Any suggestions on where to purchase and install a trans pan drain plug?

I'm not a fan of deep pans, even though they have this feature. It would be a nice to have to be able to drain the fluid without the mess.

 

It's not that big of a deal to pull the pan and change the filter. It took me a half hour to do the whole thing, mine took 7 quarts...

 

I know, I just did it...

Would be nice to be able to drain/refill fluid only without dropping the pan.

 

Reason there isn't a drainplug is so you change the filter.

 

I don't do Trans flushes. I change out the filter, drain and refill...

Then drain/refill within 3000 miles and again 3000 miles later. Change the filter on the last drain/refI'll. So having a drain plug works. You don't need to change filter every 3000 miles. But the fluid only gets mixed 7 quarts at a time until you change out all the fluid.

 

That's a bit speculative. The older transmissions didn't have a drain plug either, and the filter lasted for the life of the transmission.

 

That's what the factory said. 20 years in transmission shops told me different.

 

The factory designed the pan.

 

Whatever. I wont debate you. you believe what you want. I know what I know. its not an opinion. its facts.

 

Aside from the weld in plug kits for ~$20, PML makes a good pan. But all aftermarket pans really are deep ones. AFE pans are more accessible (46-70172) but still deep. I'm not a fan of deep either but tolerated one on my old C6.

 

I'm not opposed to getting the PML, they are local and I have their deep pan on my '05 Jeep LJ. However the design for the Ford is different.

The Jeep filter is attached to the valve body, where the Ford just kind of sits there. The PML pan does have filter supports however I'm a little concerned about how well they actually support the filter against the valve body.

 

2X Yes Indeed

 

No, it's not a fact, it's your opinion of what the engineers that designed it and the bean counters that paid for it decided. As one of those engineers, I can tell you that you're wrong. The reason the drain plug is not there is NOT to make you change the filter, it's to save the cost of the drain plug.

Until recently the filters were designed for the life of the transmission. If you read the maintenance schedules you won't find a recommended change interval for the filter. There isn't one. That started changing about 2008 when the filters were improved and DO have a change interval.

I've seen a filter cut open that had 369,000 miles on it. The only reason the trans was touched was that the ambulance it had been in was totalled in a wreck. Engineering at Ford had been monitoring that company's fleet, so we got the trans back after the wreck. The filter was still fine and could have lasted many more miles.

 

Mark,
as you said until recently...can you give me a rough idea of what the actual life of the filter is then? I ask this since I placed a new filter on my 4R70 at 100k and at that time put a B&M deep sump pan on as well for ease of the drain, fill and the extra 2 qts of tranny fluid (I worked on fluid power systems and know that a measure of your heat can be wicked off with extra fluid reserve as well as a nice, finned aluminum pan :P )

Thanks!
D

 

The life of the filter in a 4r70 is somewhere over 369,000 miles.