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How to: PTU Oil Change (Tons of Pics) 2016 Explorer Sport

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Update: I spent many hours at this again today and I did not win. I did get a stubby screw driver on it from the top and got a few turns but then it kept spinning around on the hose. You really need to be able to get a hold on it while tightening down otherwise it will just spin away from you. A small 1/4 ratchet would be best for this job (something I don't have but will be getting).

I did manage to get a lot of turbo piping off and discovered some oil leaks coming from both turbos. The rear turbo is leaking oil very slightly and it drips down onto the heatshield and then onto the catalytic converter.... This explains the oil burn smell I get after driving it hard... The front turbo is leaking pretty bad and its spraying all over the power steering lines.

Since I have bigger problems, I am going to hold off on the PTU. Next, I am going to replace both turbos and while I have it all apart, I will tackle the PTU then.
 



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It is not visible, you have to reach up beyond the parallel coolant lines to feel it and find it. You can see the original vent (although I didn't get a photo of it) and follow it down to the nipple. Completely blind. I suppose someone could get a mirror up in there and see it just fine, but I was comfortable with the blind op. Let me edit the photo to show approx where. Gimme 5 mins and take a look at the nipple photo and the one before it.
Question about the vent hose. The mechanic in the initial YouTube video (Interceptor) appears to route the "new" vent hose differently than the factory location (from the topside). Did you route the new vent hose on your 2016 the same as the old factory hose or is there a reason to route differently?
 






Welcome to the Forum Merlin. :wave:

Peter
 






Good video on putting a drain in the older PTU's.

 






Well, the Explorer has 40,200 miles on her so, I figured I would do another drain-n-fill of the PTU. My original plan was to do it about every 10k miles but life gets in the way. I was surprised at the gunk that came out with this second drain-n-fill, looks identical to the first time I did it:
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I will say that the used fluid did not smell anywhere near as bad as the first time I performed this procedure. I think I'll be making it a habit of performing this more often than the 30k miles between intervals.
 






Changed the PTU on my 2017 2.3 today. 33,600k miles. Fortunately my fluid looked pretty good (very dark, however) and didn't have a lot of metal shavings in the fluid or drain plug. Still, felt good to know that it has fresh fluid now. Plan to do this every 30k moving forward.
 


















See images above.

I just did the PTU oil change on my 2017 XLT 3.6L with towing package at 40,100 miles. I do have the air duct that attaches on the underside of the body, just below the engine oil pan and I believe it does actually work pretty well. As you can tell, at 40k miles and without any prior service, the fluid still looks pretty good. For anyone who has watched the other videos on how to extract the fluid (I only have the fill plug, no drain plug), you do not need any expensive extractor. I just used a regular oil transfer pump from Harbor Freight (the orange one for $8) to suction it out and then used a bottle pump from Harbor Freight (around $10) to fill it up.
 












2017 platinum 36K miles. Just purchased. My oil looked good. It’s a cooled PTU unit. I put valvoline full synthetic in it. Some shavings on the magnet.
98D54AE2-1D7F-477D-91B9-E810221E5A3C.jpeg
 






Tackled the PTU and rear diff fluid changes today on my 2018 XSport. I have 49k on the fluids. I ended up using my mityvac brake bleeder to suck out the rear diff fluid. I have to say, it made that part of the job super easy and clean. Just had to empty the little jar a bunch. For the PTU, I did the vent mod up top and then fashioned a funnel out of a the corner of a foil pan I had laying around to try and keep the fluid off the exhaust. It worked better than nothing that’s for sure, but when I do it again I’ll use the quack tape method. The foil was sharp so I had to be really careful and once placed you couldn’t really touch it or it would fall/move causing spillage. I ended up draining a little over 16oz of old fluid out of the PTU. It was dark but did not smell burnt or have any “sludge” characteristics to it. The magnet had a normal amount of metal shavings on it. I refilled via mixmizer with 17ish ounces to make up for the fluid that did not make it into the measuring cup. I did take a sample of the PTU fluid and will be sending it to Blackstone do analysis.

Here are some pics of the PTU draining and specialty tools used:
 

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Well, made a mess of things. Got the new line in up top but couldn’t get the drain plug off. Used a 1/4” Allen but ended up stripping the drain plug. There isn’t a lot of room to tap it so I’m thinking i’m screwed. Any suggestions?
 






