PTU service question | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

PTU service question

Diveshard

Well-Known Member
Joined
October 9, 2018
Messages
113
Reaction score
5
Location
Gatineau, Quebec
City, State
Gatineau, QC, Canada
Year, Model & Trim Level
2016 Explorer XLT V6
I have been reading over the last year people servicing their power transfer unit. I wasn't going to do it myself but thought since there is ALLLOT of discussion on this topic on this forum I should check to have it done also.
So I called my ford dealership to get clarification on this service and they basically said if its not leaking, if I dont pull anything and if there is no jerking to not touch this. And they even said servicing the PTU is not under any recommended service after such and such and amount of mileage. I thought this would be a good knowledge share on this site for all. Can anyone explain why so many on this site are servicing their PTU's?
thanks
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Ford is FOS, the oil gets cooked and then the PTU goes out. Way better to keep fresh gear oil in there. They aren't the first to pull something like this. BMW was selling their transmissions as "lifetime fill" but people figured out if you want it to last past 100k you need to change the fluid. I think they eventually started recommending fluid changes.

As long as the PTU lasts past the warranty period they don't GAF.
 






So with my car at 70 thousand KM should I get the PTU oil changed?
 






I would! Seems like most people are shooting for every 30k miles. I bought my Explorer used with 100k miles and I'm sure this had never been done, the oil is quite black. I've changed it three times and it still comes out very black.
 






So with my car at 70 thousand KM should I get the PTU oil changed?
Check your Owner's Manual, page 489. The Manual itself seems to be a little at odds with itself. On page 490 it says to change it every 30k miles or 48k km.
On page 491 it says changing the PTU fluid is not necessary unless operated under certain conditions. Accordingly, there is supposed to be a message that will indicate when servicing is required. So if Ford is going by what is shown on page 491, their answer to you was technically correct.

Peter
 






I changed mine @ 60k miles and had it analyzed at Blackstone.
It was darker than new fluid, but it wasn't black like others have seen.
Blackstone said it was in very good condition and more representative of a 30k fluid.
If I have the vehicle to 100k, I'll probably change it again.
 






Reminds me of those trying to convince everyone to change their engine oil at 3 months
or 3K miles. Piece of mind for me changing the PTU gear oil, why would one want to risk
destroying an expensive part like this ?
 






Check your Owner's Manual, page 489. The Manual itself seems to be a little at odds with itself. On page 490 it says to change it every 30k miles or 48k km.
On page 491 it says changing the PTU fluid is not necessary unless operated under certain conditions. Accordingly, there is supposed to be a message that will indicate when servicing is required. So if Ford is going by what is shown on page 491, their answer to you was technically correct.

Peter
Same as what ford does with their website and online maintenance schedules. They change things in one area, but not another, or from one model year to the next, or from one page to the next. Lots of contradictory info that you think they would be able to keep straight.

At the end of the day, there are certain "industry standards" or "best practices" for a lot of things, like vehicle maintenance. One can either choose to follow them or disregard them for the old "maintenance free" schtick...

Best of luck.
 






To me, the contributing factors to deciding to do this or not are:
  • Is it something you can do yourself? If not, dealership might charge as much as $400 for the service, so consider not doing, and putting that money toward "insurance" if PTU does quit.
  • How long will you own the car? the longer, the more likely I'd do it.
  • Which model year do you have? The later ones, have cooling, such as ducts to direct air against it (so not as important to change). Conversely, the later ones also tend to have easier drain/fill opporunities, making the DIY job more approachable.
 












Check your Owner's Manual, page 489. The Manual itself seems to be a little at odds with itself. On page 490 it says to change it every 30k miles or 48k km.
On page 491 it says changing the PTU fluid is not necessary unless operated under certain conditions. Accordingly, there is supposed to be a message that will indicate when servicing is required. So if Ford is going by what is shown on page 491, their answer to you was technically correct.

Peter
Pete: Does anyone know how long it would take a dealer to replace the PTU on a 2013 Explorer Sport??? I hope they don't have to remove the tranny or anything else to do it. Thanks Honky.
 






I don't have the answer as I never had to have mine replaced. Perhaps there may be some info here; PTU Problems

Peter
 






For those of you who do decide to change fluid in the Power Transfer Unit (PTU), I've attached a PDF of the process I use when changing fluid. In addition to the PDF, check out the following from this forum for a description and excellent photos. https://www.explorerforum.com/forums/index.php?threads/ptu-oil-change-tons-of-pics-2016-explorer-sport.462691/
I used the photo info and then created the PDF for my own use. Not sure what other Explorer years or models the PDF will cover. Hope it helps someone.
 

