Ok..... the other day I stopped and ran inside the store , came out and no reverse. It felt like the emergency brake was on. I could move forward but just binding in reverse. Drove from there to the dealership. Along the way the tranny was slipping and making grinding noises. All said and done they replaced the tranny with a new one. Said that it was so bad they could not rebuild it. I was stunned this had happened so suddenly, never had any problems prior to this.
My scare is that the edge had possible caused the problem.I have only run the canned tunes, never played with the shift pressures. I'm afraid to hook it back up.
I know I have exceeded tow limits a few times for short distances, but it seemed to pull it with ease.
I have had the edge on the truck for 40,000 with no other problems(and I love it). Also I have changed the fluid at ford recommended intervuls, truck has 59,000 on it now....any thoughts?

 

doubt the Edge was the issue

more than likely it was the towing. just 1 time of overheating can severely shorten the life of a transmission.

 

with the edge what was the highest trans temp you saw?

 

Was the trans replaced under warrenty or on your dime? You mention 59,000 miles, not sure if you are under the 5/60 factory warranty or Extended plan.

 

No... never came close to overheating, the hottest it ever got up to was 200 and that was only brief at the top of the hill.
I bought the extended warranty, 7/75000 so i was covered. They said it would have cost $3,000.00
I also noticed they put a in line filter in, any idea how long that should stay in there ? Its just a cheap plastic filter.

 

Its not just a cheap filter its really a good one. Ford says you have to install one with a rebuilt trans. It helps with removing all the metal shavings that the bad trans left behind in the oil lines. You should change it at 30,000 miles.

 

Why wouldn't the mechanics do a fluid flush to get all the contamination out? IMHO: by not flushing the system, it seems like they are doing 90% of a job and hoping for the best.

 

A good one flushes the lines but you caint get all of the gunk out of them even if you flush them. Some tecs flush the lines some dont. They should but the key word is should. Thats why ford came out with the inline filter. Also they should have changed out your trans cooler.

 

I had the same exact problem a few months back. I tried towing my girlfriends car out of a barn and I had the truck to the floor and barely moved even in 4 wheel drive. Thought it was cause there was a snow bank under her car. Then I had a trans fault come on the insturment cluster. Every bump I hit the truck jumped rpm's. Shut the truck off and it ran fine. A month later went to church and went to back out of my spot and reverse wasnt there. I let it sit there and it finally slowly backed up then it took off. Took it to the dealer they said the fluid got low but a month before it was fine. They replaced it cause they said it was to bad to fix. Would have cost almost 3500 and all I had to pay was 100 deductible and 500 for a new ford trans cause my warranty wasnt a ford warranty and they wanted to put a used trans in and a new trans cooler. I had 80000 on mine.

 

Work order said they flushed the system, and replaced cooler. Looks like they covered all the bases.

 

Thanks.... I will leave it in there until next tranny service.

 

I disagree with the above stated comments.

Any time you increase the power output of an engine beyond what it's designed to do, you WILL see shorter component life. Things will start breaking sooner, as they are not designed to last under the increased power.

When Ford introduced the 3-valve 5.4, did anyone ever wonder why the transmission changed, too? Went from the 4R70W to the 4R75E, which is basically a 4R70W modified to handle the increased power and torque. This was necessary to avoid destroying the transmission prematurely.

My rule of thumb is if I can't afford to fix it, I shouldn't be modding it...there are lots of guys who are getting nearly 600 HP out of their 6.4 PSD with nothing but intake, exhaust, and a tuner...I do not have $17k for a new engine, so I'm leaving it stock!

 

good point Crazy...but

Roush did testing on the 04+ 5.4 powertrain. It's good to about 500 crank HP before you start running into reliability issues. That is why they replace the OEM Powertrain Warranty if you install their RoushCharger


it very well could be the Edge...but I'm still convinced it was heavy towing that is the culprit. Heat kills trannies

 

The filter you seem to be dissing is the Magnefine, which has an official Ford part number and has been through a pretty rigorous qualification process by Ford, Chrysler and other OEs.

Ford in particular was having a big problem with warranty-installed reman transmissions. A high percentage were having to be replaced a second time. Some a third. That was with the coolers being flushed. They learned that, a) some techs didn't flush the cooler as they were supposed to (we called that "flatrating" back in the day) and b) sometime the stuff would stay in the coolers despite the flushing. Cooler flow goes right back to the lube circuit, so a bunch of debris going back to lubricate hard parts will kill a tranny lickety-split.

Along comes Boss Products and the Magnefine. They found that by installing this product on the return line, warranty returns dropped from significant double digits to insiginicant single digits. And it's easy to see if the filter was installed or not... no flatrating! Ford bought into this and now mandates the use of these filters on every reman trans. Many private tranny shops do as well. It's smart, simple and foolproof.

I use the Magnefine as a prophelatic so my trans will last forever. It has a 35 micron filter (the pan filter is a 100 micron "boulder catcher") plus a magnet and a baypass valve so that it can't plug up and block flow. It's also simple to install. The ford kit has all the instructions and parts you need to install it properly. You can also run the Magnefine on a power steering system, which has no filters. I installed them on two trucks but the lab tests aren't back yet.

GM financed a study some years back about transmission contaminants and the normal makeup of material is 51 percent steel, 12 percent aluminum, 20 percent copper and 7 percent lead. The Magnefine magnet has a flow director so it will catch 90 percent or more of the iron particles of all sizes.

I just had particle analysis done on the trans fluid in my 4R75E and after just 400 miles, the Magnefine had reduced the number of particles by about 33 percent. It will reach a maximum cleanliness level at about 5000 miles and stay that way. You can expect a one to two ISO cleanliness code stage drop from reasonably clean fluid.

I could go on and on about this, but if you Google "Magnefine" you'll get the skinny.

 

Right, they do test things, but there is also a reason why Spartan, Edge, SCT, 5-star, Bully Dog, Banks, or any other aftermarket tuner company will NOT warrant your vehicle for driveline failure. The most they'll do is replace their faulty equipment, leaving you with the expensive repair bills. They can't warrant that kind of thing because most powertrain warranty claims will NOT be paid for by Ford if a tuner has been used, simply because they can assume that the tuner was what caused the failure.

Ever wonder why they used the 4R100 on the Lightnings, compared to the 4R70W on the other -150s?


All this being said, if the truck was driven reasonably, without being hammered on, it's likely that the edge did not play a large part in your tranny's demise. It's my firm belief that aftermarket performance mods will cause wear and tear faster than the OEM programming, but the rate of such wear and tear is largely determined how the vehicle is driven.


On edit:
Jim Allen, you seem to be a fervent advocate of these tranny filters...you don't sell them, do you?