5R55E - fluid change or not?

[2TimingTom]

I just bought my '97 XLT a week ago with 117,000 miles. Looking through the owner's manual, there is no suggested fluid change interval for my transmission fluid. A previous owner towed a small popup camper with it and I plan to do the same.

Should I change it? If I change it, should I get it flushed? Or just drop the pan, change the filter/strainer, put a new gasket on and call it good?

I've heard of some potential "issues" cropping up when you change the fluid in a high mileage transmission- like it will soon start to slip with the new new fluid. Seems kinda far fetched to me, any truth to it?

Thanks.

 

[BrooklynBay]

15K-30K miles is the average time interval between fluid changes. You could drop the pan, and replace the fluid & filter.

 

[2TimingTom]

Yeah, I've been spending a lot of time searching the archives and came across a recommendation by Glacier to drop the pan, change the filter, add in a bottle of Lubegard, repeat after several months and repeat again several months after that. I think I'm going to do that.

When I search the napaonline.com site for a transmission filter for my truck, it returns a bunch of results, but none for the 5R55E transmission. It does list the 4R55E transmission though. Are these the same in regards to the filter/gasket?

 

[BrooklynBay]

Make sure that you get the deep filter if you have a 4WD. The 2WD has a shallow filter. The gasket is the same for both 2WD & 4WD.

 

[2TimingTom]

Well, I dropped the pan, changed the gasket and filter (and cleaned the magnet in the pan and the pan itself), added 4 qts of new Mercon V along with a 10 oz bottle of Lubegard. Got everything back together and so far so good.

The magnet in my 2003 Mazda Protege looked worse after only 60,000 miles (I'm at 118,000 in my Explorer).

I hate transmission pans without a drain plug. And I did NOT add one. If I do, I'd like to get it done right and weld in a plug instead of JB Weld or soldering. Maybe I'll pick up a "new" pan before I redo this messy procedure in a few months and have it welded up and ready to go in.