Attachments

  • Changing Fluid in Power Transfer Unit.pdf
    92 KB · Views: 284






Pete: Does anyone know how long it would take a dealer to replace the PTU on a 2013 Explorer Sport??? I hope they don't have to remove the tranny or anything else to do it. Thanks Honky.
According to my service receipt the Dealer charged 5.3 hours labor on my 2016 that has the cooling system plumbing. If your 2013 Sport doesn't have coolant lines so it should be a little less labor hours.



PTU repair 12:6:18 copy.jpg
 






According to my service receipt the Dealer charged 5.3 hours labor on my 2016 that has the cooling system plumbing. If your 2013 Sport doesn't have coolant lines so it should be a little less labor hours.



View attachment 174597
ExPlat, thank you for the reply. Took my '13 Sport to the dealer today as they are going to start to replace the PTU starting at 8 am tomorrow (Oct. 9, 2019). I will ask them how long it took and let everyone know. It showed leaks at 3K but, since then and until last week when I did an oil change, appeared to have gone away. But, now it's back at 30K. I will let all of you know what they tell me as far as the time required. I have the trailer towing option, but I don't know if mine is a COOLED version for the PTU. Luckily, as is my way, I bought an extended warranty from the dealership and it appears that they are going to honor it (they told me last week--no cost to me). My warranty goes on for another 31K or until Oct. 2023. I do about 3.5--4K a year now. So, we will see. I'm 78 and hope to outlive the warranty. I drive them off the dealer's lot and then 15 to 20 years later, have the tow truck come over and take them away. That's just my way of doing vehicles as we don't put that many miles on them in a year. (3--4K). My concern initially was that someone had said that the dealer would have to remove the tranny to replace the PTU. Never made sense then and not now. Kinda scared me as that could cause (repairer mistakes) that could come back to haunt me at a later date. Yeah, I know Pete likes for us to get to it and get off--but, that's not my style as you can see. God be with you all. Clarence E. Floyd, cfloyd720@msn.com
 






ExPlat, thank you for the reply. Took my '13 Sport to the dealer today as they are going to start to replace the PTU starting at 8 am tomorrow (Oct. 9, 2019). I will ask them how long it took and let everyone know. It showed leaks at 3K but, since then and until last week when I did an oil change, appeared to have gone away. But, now it's back at 30K. I will let all of you know what they tell me as far as the time required. I have the trailer towing option, but I don't know if mine is a COOLED version for the PTU. Luckily, as is my way, I bought an extended warranty from the dealership and it appears that they are going to honor it (they told me last week--no cost to me). My warranty goes on for another 31K or until Oct. 2023. I do about 3.5--4K a year now. So, we will see. I'm 78 and hope to outlive the warranty. I drive them off the dealer's lot and then 15 to 20 years later, have the tow truck come over and take them away. That's just my way of doing vehicles as we don't put that many miles on them in a year. (3--4K). My concern initially was that someone had said that the dealer would have to remove the tranny to replace the PTU. Never made sense then and not now. Kinda scared me as that could cause (repairer mistakes) that could come back to haunt me at a later date. Yeah, I know Pete likes for us to get to it and get off--but, that's not my style as you can see. God be with you all. Clarence E. Floyd, cfloyd720@msn.com
May I have the envelope please! Got the vehicle back from the dealer yesterday. AND, it looks like the PTU swap took 5 3/4 hours to the tune of $660 labor, $939.55 for the PTU and $58.72 sales tax for a total of $1,658.27. Was done under an extended warranty--so, no cost to me (whew!). Got the warranty for stuff like this and all that technology on the dashboard, turbos, AC ( replaced the compressor last year), etc., etc. Honky.
 






You guys are getting your PTUs replaced just for leaks? Is there no way to replace the seals? My PTU appears to be leaking from the output to the propshaft. I'm not sure how fast it's leaking, but when I replaced the fluid after I bought it (@ 100K) it didn't appear to be very low.
 






Many have had just the seals replaced.

Peter
 









Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





My dealer made the decision. At no cost--I went along with the decision. Honky.
Probably a good choice. Perhaps dealers aren't taking any chances given the problems with the PTU.

Peter
 






Back
Top