All this talk of flushing has strayed from the OP's problem. Just to be clear, nobody is suggesting that flushing the trans has anything whatsoever to do with a cracked flex plate. Right?

 

Not quite right. Rereading the OP's original post, that is exactly what the OP is suggesting, fearing, or wondering about. The rest of us are hoping to avoid even the remotest possibility of the same misfortune with our own trucks when it comes time for service. So we are "crowd concluding" that we really don't need to subject our transmissions to "box of chocolates" flushing services, where you never really know what your going to get.

Here's a highlighted look at the original post:



Logic prevents us from assuming that the fluid in the flush machine would break apart a flywheel. Even the OP wondered if it was some type of exhaust leak instead. But the point is, his Ex didn't make the noise before he brought it in for service, and then suddenly did make the noise after he picked it up. That is our worst nightmare. That is why the B.A.R. was invented. That is what makes us want to think about ways to avoid being exposed to that type of risk, whether it was an innocent mistake, ignorant blunder, or well practiced trick to turn a $300 nibble into a $3,000 nugget to pay the shop rent. Whatever the original service guys did or didn't do, that was a very expensive transmission flush.

 

I have often wondered if guys at small shops swap out bad parts for good parts for their own vehicles and then hope to get back the customers vehicle to "repair" the broken part. Then they put their original part back in the customers vehicle and pocket the cash or get the new part for their own vehicle.

It has been done before and documented even on tv. A transmission would be a fairly fast change out. But a flywheel wouldn't be worth the trouble. At the same time if the shop was playing around and "checking stuff' because of the new noise I would be worried what they did to try and fix 'cover up' the problem.

 

I didn't know you were talking about the TC. If you drain and fill the pan on a regular basis, draining the TC won't be an issue because when you drop the pan to change the filter, the fluid will look like new. I try and do this every other oil change on the diesel and every third oil change on my gas engines. You mentioned this was overkill in another thread but I'm OK with overkill.

 

I know my wife has had issues with Independent Shops when I was deployed. She took a F-150 in for the Defrost/AC not working and they "fixed" her water pump while they were under the hood. $300 later I had a truck with a new waterpump that had no previous problem and the AC only adequately worked.

called her Dad and he visited the shop. they ended up refunding all the money for the supposed "repairs" they did. He is also 300 lbs and over 6ft. A bit intimidating when angry I've been told



long story, but I would be tempted to believe the OP was "had" by the repair shop. It's likely they didn't even do any work and just held onto the truck for a certain amount of time. Or, they may even have caused the issue and played dumb

 

That's not a good idea. You can change the whole thing with a flush and be done with it for a very long time. My pan has a drain plug and I still wouldn't do that. The pan only holds a third of the oil and the filter is a lifetime filter. That's like a doctor giving you a third of a dose of medicine every month for 3 months. That oil will easily go 50k miles and still be in good shape. I worked in many transmission shops and most of the oil was never changed that came in there and many were over 200k miles.

When you do that you are just diluting the bad oil and not accomplishing much. Your trans will last longer and you will have more free time if you do it right.

 

Here's a pic of the torque converter drain plugs for anyone interested in seeing what they look like. Ford used to sell them in bags of 5, and at one time Ford recommended using a new plug if the old one was removed. The new plugs have the right amount of VERY HIGH TEMPERATURE thread locking compound pre applied.



For anyone wishing for a torque converter drain plug... know that it is not only not necessary, but it also won't get all the fluid out, because there will still be old fluid in the pump passages, the valve body, the oil to water cooler in the radiator, the oil to air cooler in front of the radiator, and all the lines and fluid circuits in between.

The advantage of using the transmission's own pump to push all the old fluid out via the clear vinyl tubing attached to the rear return line, is that the fluid flows one way, and the replacement fluid handily serves as a hydraulic "broom" that sweeps all the clutch debris laden fluid out of all the passages, torque converter, fluid coolers, pump, valve body, lines, everything, right into the 5 gallon bucket at your feet.

Couldn't be slicker, unless you use synthetic transmission fluid! (ha ha)

Another reason for not wanting to drill and tap your TC, and not wishing your TC had a drain, is because it is a PAIN in the DONKEY to service a transmission in this manner (draining TC). Think about it for a second... How fast does the crank spin at idle? 650 RPM? So what is the probability that you will magically shut off the engine such that this torque converter drain plug just so happens to end up bottom dead center so it will fully drain?

