Experts, Show your stuff

[james t]

no lip, but it does leave a little in the pan. basically its just a hollow bolt with a jamnut on the inside and a plug on the outside. still leaves a small amount in the pan, but not enough to worry about spillin' as you remove the pan. the weld-in makes sense to me now, as i always heard before that people did it so it wouldnt leak. i never thought about doing it so every last drop runs out of pan before removal...

 

[410Fortune]

Well with a drain you wont ever get every drop but who cares? At least you can get 99.9% of the fluid changes 3 times as often without a mess!!!

My tranny guy recommended a certain spot in the pan be usd for the drain because of internal clearance issues with the pump pickup and throttle body. If you put the drain wherehe says to you will still have a qt of fluid in the A4LD when you drain it, it;s in one of the corners of the pan and not in the bottom of that "hump". He knows what he's talking about so thats where my plug is going next time I drop my pan...

 

[BrotherK]

So what's the rule of tumb on how often you change oyour tranny fluid, compensating for usage? My explorer gets about 15K of street mileage a year, with only 2-3 mild offroad trips. I also tow a trailer of firewood a few times a year.

 

[BrotherK]

By the way,

I heard about this website through a friend and I must say that it is probably the BEST online community I have every seen. You guys do a terrific job at helping folks with Explorer issues. This site is the benchmark for all others. I guess Ford people are just real helpful folks.

 

[410Fortune]

If you are like me you will change it every summer. New filter and fluid. Then every 3 years I will have it flushed. I drive about 18-20K a year.

Ford recommends 30K miles I believe, but I'm **** when it comes to my truck.

I also plan to install an external filter and to divorce my class A motorhome tranny cooler from the radiator (right now the tranny cooler is zip tied to the rad) I want to moveit away from the radiator to help cooling. I also want to install a tranny fluid temp gage.....I expect to see 200K miles form this freshly built A4LD.