Screwed up tranny fluid and filter change

[caldi55]

I dropped my tranny fluid pan drained it, replaced the filter and replaced the fluid. I had my gf pick up fluid for me and she grabbed some no name fluid that was dexron III, but the truck needs MERCON V. I was told it wouldn't make a difference but now once it runs for a bit it starts over revving and doesn't want to upshift. What actual damage did I do, if any? what can I do to fix it?
PLEASE Help

 

[Robb]

Drain it and put the correct stuff in?

 

[caldi55]

I knew that ROB, does lubeguard work converting Dexron III to Mercon V?
do you have to remove the exhaust to get the pan out??
whos got helpful info
work with me

 

[Brain]

I understand you put in Dextron III/Mercon instead of Mercon V?
There are some differences and it will show up in the clutch wear (the clutches have different clutch friction material), but the hard parts (gears and bushings, pump, etc.) should be fine. But, it's probably best to suck up the $20 in fluid and do a drain/refill w/ the right stuff. There is no way to "convert" one type of fluid to another - one is petroleum base only and the other is a semi-synthetic blend. The only bad thing is that you can't get all of the wrong fluid out - the torque converter doesn't have a drain plug, so it is a matter of putting in mostly the right stuff, then the next change would dilute the wrong stuff futher, and so on.

Here are some links to ATF discussions:
(third post from the top)
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=98027&page=4&pp=20

(whole thread)
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73415&highlight=mercon

You shouldn't have to remove the exhaust to drop the pan.

 

[glfredrick]

On my 97, (4x4) which has the exhaust crossing over under the pan, I have to pull the front driveshaft to get the pan out of the truck. It's no big deal, just a couple of small screws on each end. They take a #27 Torx bit - and the factory loc-tites them in, which makes them difficult to remove the first time. You won't have to do that if you have 2 wheel drive...

The trick is to take a small propane torch (one used for pluming type work) and heating each small bolt for a couple of seconds (up to about 250 degrees) which will release the loc-tite and allow you to easily remove the screws without breaking the tool or rounding off the holes.

I would change out the oil and add lube-guard when re-filling.

 

[caldi55]

Does anyone know of any retailers around boston that sell lubeguard converter???

 

[glfredrick]

Almost any tranny shop will carry that stuff - Don't use some other brand- Lube Guard is the only suppliment that most reputable builders will use.

Just stop in at a couple tranny shops - someone will have it. You might also try NAPA.

Try www.napaonline.com

 

[aldive]

You can simply do a flush letting the tranny pump out the old while you add new ATF. This will get all of it out w/o dropping the pan.

Good luck....

 

[Mbrooks420]

Aldive has the only answer. When you drop the pan you get only 25% of the fluid, Since you put the wrong stuff in, and actually pumped it throught the tranny, ALL of you fluid is contaminated, and need an entire tranny flush. I would use an extra quart or 2 for the flushing to make sure you get it all out.

 

[caldi55]

You can simply do a flush letting the tranny pump out the old while you add new ATF. This will get all of it out w/o dropping the pan.

Good luck....

How do you do that, and if it sucks in air wont it cause damage

 

[Mbrooks420]

You remove the tranny cooler lines that run into the radiator. You put the hot line into an empty bucket. You then put the return line in a bucket willed with fresh ATF. You start the motor and it will pump the old fluid out, and suck the new fluid in. There is a writeup somewhere on the forum. I believe it has to be in a gear to pump the fluid, but I don't remember. I did it once on my other Explorer.

Edit: You also need 2 short pieces of hose, and some clamps to hook opnto the cooler lines.

 

[aldive]

How do you do that, and if it sucks in air wont it cause damage

I disconnected the "to transmission" hose from my remote filter housing. I plugged and clamped the disconnected line and added and hose clamped a 6 ft length of 3/8? line to the housing. The other end went into a calibrated water jug ( 1 gal size ).

We used 15 quarts of Amsoil ATF.

Even though this ATF ( Mobil 1 ) has about 40 k miles on it, it still looked remarkably good, slightly darker in color.

After the flush/fill was completed, I added a new K & N filter to the housing and reattached the hoses.