Not gonna happen. So now you need a Big M.F. Breaker Bar with a deep socket attached to hand crank the motor at the harmonic balancer until the drain plug on the torque converter ends up where you want it. Or you could try pulling a fuse and bump starting it. I've tried that. It takes longer than hand cranking the motor.

Scroll up a little and have one more look at the picture I posted of the factory torque converter drain plugs. Notice the remaining text imprinted the Ford bag. That's the FINE PRINT on the bag. Does that offer a better idea of just how tiny these little drain plugs are? They are the smallest drain plugs I can recall working with on a vehicle.

Now, picture how small that hole is on the Torque converter. Visualize how long it will take to gravity drain the entire contents of the torque converter through this tiny hole, that is, IF you are able to successfully align the hole to the bottom dead center (and think about the time that took). I'm not speaking in theory. I have DONE it this way. That baggie in my picture is of the three remaining drain plugs that I did not use, because I decided many years ago never to do it this way again.

In case you're wondering, it takes about a DAY for the torque converter to finally stop dripping oil steadily, once the draining process begins. So for those going through this effort to get "every last drop of old oil", best have another vehicle to use while your waiting. By contrast, the built in transmission pump pushes fluid out at a rate of over 1.2 gallons per minute. All day? Or 5 minutes? Hmmmm.

These are just a few more reasons for not lamenting the loss of a torque converter drain plug.

 

No, no, no, I guess you didn't read my thread on replacing the fluid (might be in the tech folder) which was very easy. Takes a day to drain the converter? I'm not even going to waste any more time typing on this.

You really shouldn't be giving false info in here

 

I let mine drain for the entire day, as I was working on other things. When I checked on it from time to time, it was still drip drip drip dripping steadily. It was not until the end of the day that the torque converter "finally stop dripping oil steadily."

I fully expected this, as the many vanes and fins inside the TC make for a lot of surface area. It takes time for the the oil to gradually sheet down each vane, drip to the next interfering vane in the path of gravity from it to the drain hole, and repeat. Surface tension slows the process more.

Obviously, in a time sensitive service bay, the bulk of the oil wold be drained, and then the plug put back in. But that creates another issue, because now the efficacy of the thread locker is compromised by the remaining oil that keeps dripping out of the TC after the bulk drain.

So no matter how much time one allows for the TC to drain, even a mere 30 minutes, there are still downsides to the process. The purpose of my posts were to point out these downsides so that Excursion owners can be reassured that they are not missing anything. There are easier and more efficient ways to change ALL of the transmission fluid without draining the TC, and without going to a flush machine.

Since the majority of Excursion owners with the 4R100 do not have the TC drain plug, due to the Excursion being introduced in 2000, and the TC drain plug being deleted within a year thereafter, these points of view might be useful to some.

 

My converter was drained about the same time as the pan, and those plugs are about average size. You might get another cup if you waited all day. Also, I found the plug at the bottom in 5 minutes, read my thread. The whole thing took very little time and drained 99% of the fluid, leaving some pretty good oil still in there which will affect nothing.

 

It's a free country. You do it your way, I do it mine. My Town Cars don't have TC drain plugs starting 2003 and I refuse to flush the transmissions. My fluid will be burnt at 50k miles from heavy city driving with hills. There are people that change their engine oil religiously at 3000 mile but look at you like you just landed from Mars when you ask them how often they service the transmission.

 

I just let the pump flush the fluid out of the converter.

 

The part about flushing machines is actually not 100% true.

There are a few types of flushing machines. One uses its own pressure to "push" the fluid through. Places like Jiffy... use these machines, with the car off, and they cause way more harm than good. Never do that.

The other kind of machine uses the cars transmission pump to "pull" fluid from what they call a bladder, a thing full of clean fluid. This is what you want to use.

Then there's the heated vs not heated flush. The 5R110 will not allow cold fluid to flush through.

Trying to find a heated flush bladder type machine is nearly impossible, hence why I now just drain what'll come out, then do it again a few months later.

 

You can do it your way, I'm just saying is a waste of time. There is very little oil in the pan.

 

I'm OK with that since I'm the one that has to take food off of my table to pay for repairs. The last transmission I replaced had 317k commercial miles on it. I will keep wasting my time doing it my way.