My daughter's b/f had his transmission fluid changed/flushed at a muffler shop, drove it to college over 100 miles and now claims its doing some weird things. Its either a 2000 or a 2001 Ranger XLT 4wd automatic with a 3.0. Now I think my 06 takes Mercon V but Im not sure about this one what it should take. Putting in the wrong kind of fluid, what would happen and how fast would this show up. Has this happened to anyone??

 

Wrong kind of fluid can cause expensive damage to the transmission very quickly. 100 miles would be more then enough to cause damage.

 

Swap it out if it requires the V it needs the V hopefully not to much happened to the
internals. There is a produst that upconverts 3 to V but I would just wholesale swap it out with fresh fluid then do it again with the next oil change to be sure!! I know I can't
afford a new tranny so I would gladly spend a 30 bucks on new fluid!! Every oil
change I swap out at least a half a quart of tranny fluid sometimes a full quart depending on how I used the truck, I use a mity vac hand pump with a hose as long
as the dipstick and pull out the fluid from there, It may be a bit OCD but at the price
of a tranny it makes me feel better to know that it has some new fluid and additive
package in it to keep it fresh!!

 

MerconV is called for in the 5R55E tranny, so what does it say on the receipt, that the shop put in????

Did they just change the fluid, or was a chemical flush done too????

Sometimes the chemical flush on a ditry tranny, stirs up nasties & causes problems.

If the tranny pan wasn't dropped & cleaned & the tranny filter changed, before the chemical flush, all those nasties in the pan, stirred up by the solvent flush, first get strained through the tranny filter, on their way out, so on a dirty pan, the tranny filter can get clogged up.

If the filter is clogged, then the reduced flow can cause shifting problems.

If the valve body had sludge, gum, or varnish deposits, then the solvents may not have had time to completely dissolve them, but loosened them in chunks & has clogged, or is sticking something in the valve body, or shift solenoids, ect, up.

I'd suggest maybe he verify that the proper fluid was used & it's at the proper level & if not, then maybe consider bringing it back with his service receipt, or to a like name shop where he now is & have them verify the shift problem & do another full fluid pumpout with the specified fluid call out, if the wrong fluid was used.

If the problem is improper fluid level, then make the needed adjustment to the level & document that too.

Anyway get some kind of problem documentation going asap.

Just some thoughts for pondering.
Let us know how it goes.

 

My guess is he had the tranny work done because the tranny was acting up anyway. If the wrong fluid was put in, that would be a very bad thing and could cause some damage. But there is a very real possibility that the tranny was starting to go anyway.