5R55W Trans Filter and fill experience.

[Shailude]

My 2002 Mountaineer 4.6l AWD trans had started slipping a couple days ago and had the OD light blinking. So first off I adjusted the bands, helped a little. Then it got to the point of slipping so much it would hardly go. Being unemployed meant not being able to go for a rebuild or new trans.

So I figured do the simple stuff first. At 157K miles and it looked to never been touched I opted for fluid and filter change out. Read many posts on a lot of sites which said that the drain plug was loosened to allow the fluid to drain out and the center plug was a T30 Torx. To refill it, remove this plug and pump a couple of quarts in, bring to operating temp and remove the plug, add fluid till it drips back out the center plug hole.

The drain plug had to be removed to drain the fluid. The plug is only 3/4" or so in length which looked too short to be an accurate measure and had a Allen wrench plug. After pulling the plug I got 2-3 quarts out, pulling the pan got a total to 7 quarts, the filter and drippage would come in around another quart or so.

So my son called a Ford Certified Transmission Mechanic to see what fill procedure they followed since they would be concerned with warrenty issues. The mechanic said they removed the side plug on the passenger side of the trans and put in enough fluid that after running it to operating temps the plug hole would have a small dribble of oil coming out with the motor off.

Since we pulled around 8 quarts out, my son added 8 quarts, ran it up to operating temp shut the motor off and added one more quart, which allowed a small trickle of oil to come out. Since the trans had never been done before, judging by the amount of sludge in the pan, most likely a small amount of oil loss due to breakdown is not unusual.

Test driving has shown it to have cured the slippage. In about a month I will drain the pan and add some fresh since it should have cleaned a bit more out of the passages.

 

[03explorerL]

Awesome! Glad that was able to cure your problem, at least for the time being.
Did ours a couple weeks ago, fluid and filter, and got roughly 6 quarts. Seemed to cure our shuttering into 4th and overdrive. I ended up pumping in 4 quarts without the car running, then fired it up and had my buddy shift through all the gears and while it was running, finished topping it off up to 6 quarts. I'll probably do the same as you and in about two months or so, since grandma doesn't drive much, change the fluid again.