tranny fluid level

[rednose]

I had my tranny fluid and filter changed at about 40 thousand miles and now I have 83 thousand, I am having some problems with it hanging in overdrive and not wanting to downshift when I give it gas, it groans when on the highway trying to come out of overdrive on hills but has done this for quite some time. I take it to the dealer and he says it looks like a good time to put in a new tranny for 2500 bucks, but the mechanic says it wasnt uncommon for them to make mistakes and put dextron 3 instead of mercon 5, so he looks a little closer and smells the fluid and says it looks good but smells a little burnt but not bad, then the biggie... he says that it is overfilled by at least a quart and that it shouldnt be like that, could this cause problems? he looked at the service guy and shut up. I have heard that these trannies are sensitive to the right level.
98 sohc with auto 5 sp

 

[Bill Kemp]

I would go to a jiffy lube or some such place and have the fluid changed. Then change the filter right after. The reason for the filter is that X dont have a very strong trans. pump and if the filter is a little cloged it puts a strain on the pump.
Who knows? You may have damaged your trans. but this is the cheapest way to find out. Plus you are for sure not hurting anything.
Go for it.....

 

[Robert]

If you look at the side of your transmission, you will notice a 1/4" metal line coming out of the side by the catalytic converter. This is your vent line for your tansmission. If your transmission gets too hot, your fluid will come out the vent. Too much fluid isn't a problem. If the pressure built up too high, it would come out the vent. One quart would not be a problem. At worst you would have the fluid leak out if you towed a heavy load, went 4x4ing in the desert sun or pulled a lot of grades going up and down mountains.

One thing to keep in mind though is to never trust a place doing work on your vehicle. Always check all fluids even if the shop tells you they are full. It shouldn't have taken 40K miles to discover you were over by a quart in your transmission.

 

[janikphoto]

I was gonna start my own thread on a trans question (maybe I still will since this isn't the exact same prob) but I thought y'all may have an answer for me too. The wife's 1998 v6 explorer has 95k miles on it and I just changed the trans fluid and filter recently. Everything ran super smooth up til then and I knew it was way over due but the car hasn't needed any fixes this whole time. So I change the stuff and now it is taking a few seconds to kick into reverse. You start it, put in in reverse and then it sits for a moment and then kinda' bumps or kicks in. Is it just low on fluid? I thought I put in the same amount that I took out...

 

[RTStork]

Originally posted by janikphoto
I was gonna start my own thread on a trans question (maybe I still will since this isn't the exact same prob) but I thought y'all may have an answer for me too. The wife's 1998 v6 explorer has 95k miles on it and I just changed the trans fluid and filter recently. Everything ran super smooth up til then and I knew it was way over due but the car hasn't needed any fixes this whole time. So I change the stuff and now it is taking a few seconds to kick into reverse. You start it, put in in reverse and then it sits for a moment and then kinda' bumps or kicks in. Is it just low on fluid? I thought I put in the same amount that I took out...

If you haven't ever changed the fluid till 95k miles you may have just ruined your tranny. Most people will agree that if you wait this long, the tranny can start to "slip". If its never been changed with high miles, the recommendation is usually to not change it. Several trannies have died because of this. Hopefully its just slipping until the new fluid has a chance to get moved around and coat the tranny parts.

 

[aldive]

You might want to consider adding an auxillary transmission filter.

Take a look at Dead Link Removed

 

[janikphoto]

That's an interesting and hopefully correct theory cause I don't want a wrecked trans. I know I shouldn't have waited so long, but it was running silky-smooth the whole time even up to the fluid/filter change... No it hesitates for a sec or so when it first goes into reverse... It's only been a few hundred miles since the change, let's hope for the best!!!