Hi everyone, I am new to the TC scene and just got a '15 van with ~60k miles on the clock. I am in the process of doing a tune-up, which I've only been partially successful so far. I had quite a few "gotcha" moments already and hope you guys can help me out.

1. How to change the transmission filter? Do you have to pull the tranny in order to do it?

2. Where is the fuel filter? And what replacement should I buy?

3. I had someone to put the car in gear when parked and found the motor to move quite a bit. So I guess the engine mount and tranny mount are worn out and I plan to replace them all. However, I am not sure how many mounts does this '15 TC have. Rockauto has DEA A5631 and Anchor 3304 as the motor mount, do I need them both? WRT the tranny mount, rockauto has DEA A5520, A5612 and Anchor 3238, should I get them all?

Thanks for looking!

 

Welcome and congrats! I will start by saying it seems you're a bit early on several of you changes and just curious if there is a reason other than an abundance of caution.

First, I would look at another and determine if "quite a bit" is normal before swapping motor mounts.

Fuel filter should probably be motorcraft. IDK for sure, but Ford is known for making patented filters, that the aftermarket doesn't quiet match. For the old 7.3 trucks for example, you have to swap the cap to use aftermarket ones. Some may be just as good, but the Ford ones are known to be good. Not sure where it is off the top of my head.

Transimission filter is far too early to be changing... unless you have issues.

I feel like the only regular issue I ever see with these has been wheel hubs around 100k. I wouldn't go messing up factory stuff unless needed!

 

I want to service the tranny b/c I service all my AT cars at 60k. The AT is always the weakest link of any vehicle.

I found information about servicing TC's are sparse on the internet. Maybe TC owners are not diy people?

 

I haven't seen any needing to have the service done yet. Just about anyone who has run a 2014 to an actual point of needing to service the trans is most likely a business, and they'll either be trading the thing in or paying a shop. DIY folks typically come in after several years when they start becoming cheap used vehicles.

 

I totally agree with you. I bought the truck from a business who thinks the truck is already "cheap used".

 

Lucky for you for sure! Used vehicles depreciate quicker with years than miles for whatever reason, so even ones I would call used up go for thousands more than I feel they are worth. I'm certainly a "bottom feeder" with used vehicles, I buy em when they aren't inspectable anymore for a few hundred bucks tops. At that point they certainly need a look over.

 

50K miles in a year. That's about right for a commercial vehicle. Where I work at, we average about 200 miles a day X 5 days in a week X 52 weeks in a year. Some down time for days off, holidays, et cetera. Go about 5 years, with a quarter of a million miles on the clock, and the van is ready for the junk yard......or really cheap to someone who doesn't mind all the things that are broken on it.

Commercial vehicles see a lot more abuse, have many more engine hours, and because they operate 8 hours a day, more things happen to them. On my work van, the windshield gets replaced 2 to 3 times a year, and it's always in the shop for flat repairs. Why? Because all of the time on the road simply increases the chances of a rock striking the windshield or running over nails and screws. We change our oil once a month. Transmission and differential fluid is exchanged yearly. Tires are yearly. Brakes are as needed.

When five years comes along, the seats are worn, mirrors broken, door seals are all ripped, the body has all sorts of dents & sometimes even holes, doors and openings are all out of shape and alignment from fork lift loading. Wheel alignment and suspension are completely worn from overloading beyond specified payload limit. Entire cooling system is ready to fail with worn water pump, thermostat, belts, & hoses. Air conditioning no longer works. Transmission is slipping. Seat belt buckles no longer keep the belt engaged; but it's okay, because on Fords, you can turn the seat belt chime off. All vehicle interior panels, carpeting, and floor mats are ripped, cigarette burned, and otherwise damaged from cargo. And those little rubber pads have worn clean off the accelerator and brake pedals, allowing your feet to slip off just when you need to brake hard.

So if you ask me, you've still got about 20 years of ownership left on the life of that used van, unless you're also planning on 50,000 miles a year.

 

FYI.....at the dealerships, they have a machine which connects to the cooling and return lines of the transmission. This allows for the transmission's own pump to evacuate the dirty fluid as clean fluid is cycled in.

Most service facilities use some sort of machine to exchange the fluid so that they don't have to drop the pan.

You will want to drop the pan. There is a filter. Change it. Fill with fresh fluid to the fill plug line. Disconnect cooling line and route into a 5 gallon bucket. Turn on engine and run for 20 seconds, allowing old fluid to pump out. Replenish with fresh fluid to fill plug line. Repeat process until fresh fluid is observed being pumped out of cooling line. Reconnect cooling line. Top off transmission.


5
CV6Z-7F396-A
SIDE COVER GASKET


6
BB5Z-7A098-D
FILTER
TRANSIT CONNECT VAN

 

It's almost the same. You'll get the idea.

 

50;


Your comment regarding the necessity of changing the filter, rather than just draining the oil, reminds me of my father-in-law. He always bought Oldsmobile and was a stickler on fluid changes. He had a Cutlass that according to reviews was going through transmissions at an alarming rate. He realized that the drain plug was at the side of the pan rather than the bottom; so he fit his own drain plug at the bottom. He put 60,000 on the car, I put 60,000 on the car, and the friend that bought the car from me put on another 60,000 miles--and not a one of us ever had trouble with the trans.

 

Interesting observation on location of the drain plug. I've seen cars with the drain plug located on the side of the pan. The logic being that you don't want a protruding drain plug that can get knocked off. Those cars do experience issues later on when you leave a quart of dirty oil in the bottom to pollute the fresh oil that you're pouring in.

It all makes me wonder about the transmissions which are sealed.

 

When you drain an auto trans by removing the pan, you are only getting 1/3 or 1/2 of the fluid out of the thing anyway. If you want all (or mostly) new fluid, you would find a place with an exchange machine or do it via the cooler lines yourself, disconnecting one and feeding new fluid from a bucket. My old Acura had a drain plug, and I just changed the fluid about 4 times with 500 miles or so between changes. I mathematically ended up with about 90% new fluid which is fine since the additives are what you usually need to change anyway.

George