We were towing our 9000lb camp trailer home from camping in the redwoods. I waited until I got to flat land in Redding, CA on I-5 south to turn on the A/C. Drove about 30 miles on I-5 at 55mph with the tranny in tow haul mode. We took an off ramp with a stop sign at the top. When I stopped fluid gushed out of the overflow onto the exhaust pipe. An observer said it flashed to flames, when I jumped out and looked I only saw fluid dripping off the exhaust and a cross member. I had towed about 200 miles in the coastal mountains prior to the 30 mile stretch on I-5 with no issues.

Took it into the dealer and they found nothing wrong. They did suggest that I had overfilled it, but I have never put tranny fluid in the truck in the 36K miles since new. As a matter of fact they are the only ones who dealt with transmission fluid when this happened once before a little over a year ago. Anyway they flushed the tranny, replaced the external filter, and flashed TCM. They didn't mention the PCM. The rep said there were 8 updates newer than the version my truck was running.

So anyone seen anything like this? Does what they say make sense? Do you really think this is the fix?

 

Oh yeah, one more thing, the dealer suggested that I change the tranny fluid every 20K miles. Funny they act like pulling a 9000lb trailer 3-4 times a year 400-600 miles is some sort of extreme case. From what I've read on this forum I'm pretty easy on my truck...

 

The only thing I know that will cause that would be overheating.

What did the trans. guage read?(realizing it's not the best, but was it pegged?)

 

Sorry forgot that info. I routinely check the temp guages, and they were in the mid range. I looked at the transmission temp guage immediately after it happened and it was where it always is just below middle of the guage. The only time I ever see that guage anywhere besides just below half is when I start it up cold. While I'm filling in the blanks, I checked the fluid level after I let it cool a bit and it was full, and the fluid didn't smell burnt or look discolored.

 

Do you have the snow plow prep?

Read this: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...hift-case.html

It is a thread I posted where I had a very similar issue to yours.

 

lol...after reading your sig line, maybe ford should put out a tsb on pulling springdale trailers...

 

I don't have the snow plow prep. I wish I knew about this about this before I took it in so I could have suggested it to the service manager to make him rule it out. I really think my issue is heat related as it only happened after I started running the AC.

I don't think I'm asking too much of the truck running the AC while towing my trailer on flat land at 55 am I?

 

Snow plow prep doesn't have anything to do with the trans. Snow plow and non-snow plow use EXACTLY the same transmissions.

The only way fluid is going to come out of the vent (there is no overflow on any automatic transmission) is if it is overfilled.

 

What about overheating ?

 

Only if it's overfilled.

During testing I've had TorqShifts up to 250F in the pan and over 300F in the line to the cooler. The fluid level was correct before starting the test and the trans never lost any fluid.

 

I must have misunderstood what I read then; thanks for the clarification.

At any rate, you may have still encountered the same problem. It was hard for the techs to find on mine. It took them several days. Finally they pumped the dye through it and put it under a stressful load to find a tiny bit of seepage on top of the case. Then they pulled the tranny to find the crack and the mark left by the piston that went haywire after the snap ring let go.

Since FORD is well aware of the problem, you might take it back. You may not notice the problem until next time you are towing (with your truck under a load) and the things starts to spew fluid again. BTW, mine did not lose much fluid either and it was not hot at all.