2008 Explorer V6 Transmission Front Seal Leaking

[S1L1K0N]

Hey everybody, I noticed a puddle of ATF in the garage earlier this week, took the truck into the shop and they told me it was the front seal of the transmission that was leaking. Truck has 118,000km's (~73,000miles) on it, and has no indication of hard up or down shifting, up until now it's been a great unit from a maintenance point of view. The shop told me they could replace the front seal for $700 (Canadian) but that there was no guarantee that this will fix the problem (basically it could re-occur if there was something wrong internally with the transmission, pump, etc.), quoted a transmission rebuild at $2800 Canadian. I've had pretty good service from this shop in the past, and they also own a transmission repair facility (off-site from their regular place). My question is that we've had an exceptionally brutal winter in this part of Canada this year, temperatures have been in the -30's to -20's (Celsius)for days and then it warms up to -10 and we get walloped with snow, so is it possible the seal just failed or am I likely looking at a more serious issue with the transmission itself? Thanks for any and all input...

 

[Tech By Trade]

Sounds like they are low on business and looking to make some cash on a rebuild. Tis right after the holidays and everyone needs to pay the bills.

 

[Flag Gibby]

Extreme cold can make seals shrink and weep fluid while sitting. However, the vehicle is not parked outside overnight so I would say that the seal is shot but the price for the replacement of it seems a little high (maybe it failed due to regular engagement/disengagement of the front driveline on the fly... auto 4x4?). On the alternative repair, since the transmission has to get pulled in order to replace the seal, I would take the time to rebuild it if you are planning on keeping the vehicle for another 50K miles or more since these transmissions seem to get around 120K miles or less before they start acting up and then you cannot even reuse the case because of the servo bores being too warped and a new remanufactured transmission installed runs about that price, but an in house rebuild should be significantly less than what they quoted you.

 

[S1L1K0N]

When he quoted the $2800 he stated that it was for a re-manufactured unit. I never inquired about them rebuilding the existing unit, but I'll give them a shout on Monday. I find the prices here tend to go up in the winter, I think they use the cold weather as an excuse to increase their average repair time. All things considered, I can understand where they are coming from, everything is way harder to disassemble when it's been sitting in -20C to -30C weather for weeks on end.

I forgot to mention, the leak started the day after I washed the truck, and while I usually avoid car washes when the temperature is expected to drop below -25C it was about -20 when I went through the wash. The wash was automated and included an under-carriage bath, so I was wondering if it was possible if the transmission vent got plugged through freezing and the seal went the next day at start-up due to pressure build-up? I'm not sure where the vent is located on these transmissions, anybody have a picture or can point me in the right direction? Of course, it was in the shop since the wash, and the temperate has risen to -6 today (leak was discovered on Monday), so there's a good chance it's thawed out by now; but the temps are supposed to drop into the mid -20s again tonight and stay that way for the next week or so. One more thing, my garage is detached and non-insulated, so it's usually only about 8-10 degrees C warmer in there (depending on the wind).

Thanks for responding everybody!

 

[Flag Gibby]

The vent tube is on the top of the transmission and ends at the top of the bell housing and vents inside the bell housing so I am not sure it is possible it could have gotten plugged from ice.

 

[S1L1K0N]

So, despite the weather I had to see for myself how bad it was leaking by getting a better look after putting the truck on ramps and crawling underneath. There definitely was a leak where the bellhousing meets the engine, and there was some transmission fluid on the crossmember as well, but I had noticed this before I took it to the shop on Tuesday, so at this point I'm not sure if they had even wiped it down after telling me it was the front/input seal. Wiped everything down, went for a little spin, put it back on the ramps and it was still dry. Over the last few days I've also been monitoring the snow after moving the vehicle as we drive around to see how much it is leaking, and I haven't seen any red spots (the Explorer is actually primarily driven by my wife, so I've been asking her to try to remember to look when she pulls out of parking spots as well and she tells me she hasn't noticed anything either, but also admits she hasn't looked everytime). I put a piece of cardboard under the truck (in the garage) to make it easier over the next few days to see if it's still leaking and how bad (the floor is pretty grimy from slush and road salt this time of year, so it's hard to tell what exactly is what). I'm wondering if it's possible that the leak stopped? Is that even possible or am I just fooling myself? Incidentally, until tonight I never realized that these transmissions don't have a dip-stick to check/add fluid level - after searching for a few minutes I pulled out the Haynes manual and read about how these are sealed units, whose bright idea at Ford was this? Anyhow, thanks for reading this and helping me solve this mystery.

 

[Flag Gibby]

It is possible that with all the snow you could have worked the tranny pretty hard and boiled the fluid over and out the vent line. I did that once the first time I towed 3000 lbs. on a 320 mile trip that went from below sea level to above 7000ft with the Motorcraft ATF in it and nothing since. I have read that it is easy to overfill these transmissions if you completely fill them up cold so maybe it was overfilled like the dealership that looked at mine suggested (vehicle was under factory warranty still when this happened) since they could find no other reason for it and I have never had another issue since.

 

[mounted]

The dip stick for the tranny is actually in the tranny fill hole. You'll undo the fill hole bolt and there is a 2" dip stick in there. Still sucks you have to climb under the car to check your transmission fluid though.