Tackled the PTU and rear diff fluid changes today on my 2018 XSport. I have 49k on the fluids. I ended up using my mityvac brake bleeder to suck out the rear diff fluid. I have to say, it made that part of the job super easy and clean. Just had to empty the little jar a bunch. For the PTU, I did the vent mod up top and then fashioned a funnel out of a the corner of a foil pan I had laying around to try and keep the fluid off the exhaust. It worked better than nothing that’s for sure, but when I do it again I’ll use the quack tape method. The foil was sharp so I had to be really careful and once placed you couldn’t really touch it or it would fall/move causing spillage. I ended up draining a little over 16oz of old fluid out of the PTU. It was dark but did not smell burnt or have any “sludge” characteristics to it. The magnet had a normal amount of metal shavings on it. I refilled via mixmizer with 17ish ounces to make up for the fluid that did not make it into the measuring cup. I did take a sample of the PTU fluid and will be sending it to Blackstone do analysis.

Here are some pics of the PTU draining and specialty tools used:
Nice pics & documentation. Thanks for putting that together. I've got to ask. Where did you get those plastic cups to measure volume?
 






Nice pics & documentation. Thanks for putting that together. I've got to ask. Where did you get those plastic cups to measure volume?
Ha. The paint section at Wally World. They are just paint measuring/mixing cups. $.98 each I believe.
 






There is nothing on the nipple, it simply pressure fits. If you follow the vent hose upward from the bottom you'll run into a connection/retainer clip that needs to be unhooked on the vent hose. Once the clip is loose you can pull the vent hose off the nipple (takes surprisingly less effort than one might think).
I've been working at this for the past couple of hours. My vent must be different than a lot of folks on here. I think it is barbed at the end. I COULD NOT get it off the factory hose. It would spin in the hose a bit, but would not back out. It did not help that there is zero room in there; my arms took a beating. Mine is a 2016 Ex Sport, so maybe the turbos and intakes are different affecting the clearances in there significantly. I was attempting the version of the mod where you take the vent off and extend the existing hose with a brass coupler and piece of fuel line. This makes, taking off and installing directly to the PTU nipple not necessary as the factory hose stays in place. This was a fortunate choice as I tried to reach the PTU nipple with just my bare hand; not happening. If the vent would have popped off the factory hose, I think I could have completed the mod and fluid change. I'm very frustrated at the lack of success I had with this.
 






Yes, the vent is hard to remove. It is not a twist on/off item. I used a small screwdriver and went around the hose and barb of the vent to "break" the seal and then tugged and wiggle it out. Takes a bit of patience. Did you remove the intake tube and engine cover to get better access?
 






Yes, the vent is hard to remove. It is not a twist on/off item. I used a small screwdriver and went around the hose and barb of the vent to "break" the seal and then tugged and wiggle it out. Takes a bit of patience. Did you remove the intake tube and engine cover to get better access?
Engine cover, yes. Intake, I removed the flexible portion of it that is between two rigid pieces. The one rigid piece that is on the firewall side could not be in a worse position however, I’m not sure that on would be super easy to remove at first glance. I also took the battery out which did help some with the angle of approach, but ultimately still not enough. If I were to take the entire hose off the PTU nipple, I’m sure working on it outside of the vehicle would help tremendously; but I am really hesitant to remove the factory hose completely b/c I don’t think there is enough access for me to install the new “extension” hose in that tight spot directly to the vent nipple.
 






A late model TECH told me that one should change the fluid every 30K miles or so...
 



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I DID IT!! Massive failure on the first try; beat my arms up pretty bad with the attempt. It came down to getting a set of long-reach hose clamp pliers and a long-reach 90-degree set of pliers from Harbor Freight. The hose pliers allowed me to reach and hold the top fo the existing vent hose, so as to not pull it off the PTU, and then the 90-degree pliers allowed the reach to grab the vent and pull it free from the hose with the mechanical locking barb it has on it. After that, a little oil on the brass coupler to assist in attaching the hose extension was pretty easy. My ratchet had just, and I mean just, enough clearance to break the drain plug loose. I was only getting one ratchet click at times. Would be nice to have a more compact option, similar to what Fordmakuloco used on his video; I couldn't find one similar at HF though. My fluid wasn't too bad and the magnet appeared in the typically normal category. Glad I changed it though. Should be easier from now on. BTW, this fluid smells terrible! Not just the old lube, but straight out of the new bottle. Blaahh! Happy wrench turning all. Have a great weekend.
 






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