed, Lariat pickup with the 5.0L EFI engine and automatic transmission. Friday (a week ago yesterday), he said it leaked its transmission fluid out in a bank parking lot while he was waiting in line at the drive-through window. He left it in the parking lot over the weekend and had it towed in Monday morning. Now the mechanics say they put 7.5 quarts of transmission fluid in it, ran it, couldn't find any leak, drove it around, ran it most of the day, then parked it overnight, and still not a single drop leaked out. It seems to be running fine.

I know the gremlins do weird things at times, but I sure never heard of anything like this. Has anyone else ever heard of such? And if so, what could have caused it?

 

[SnowRidge]

Temperature related, perhaps. Might have been very hot, and a crack opened or expanded and is now cool enough to seal. It's all I can think of.

BTW, do you know where it leaked it from, the tranny itself or the cooler?

 

[Jimbrown]

As I recall this was fairly common for Ford transmission in the late 80's early 90's it blows it out the breather. I do not remeber what the cause was but it seemed to be random and sometimes never did it again.

 

[jinman]

Wow! According to what JimBrown said, that must mean your SIL needs to carry a 7-1/2 quart "emergency kit" around with him all the time. Very strange...

If it leaked out the breather, wouldn't that area be wet? Maybe the gremlins cleaned up after themselves.

 

[KennethBrown]

As I recall this was fairly common for Ford transmission in the late 80's early 90's it blows it out the breather. I do not remeber what the cause was but it seemed to be random and sometimes never did it again.

True story. My dads 92 F150 has done this twice in the last 5 years or so. For no reason at all it just spits it out the breather. Fill it back up and all is fine.

 

[TractorLegend]

Check the pump face clearance. The maximum should be not more than .003.
Ideally you should be around .0015. Also check the pump bushing fit.
Excessive clearance here will cause problems. Drill out the drain back hole
that is behind the seal to around 1/4 inch. Finally, is your son
pulling a trailer? If he is make certain he is NOT pulling in OD. Also
make certain that lockup is working properly. Non functioning lockup+ heavy
load+OD=overheated trans. I would check and make sure that the pump bushing hasn't walked forward and
covered the drain hole between the bushing and the seal.HTH

 

[Bird]

Check the pump face clearance. The maximum should be not more than .003.
Ideally you should be around .0015. Also check the pump bushing fit.
Excessive clearance here will cause problems. Drill out the drain back hole
that is behind the seal to around 1/4 inch. Finally, is your son
pulling a trailer? If he is make certain he is NOT pulling in OD. Also
make certain that lockup is working properly. Non functioning lockup+ heavy
load+OD=overheated trans. I would check and make sure that the pump bushing hasn't walked forward and
covered the drain hole between the bushing and the seal.HTH

Ouch, that would require pulling the transmission and I don't know what that would cost, but of course that may eventually be necessary. So far it's running every day with no problem. I don't think that truck has ever pulled a trailer, and it's very seldom gotten more than 20 miles from home.

 

[TractorLegend]

Ouch, that would require pulling the transmission and I don't know what that would cost, but of course that may eventually be necessary.

In our neighborhood tranny overhauls on late model electronic overdrives go anywhere from 2K and up for removal, rebuild and replacement with averages of 2500.00- its about the second most expensive thing you can do to a vehicle- engine rebuild being first.
An oversized trans cooler is a great insurance policy.

 

[dbdartman]

Thread hijack:

TractorLegend, you sound like you know your way around these things, so I have a question you may be able to help answer. I have a 94 F-150, around 161K miles, 302 auto trans, short bed extended cab. At around 70-80K miles something "funny looking" (like 1/3 of a piston seal lip) showed up in the trans pan during regular maintainance. Fearing something might not be quite right inside, the trans was rebuilt, because my parents were using the truck to travel on weekends (100-1000 miles round trip). Now the truck sees very little use, maybe 500-1000 miles/year. I don't know when it started, but for the last 4-5 years (since it was removed from daily/weekend duty) every once in a while, the trans will shift out of O/D for no reason what so ever while going down the road. I suspected the TPS might have been at fault, so when it was in for service a couple months ago I had it changed. The trans did nothing funny returning from the service garage, so I though it may have been fixed. Wrong... After replacing the leaking oil drain plug gasket last weekend I took the truck for a 7-8 mile drive, just to exercise it some. After about 4 miles, the trans shifted itself out of O/D & into 3rd gear while going down a hill! After a couple seconds, it up-shifted, a mile or so later it did it again, then was normal the last mile or two. Other than this anomalie the trans shifts fine (except that being a Ford computer controlled trans, it does what it wants, when it wants, not what I want when I want, like my old torque-flites, or my 04 Colorado & has been this way since new).

