Just bought a '98 F150 with an E40D tran. hangin' on a 4.2. I was reading thru the service schedule and I see they "recommend" changing the tran. fluid every 30K. They say it's not necessary but recommended. This is my first Ford P/U and I would be interested in hearing from the "old timers" out there who can speak from experience.

 

Can't say whether it really helps or not since I have never had a failure from a tranny that had regular changes, hint. But then it certainly doesn't seem to hurt eh.

I have changed the fluid regularly and whenever it is changed the fluid is noticably darker than when fresh and there will be little bits of clutch and even tiny bits of metal in the fluid. Typically the filter will have some bits in it too. I have seen some filters that were about 50% covered at 30,000 miles. Sooo I would guess that getting the bits out and having fresh fluid is like any other fluid change, good preventative maintenance. Maybe too early but doesn't hurt and might help.

I would do it, it's cheap when you figure cost per mile. For example 10qts(just a round #) of fluid, a filter kit etc should cost about $30 or so, which works out to .1 cent per mile, that's in the noise level my friend. An oil change costs what... about $10 for maybe 3,000 miles, that works out to 3 times more expensive than ATF change. Tires are about 1 cent per mile, 10 x the fluid change.

Come on do it, your truck will treat yah right in return. I don't buy the extended change intervals being pushed for modern engines. They are better, but a lot of gunk circulates in 50,000 or 100,000 miles.

Jim Henderson