Gen 2 Tranny Fluid Level way high?

[slimwhitman]

To start, I bought this truck used and 10k miles later the motor blew. Ended up getting a new motor, tranny, and torque converter installed through the extended warranty.

Its been about 10k miles now and on a long road trip in really high temps the tranny started jumping around in cruise control at high speeds. Thought it was weird but it stopped pretty quickly and went back to normal. On the way back on this trip the same thing happened but it got worse and eventually puked up a good amount of fluid enough to see smoke in the rear view and the shifting go way worse. As soon as I noticed it I let off the gas and pulled off the highway.

I got under the truck and noticed a pretty good amount of fluid. Let it cool off and tried to drive it a little further just to see if it was toast and try to get it closer to a town if I had to tow and it seemingly drove fine. So I continued on my way but at a much slower pace. No problems. Actually got pretty good gas mileage driving at 70mph instead of 80….

After reading around it sounded like it could’ve been overfilled. So I dropped the skid plate and checked tonight. It’s read at 1.5 on the dip stick… am I reading that opposite? Or is that still extremely high? Reading around it should be like 4-5? Temp is like 150 degrees to the best I can tell.

Since I’ve gotten the truck back I havnt noticed it shifting weird until now really, but the temps are much higher now. Could something else have happened internally to cause it to read high? Or is it just now surfacing because of the higher temps?

 

[FordTechOne]

The transmission temp needs to be between 206ºF - 215ºF when checking fluid level. You should be able to determine the temp using ForScan. Once at the required temperature, the fluid level should be between 5 and 6 on the transmission fluid level indicator.

 

[slimwhitman]

The transmission temp needs to be between 206ºF - 215ºF when checking fluid level. You should be able to determine the temp using ForScan. Once at the required temperature, the fluid level should be between 5 and 6 on the transmission fluid level indicator.

Wouldn’t a higher trans temp yield a higher reading when the level already reads high?

 

[FordTechOne]

Wouldn’t a higher trans temp yield a higher reading when the level already reads high?

Not necessarily; the transmission fluid needs to reach a specific temperature before the solenoid opens to allow flow through the cooler.

 

[slimwhitman]

Not necessarily; the transmission fluid needs to reach a specific temperature before the solenoid opens to allow flow through the cooler.

Ahhh gotcha. Is there any other way I can get close if I don’t have forscan? I have a laser temp reader.

 

[Jakenbake]

The transmission temp needs to be between 206ºF - 215ºF when checking fluid level. You should be able to determine the temp using ForScan. Once at the required temperature, the fluid level should be between 5 and 6 on the transmission fluid level indicator.

Just curious, How do you get the temp up to that and then keep it there while checking?

I know when I was doing mine, the fluid temp drops pretty quick, not super low, but below say 195.

 

[FordTechOne]

Ahhh gotcha. Is there any other way I can get close if I don’t have forscan? I have a laser temp reader.

Not sure, as that will only read case temp, not fluid temp.

 

[FordTechOne]

Just curious, How do you get the temp up to that and then keep it there while checking?

I know when I was doing mine, the fluid temp drops pretty quick, not super low, but below say 195.

If I was doing it I would probably use IDS to command the transmission cooler solenoid closed; the only other thing I can think of is brake torquing to heat the fluid using the converter.

 

[sixshooter_45]

The transmission temp needs to be between 206ºF - 215ºF when checking fluid level. You should be able to determine the temp using ForScan. Once at the required temperature, the fluid level should be between 5 and 6 on the transmission fluid level indicator.

Can you go by the transmission temperature in the readings under "Vehicle/Measurements" where it'll give you the specific temperature?

 

[FordTechOne]

Can you go by the transmission temperature in the readings under "Vehicle/Measurements" where it'll give you the specific temperature?

Yep that would work too.