Hey guys.

Here's the deal. This question is for a friend's work truck. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Maybe someone has had a similiar problem.

The truck is a f-450 ext. cab super duty mason dump with the 6.0l power stroke and automatic. If you need to know what tranny it is, I kind find out. The truck was bought used with about 35,000 miles and has just a c*nt hair under 40,000 miles.

The problem involves the tranny. My buddy noticed that after driving on the highway for a while, when he would get off and come to a light or stop and then try to go, it would barely go anywhere. The motor would rev up, but didn't make the power it should and rip *** off the line. By the way, the truck is stock with no modifications. The trans temp gauge was fine and no lights were blinking, like the older models, the o/d off buttom would blink. Other than this occassional problem, the truck runs great and tows its *** off.

So it gets better. Today I took it to my work and did a service and was going to check for codes and also do a trans flush. There were no codes and when attempting to do the trans flush we stopped. After we had the lines hooked up and and started the truck we noticed that the pressure gauge and the machine was below normal. Somewhere around 10 psi. It should be higher and similar to the '00 f-550 and '97 f-450 tow trucks we have that had somehwhere around 30 psi. By looking at the gauge you would have thought it was a little import.

Now I know Ford has a 3-year or 36,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty and a 100,000 mile warranty on the motor. My buudy called a Ford dealership and they told him sorry we can't do anything about that under warranty.

Sorry this is so long. So 2 questions. What do you think he should do about them not covering it under warranty since it isn' that far over the miles and the truck is still practically brand new considering you should be able to easily put over 250,000 miles on these things.

And the other question. What do you think the problem may be. My mechanic buddy at work that was helping me do this, said it may need a new front pump. Sorry I am not tranny expert.

So if anyone has had a similar problem and/or knows about these tranny's any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Don't ever expect any auto transmission built by a big auto maker to last to 250k without work. Heck 100k is doing pretty good. You can tell your buddy that if he's towing to get a trans temp gauge. And before you say "But theres already one in the dash" that is NOT a trans temp gauge. Thats an idiot light. It won't move off normal until the tranny is thourghly cooked to a nice golden brown. People who have put in real gauges have seen over 250* on the gauge (beyond redline and damage point) and the factory gauge never moved. The OD light will flash only if it sets a trouble code, and it won't set a code for overheat until its gone. More than likely the pump died which was not able to push fluid like it needed which in turn overheated the trans. Bottom line he's looking at a full rebuild or reman. Unless he has had this into Ford before the warranty was up documenting that the problem was present then he's SOL and will be footing this bill on his own. Ford held up their end of the deal. My guess is that this had a hard life before your friend got it. Theres a reason there was an 03 F450 sitting on a lot with 35k on it. 03 was by far the worst year for the truck as a whole (engine especially) and the previous owner probably had lots of problems and dumped it off before the warranty was up. Grab the vasolene and bend over because its gonna be a rough ride from here on with this truck.

 

The torqshift (5R110) is a whole different animal than you '00s 4R100 and your '97s E4OD. What fluid did you use? The Torqshift requires Mercon SP.

Adrianspeeder

 

I work for a Ford powertrain distributer and we sell 4 transmission to every engine, and most trans sales are for the FWD taurus and the 6.0 L diesel. Most dealerships just want to replace, but you may have luck at an independent to repair.

Also warn your buddy to change that fuel filter often, 6.0L diesel injectors are our #1 seller at 2700 in parts for the set of eight! Oh yea, the turbos for this motor are #3, and come to think of it, it is our best selling diesel engine too...

 

Thanks for the replies. We stopped on the trans flush because of the low pressure. The truck still runs great, it just happens once in a while. When I took it to work the other day, it ran great, fast as ****.

The mechanic gig and tow truck stuff is my part time gig during the winter. So I offered to take his truck along with my other work trucks to service them the right way instead of taking them to a quick lube.

The 00 f-550 tow truck we have has 240,000 miles on the original motor and tranny. But the 97 f-450 is on its original motor with 270,000, but it is on its third tranny.

So I guess he'll find out if he has to replace the whole thing, rebuild it or just throw a new pump in it.

It still runs good now, so do you think a new pump would do it. I guess a tranny tech would have to look at it to tell for sure.

Thanks, guys

 

You don't have to tell me. They are not best sellers because of their quality.