New to forum. New to Ford.

[Zork]

Just bought a 2002 Ford Explorer XLT for my son. Has some 120'000 miles on it. I read about transmission issues after I bought it. Should I {do I HAVE to?} install an external trans fluid cooler?

Not a Ford fan normally (sorry ;-), but son needed a vehicle desperately...

Cheers.

 

[Maniak]

In general, unless a vehicle is going to see lots of stop/go traffic, climb lots of big hills, tow or be in extreme heat (actual temp, not temp + humidity) you don't "need" an external cooler. What usually kills transmission is lack of maintenance. I would never recommend a transmission "flush" but dropping the pan and changing the fluid in the pan is considered maintenance. However, if the transmission is already cooked, slowly changing the fluid may still hasten it's demise but nothing like a flush will.

However, with all that said.. an external cooler can help keep a transmission alive longer but unless you really tax the cooling system so can more frequent transmission fluid changes.

~Mark

btw, great username.. I still have that game that I can play on mid 1980's computer, and on my phone.

 

[Zork]

Thanks much for the helpful reply!
It has a hitch on it, so who knows how much it labored in its life?
Curious why you say a flush is not recommended? (and I apologize if this is a rudimentary question).


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"Zork": I should DEFINITELY download it on my phone! Nice tip!


Zork "Ford Explored Edition":
"You are experiencing Explorer Transmission issues. It is making clunking noises."

> replace transmission at exorbitant price

"You have just made your vehicle purchase way too expensive. GAME OVER!"


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(it is NOT making clunking issues BTW!)

 

[Maniak]

Thanks much for the helpful reply!
It has a hitch on it, so who knows how much it labored in its life?
Curious why you say a flush is not recommended? (and I apologize if this is a rudimentary question).

If you cook the transmission you end up with a bunch of varnish in the transmission and the dirt/crap that's in there slowly gets wedge places and basically helps keep the transmission working even though the fluid has lost all it's good properties and the plates are covered in crap. When you flush the system it tends to push out all the dirt/crap and even help clean things. Now you have good clean fluid and all the dirt/crap out of the transmission. Now it'll either stop working or start to slip making things worse. It's no guarantee but it happens quite often.

~Mark

on an Iphone I use the frotz z-machine (interactive Fiction Adventures" app so I can run Zork and Collosal Cave Adventure z-machine apps.

 

[Mike65]

Zork, welcome.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! You could add an external transmission filter.