The procedure took my son and I about 20 minutes to complete. There was no mess since we were well prepared for the flush; nary a drop was spilled.

 

[aldive]

You remove the tranny cooler lines that run into the radiator. You put the hot line into an empty bucket. You then put the return line in a bucket willed with fresh ATF. You start the motor and it will pump the old fluid out, and suck the new fluid in. There is a writeup somewhere on the forum. I believe it has to be in a gear to pump the fluid, but I don't remember. I did it once on my other Explorer.

Edit: You also need 2 short pieces of hose, and some clamps to hook opnto the cooler lines.

The tranny will NOT suck the new fluid outof a container; it must be poured into the fill tube.

 

[caldi55]

When you drop the pan you get only 25% of the fluid,

Thats some great advice, referenced out your ass
I did it yesterday and dropping the pan removed 5 Qts (a lot of which ended up on my driveway). Thats almost all of it.

 

[snocross1985]

Actually the whole system hold around 10-12 quarts. When you drop the pan you do not get all the fluid out. So 5 quarts would be about 40-50% . That is not almost all. YOU WILL NEED TO FLUSH THE SYSTEM TO GET ALL THE CONTAMINATED FLUID OUT.

Thats some great advice, referenced out your ass

And is your comment absolutely necessary?

 

[caldi55]

My comment had a light hearted joking tone but i guess that didnt come across that way.
i appologise

I understand that the torqe converter holds some of the fluid, I am unaware of the transmission holding 10 Qts. I will have to look into that

 

[Mbrooks420]

Though you may talk out of your ass, I don't use mine for refference, thank you. In any case doing a pan drop gets less than half of the fluid. In which case you still have 50%+ contaminated. Straight from my factory service cd:
Motor Liters Quarts
Aerostar, Ranger, Explorer 4R55E ³ 4.0L ³ 9.3 ³ 9.8

 

[Opera House]

If you got problems, you had problems allready. Did you check your bolts and was the filter REALLY secured? Forget the O rings? I ran straight Mercon in my 97 for a couple of months to clean out the system and it didn't change anything. Over a long term, there is a difference. Anytime you touch a transmission, there is a chance of something happening. The Mercon didn't do it. And don't blame it on your girlfriend.

 

[caldi55]

Im not blaming it on anyone, I may not have known that the tranny held 10Qts, ok I admit that (And I shouldn't have got sarcastic with MBROOKS) but I know that I don't half ass my work. I didn't have problems before. This was a routine maintenance that I had not yet done on this vehicle. I am not blaming the mercon in fact the whole problem is I didn't use mercon V. I used Dexron III after being told by one of the shops around here that it wouldn't make a diff. I thought I could trust this shops advice but it screwed me and now its looking like im going to have to pay $100 to have it flushed properly.
as I seem to only get conflicting advice on the best way to do it myself.

 

[Brain]

Even if you pay somebody to flush it, it still is not going to be 100% decontaminated. Let me give an example so everybody can understand:
I have a small pond holding 100,000 gallons and I spill some Methlyethyl Keytone (MEK - goes into solution w/ water, it doesn't float like oil). I want to clean out the pond so I put a firehose in one end putting out 500 gallons per minute and a big pump to the sewer on the other end that sucks out 500 gallons per minute. How long does it take to get ALL of the MEK out of the pond? A lot longer than 2000 minutes (500gpmX200min=100,000gal), that's for sure (it's actually infinite, but if you set a threshold - say 1%, it is possible). The new water mixes with the old stuff and that diluted mixture is what is pumped out. It is an exponential function of several variables (but that crap will bore most people to death). It's one of those "go half-way to the wall" over and over and never getting there.

So here we have a transmission pump that sucks from a pan (the first "pond") filled with contaminated fluid, pumps it through some of the ACTIVATED parts (the non-activated parts will not be flushed), through the converter (another "pond"), through the cooler and then back to the pan. Pulling the lines to/from the trans and flushing with even 50 quarts won't get rid ALL of the contamination, but use your best judgement. Running a transmission for even a short amount of time will cause damage, so don't try to pump it all out and then refill it.