Any thoughts, hints, suggestions?

My apologies to Mr Bird for the hijack!

 

[Bird]

My apologies to Mr Bird for the hijack!

No problem. Most of us (well, me anyway) have done the same thing occasionally. Hope Tractorlegend (or someone else) has a cure for you.

 

[Soundguy]

Odd.. i had a 98 dodge ram doing that.. and the TPS was the issue.. never done it again. funny thing was a code scan didn't show it. On an unrelated issue I had taken it to the shop because the throttle one time jumpe dup while I was setting in park reading my mail... that got me to thinking about the agravating shift problem.. when the tps got fixed.. so did everything else.

too bad yours didn't help.

Soundguy

Thread hijack:

TractorLegend, you sound like you know your way around these things, so I have a question you may be able to help answer. I have a 94 F-150, around 161K miles, 302 auto trans, short bed extended cab. At around 70-80K miles something "funny looking" (like 1/3 of a piston seal lip) showed up in the trans pan during regular maintainance. Fearing something might not be quite right inside, the trans was rebuilt, because my parents were using the truck to travel on weekends (100-1000 miles round trip). Now the truck sees very little use, maybe 500-1000 miles/year. I don't know when it started, but for the last 4-5 years (since it was removed from daily/weekend duty) every once in a while, the trans will shift out of O/D for no reason what so ever while going down the road. I suspected the TPS might have been at fault, so when it was in for service a couple months ago I had it changed. The trans did nothing funny returning from the service garage, so I though it may have been fixed. Wrong... After replacing the leaking oil drain plug gasket last weekend I took the truck for a 7-8 mile drive, just to exercise it some. After about 4 miles, the trans shifted itself out of O/D & into 3rd gear while going down a hill! After a couple seconds, it up-shifted, a mile or so later it did it again, then was normal the last mile or two. Other than this anomalie the trans shifts fine (except that being a Ford computer controlled trans, it does what it wants, when it wants, not what I want when I want, like my old torque-flites, or my 04 Colorado & has been this way since new).

Any thoughts, hints, suggestions?

My apologies to Mr Bird for the hijack!

 

[TractorLegend]

WARNING: Thread hijack!!!:
I don't know when it started, but for the last 4-5 years (since it was removed from daily/weekend duty) every once in a while, the trans will shift out of O/D for no reason what so ever while going down the road. I suspected the TPS might have been at fault, so when it was in for service a couple months ago I had it changed. The trans did nothing funny returning from the service garage, so I though it may have been fixed. Wrong... After replacing the leaking oil drain plug gasket last weekend I took the truck for a 7-8 mile drive, just to exercise it some. After about 4 miles, the trans shifted itself out of O/D & into 3rd gear while going down a hill! After a couple seconds, it up-shifted, a mile or so later it did it again, then was normal the last mile or two.

Any thoughts, hints, suggestions?

Well maybe just one or two:

take the steering covers off the column, look closely at the wire loom from the end of the shift lever to the connector- usually there will be a place where the insulation has chafed and the wires will ground out. The switch works by grounding the signal from the processor, so the processor then makes the shift and turns the light on or off; if the wire grounds out, it can act as if you had pushed the button.
>
Also nice to know if theres any stored trouble codes and to monitor Vehicle Speed Sensor signal during this event

 

[dbdartman]

Thanx, I'll have a look at the wiring in the column (I understand the grounding issue, that's the way the A-518 O/D is wired in my Dart). Never noticed if the O/D light on the shifter was on or off when this happened... I'll be more observant next time! No idea if any codes are stored, but the CEL isn't on, & as far as I know never has been lit (I do vaguely remember an anti-lock light & air bag light going on once early in it's life, but a warranty repair fixed it). I suppose the speed sensor could be at fault, but the speedo does continue to work normally when it drops out of O/D (if that means anything).

It's not easy being an analog guy in this computerized car world!

 

[TractorLegend]

Yeah my wifes got that 07 SRT8 Magnum with the Mercedes built slap stick type his n hers shifter thing. In normal driving after its warmed up we get some tranny engagement chatter going back into drive on parking lot maneuvers- only when hot. Its pretty pronounced too- not just because im nitpicking... It has about 4K miles and has been back one time to the dealer where they reflashed the tranny brain. It seemed better for awhile and it does fine down the road but the problem came back shortly after and we'll have to see. These new ones have those "adaptives" where they "see" your driving patterns and try to figure a strategy based on that.
Fluid levels good. We'll see what they come up with. Yes I think things are getting over engineered- to say the least.