Whats happening my diesel brothers! Been a looong time since I've posted.

I wish it were on better terms and that I came back just to BS.

Unfortunately, theres a possibility that I may have some tranny issues and I don't mean the Bruce Jenner kind.

Short back story:

I've been pretty diligent on doing transmission fluid refreshes where I drain the pan and replace what I took out. A few years ago I swapped the filter too and its my understanding that ford says that the filters are good for the life of the vehicle but that's questionable. Over the last while I've noticed that my transmission temps have been much too high for the lack of hard driving I'm doing.

I live on a hill that climbs pretty steep but it only takes about 5 minutes to get up it and any other driving I do is 0 to 55 mph and on fairly flat ground. Moral to the story is that I would routinely go for a short outing and when I pull in my driveway and park, my trans would be at 190 to 205 degrees per my Autometer full sweep electric gauge. PS I am in Hawaii so basically it's all sea level driving.

I thought (and I may still think) that my transmission dipstick is reading wrong. When trying to assess why my trans was heating up, my first go to is the fluid level. I noticed that it looked over full so I slowly drained and drove it and checked, then drained and drove it and checked it again, until it read right in the middle of the hot scale. I was excited to see if that would fix it but after a short drive over a moderate climbing freeway section, my transmission was heating up even faster. When I peaked the hill, my trans was at 230 and my OD light began to flash (stock indicator of transmission temps being too high). I threw it in neutral and coasted for a while then pulled over and added a quart and a half back in there thinking I may have taken too much out. Sure enough, my transmission cooled back down pretty quickly but on my way home coming over the same grade, my transmission still got too hot. Long story short, when my level is reading right on the dipstick my trans fluid seems to bee too low & will make my trans heat up fast. When I add a couple more quarts, it cools down a bit but still runs way too hot for my driving conditions.

I got tired of trying to play with it so I went and got a full trans flush from at the Stealership. When I got home, which is only about 10 miles of driving max, my transmission was at 205-210 degrees.

I called the stealership back to see exactly how much fluid they put in. They said that they put in 3 each 5 gallon jugs and topped it off for the rest for a total of 16 quarts. They said that my gauge could be reading wrong and I said that autometers don't lie. They said it could be the sensor that the gauge plugs into that is faulty. Let me know if you think this makes any sense. Could my trans be fine and my gauge reading wrong?

So ..... At this point, I know pretty well that it has the right amount of fluid in the system and I am wondering what to do.

Keep in mind that my truck is an E99, but my transmission was switched out by Ford after 70k miles on the original transmission. It was switched to the "newer" transmission. So I believe that means it was updated to the 4R100. Regardless, both transmissions have the same capacity correct?

Please help in any way you can. I currently live on Maui during the week for work and my truck is parked on Oahu. Since I am not relying on my truck to get to work every day, now is the time to fix it. I am REALLY hoping that I don't have to replace my transmission.

Ford also tracked down my oil leak and said its coming from my HPOP, Hopefully its just the gasket on my T-500.

Looking forward to hearing back from all of you.

Bryce

 

Bump . . . . . .

 

Where is the temp sensor that this gauge is reading?

The trans being too hot is only one of about 50 different reasons that this light would flash. It flashes for trans overtemp at 270°F.

You've found the world's only perfect gauge! It NEVER could be wrong. Every.

How do you know the gauge is right? I have my doubts that it's right, but in the wrong direction. Earlier you said the OD light flashed from overtemp and that the gauge said 230°F. That's not overtemp, the light doesn't flash until 270°F.

Then again, it might have been flashing for something else. There could be another problem that you don't know about.

Correct, both the 4R100 that you truck had originally and the 4R100 they put in have the same capacity. All '99 trucks, early or late, had the 4R100.

It's very likely that the cooler bypass is stuck open. A rebuild kit is available for very little money. I've seen them at Summit and other places. That's the first thing I'd do.

 

Thanks for the information. I'll definitely look into the cooler bypass. I really hope it's as easy as that. Will report back after.