Ok....here is the classic mistake that some people make. Let me preface by saying, I have hands down, driven the best truck I could have ever wanted. My 2016 F150 XLT 3.2L V6 has, by far, been an outstanding truck. I have never performed an ounce of repairs on this truck except typical tires, brakes and basic maintenance. However, I have also failed to perform a transmission service the entire time I have owned the truck, which was the day I bought it brand new with 2.5 miles on the odometer. Today, I have 194,203 miles on the vehicle and it still looks great. My truck "grew up" in Florida but has been to every state east of Missouri, except Maine, including the Blizzard of 2016 in the Northeast.

Recently, I had a water leak in my front yard....on a 3yr old house no less (story for another time). Instead of killing my back and my buddies back, I opted to rent a Mini Excavator. I was a little concerned with pulling the excavator plus trailer, but was assured by the rental company, that I would be fine. I am in a very small community, south of Nashville, now, so, I believe they would rather err on the side of caution, than worry about the money.

So, I pulled just over 10,000lbs with my bumper mounted hitch. It did VERY well. It did great with breaking and slowing down in TOW gear. Hell, the truck even ran better than I remember it driving, after I towed that much weight. Now, a few weeks later, I get that vibration like I am going over elephant farts (rumble strips). It is not a constant issue, but it's very noticeable to me. My wife is like....it just feels like your going over bumps to me.....typical wife comment before the engine seizes up.

Will this require a full rebuild, rebuilt transmission or a new transmission? I am not opposed to spending the money on a brand new tranny since the truck is in very good shape. Cold a/c, hot heat, hot heated seats.....not a damn thing wrong with the truck and with the prices of vehicles today, I could buy 2 of my truck in 2016, for the price they are wanting these days.....SCREW THAT! Nice try Sparky!

So, before you shred me on here....save your rude comments to yourself. And if you ask why I have so many miles on my truck....its because I have owned my own business for 26yrs and install telematics for MAJOR companies, so I am all across the eastern half of the US. Kindly keep your rude comments to yourself...I have heard and seen them before. Now, I am a Flight Nurse on a helicopter, so my mileage has been drastically reduced and I only drive 41 miles round trip!

 

The first thing to do is to change the transmission fluid. That may fix the problem.

 

3.3 non turbo? How often have you replaced the plugs? Are the coils still original?

If you have never served the transmission, with those miles DO NOT have a flush done on it with a machine. There are a couple of ways you can service it though.

First would be to drop the pan and replace only the fluid that comes out. Also replace the filter. You will need to do this again in a few thousand miles as the new filter will load up pretty quick. After the second pan drop and filter change, if it drives well and the transmission gives you no trouble, go about 10K miles and do it again.

The other way to change the fluid involves two 5 gallon buckets. Look in the owners manual to see the transmission fluid capacity and buy about twice that.

Warm the truck to operating temperature

Undo the transmission cooler lines

Put the return line from the radiator in a bucket of clean transmission fluid

put the out flow line in another bucket

Start the truck, set the parking brake and chock the wheels then put it in drive

Get out and monitor the clean fluid bucket so it doesn't get so low that it sucks air

Monitor the flow into the dirty bucket until you see clean fluid

Once you have clean fluid flowing out, shut the truck off and reconnect the cooling lines

Start the truck and move the transmission through the gears and let it idle in drive for a few minutes

Shut it down, then drop the pan when it cools off a little. Replace the filter and then put the pan back on

Top off with fluid and then check again after the first drive.

 

Why not? You don't believe those old wive's tales that you don't flush a high mileage trans, do you?

Here is where you show that you don't know how a transmission works. Neither line is a suction line. The trans pumps fluid out to the cooler, and the return feeds the rear lube and gets dumped to the pan. It does NOT suck fluid. The clean fluid will stay in the bucket, not get sucked into the trans.

 

You are the expert Mark. I'm sure you are correct. What about my drop and drain and filter replacement method, was I wrong about that too?

Didn't know they were wive's tales. That's what I was taught long ago by a trusted full service mechanic. However, isn't power flushing a transmission with very old and dirty fluid full of particles bad? And most power flushed leave the filter in, which is okay I'm told, if you are servicing it aggressively. At least that what I was always told. How should a transmission approaching 200k miles be properly serviced with the hope of keeping it going?

 

The drop and drain will work. It's not a bad way to change the fluid.

Have you ever seen a power flush machine? I've looked and never found one. When I owned a shop I had a flush machine, but it was not a power flush machine. It connected into the cooler lines. The transmission pump sent fluid to the cooler line where the machine intercepted it. It took in the old fluid and replaced it with new fluid. The old fluid was on one side of a piston and the new fluid on the other side. As the transmission pump filled the old side with fluid it forced the new fluid back into the cooler line at the same pressure (actually slightly less, but I digress) that the transmission pump was putting out. All that uninformed talk about high pressure fluid disturbing deposits is just a bunch or people that don't know what they are talking about.

If the trans is working fine a flush will only extend it's life. If the trans is damaged a flush will not prevent a failure.

There is a tiny bit of truth to this old wive's tale. Most people ignore their transmission. After many, many miles a problem develops. Often, the first thought is that new fluid will fix it. So they get it flushed, and the trans fails. Now they blame the flush. The real problem was that it was ignored for 200k miles and something failed. The new fluid from the flush didn't fix the broken part so the trans failed. New fluid did not cause the failure.

 

Here's a good video on how to do the transmission flush JKBrad and Mark mentioned.

 

I brought my truck (2016 5.0) to the dealer for a minor repair and the service manager suggested a flush because had seen some transmission problems. I'd had 77K miles on the truck and decided to have them change plugs also. Well 15K miles later it started with the rumble strip scenario started mainly in shifts of 4th to 5th and it is very intermittent. I've been thinking i may need to drop the pan and change the filter. Following.

 

To the OP, take it to a transmission shop. You are past due for some maintenance expenses anyway, it literally can be anything in the driveline causing this, don't assume the worse. I'll be tickled to death if mine makes it to 150k. Let us know what they find, and unless you abused it pulling it, I doubt that was that big of deal. It's the nutjobs that pull travel trailers close to that weight is who I laugh about. Good luck, keep us posted.

 

OP it sounds like torque converter shudder which can be a fairly common issue with F150's. As a test and a temporary fix you try adding shudder stop to the transmission. My '15 was doing the rumble strip shudder and one tube of shudder stop worked to stop it for the last 3000 miles. I'll do a flush fill procedure with two clear 5 gallon buckets and a bucket pump to pump the new fluid in at the dipstick hole after it warms up outside. I may add Lubegard Platinum to the new Valvoline Max Life fluid (about 3 gallons).