Just wondering how many people out there have had troubles with the transmission in these trucks. Personally I have almost 220k on mine (i have a gasser though) but I honestly haven't had trouble with any thing on the powertrain, drivetrain, or body of my truck... maybe I got lucky
So, how many of you have had your tranny go out? and at what mileage, and was there a known reason?
Is it reasonable to think that the 4R100 will last as long as the 7.3L does with proper maintenance?
Is there any way to increase reliabilty besides filter and transmission oil changes?
1 more.. is there any difference between the 99 to 03' transmissions?
Lots of questions.. sorry

 

No problems out of mine has 250k miles on it and have had a programmer since 190k

 

Ive got 290,000 on my 4r100 with a shift kit, stock tranny and i beat the **** outta her every day haha has 6 pos chip and 175/stock single shot injectors. She hasn't let me down at all and tows a lot of loads in the summer, cant complain!

 

Good to hear.. I was reading an old thread and saw people complaining about trans going out before 100k... seemed rediculous to me

 

Mine started giving fits at 240K while towing a broken-down vehicle with a BBQ trailer up a steep grade on a hot day at slow speed. It was the slow speed (no TCLU) that did it in - I didn't know any better at the time.

It's not rediculous that a 500 ft-lb torque engine in a vehicle rated to tow 12,000 pounds gets put to real work (towing and plowing) and the transmission wasn't quite ready for it.

 

I've got 241k on my original 4r100, no mods besides clean fluid and filter. I still have the stock cooler and in the summer it almost never sees north of 180*

 

Mine died at 50k miles. I don't remember the name of the parts that failed, they are internal fittings that have drilled passages. In my case they were loose and starved a couple clutch packs of pressurized fluid.

 

I bought my RV when the truck had about 95k on it. Started modding the truck for more power when towing around 100k miles. Trans failed around 110k. Never saw high temps on the trans (was running a 6.0 cooler), but it started slipping bad between 2nd and 3rd gear when towing the RV home from football tailgating one Sunday.

 

Keeping the fluid clean and cool is your major hurdle! Proper fluid viscosity will prevent less transfer of mechanical energy to thermal energy, due to friction. As viscosity decreases, friction and thermal energy increases, setting up a positive feedback loop that only ends with complete mechanical-failure. In most cases, premature failure is due to improper maintenance by the owner, followed by excessive input and/or output demands that exceed the 4R100 specifications.

 

They are called "feed bolts". These, along with worn center supports, are causes of failure. Transmissions produced with the "mechanical diode" are also prone to fail. This, along with a failed center support ball bearing, were the cause of first failure at 128k miles. There are also few snap rings that have been known to blow out when tuning, or mechanical, mods have raised the line pressure beyond factory specs. As Bob has mentioned; exceeding the factory hp/tq limits of a stock transmission, failure can/will follow. The 4R100 is a stout transmission in its own right, but it was made to handle only so much. When one does fail, they can be upgraded to pretty much eliminate these trouble spots.

 

At 175k, no trouble here & I haul horse trailer through Appalachians.

 

116k mine decided it didn't want to do it's job anymore

 

The Excursion is at 183K, and the F250 is at 270K... no trouble from either.

 

Thanks! I could not remember the name.

Brian at BTS told me that he saw several failures due to the feed bolts backing out. His theory was loose tolerances of various components lead to mechanical and hydraulic shock that made the feed bolts back out.

At the time of failure my truck had a 40 hp chip and a Banks trans command. Transmission temperature never got hot. 10k was about the most I towed at the time.

 

So what did you guys do when your trans went out? New ford transmission? BTS? rebuilt?