hawkeye18

I changed out my transmission fluid recently, and decided to take a sample for analysis. The sample was taken with the fluid warm and in mid-stream (neither at the beginning nor the end of the drain cycle).

The transmission whines in all gears except 5th. Now I'm wondering if there's more wrong. The car has never seen extended high-temp conditions (race track), nor has it ever been powershifted. Yes, it's been to the drag strip (<10 runs), but again, no power shifting, and all driveline components are stock, including wheels and tires, so there's nothing more than stock HP levels going through the transmission.

So, let me know what you think.

The synchros are copper, are they not?

2k7gtcs

What's with all the calcium?

jlmounce

That's disturbing. my transmission as well whines in gears 1-4 and 6th. It's going to a new dealership next week for review of this problem. We'll see what they say.

MyStang2010GB

Milk... it does the tranny good??

JScottGT

I wouldn't be too worried about that first analysis. When compared to their "normal" numbers most of them don't seem all that bad. I also wonder where the calcium is coming from. I'd say to follow their recommendations and send another sample at 20k miles. The "high" values on most of these may just be from all the bearings and synchros breaking in. Out of curiosity, what fluid did you put in there when you changed it out?

Overboost

Which replacement fluid did you use?

TM4686

I've had mine since last October, I've got a constant whine in all gears besides 5th too. I've been wanting to take it in but I've got long tube headers and a tune, so I'm not wanting to have to go down the road where there saying its caused from that just so there not bothered by it. I did buy the Strano short shifter with the better tranny fluid, it's shifts smoother but still whines.

kylerohde

Scroll down on this page and you'll see what the calcium is: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/engine-oil-analysis/

3Mach1

Keep us posted Hawk the wear numbers dont lie. Thanks for posting this.

jlmounce

It's the higher copper and zinc levels that worry my. Especially the copper is bearing material.

It is a little early to completely make a decision one way or the other, more analysis would be needed. However based on preliminary information this could possibly be seen as a slow degredation of material within the transmission. It could lead to a situation where by the time the unit actually fails, you're long out of warranty.

montreal ponies

I'm glad i did an early change to Redline MTL. Did you bring your car to the dealership to have it looked at !

fake

Me to. I switched to Red Line MTL in the first 1k miles.

jlmounce

One thing I've been thinking about, specifically with the whine issue is location of people who are having the issue.

I'm talking out of my *** here, so take it for what it's worth, I'm not a transmission expert, nor do I know all the inner-workings of this unit.

It would be interesting to see if climate is affecting this at all. Some of us are running the vehicle in cold whether, which we know alters viscosity levels at least during warm-up. If Ford chose the wrong fluid initially in the transmission that caused congealing in cold whether (this would also affect shift effort), it's possible that lubrication starvation could be the root cause. It would be akin to running the transmission with no oil at all. The first thing to go would be the bearings.

Anybody have any thoughts on that?

Hytek

That's what I've been thinking lately too. During the warm weather my car shifted like butter, now that it's colder here I'm getting the 1-2 and 2-3 crunch. And notchyness in every gear. It's not 100% of the time, but it's happening a lot more now.

montreal ponies

My car is still shifting fine even though it is getting colder. Thing is , i keep it in a heated garage at all times, so when i go for a drive, the oil is still at room temperature, so not much i can report on unless i leave it sitting outside on a cold night. I'll be storing the car in about 1 month, so i'm not gonna be much help here.

hawkeye18

Well then it's a good thing I have a 7 year / 70,000 mile warranty.

I haven't taken it to the dealer yet, as given the average IQ levels in the southern MD area I don't have much faith in any dealer in the area. I'll wait and see what develops.

SD CALSPCL

I had the fluid TSB done just for the cold weather shifting. Even though I had over 13000 miles on it when done. I used 2nd gear starts last winter until she warmed up. Today it was 28 degrees (F) and the 1-2 shift right out of the box was perfect. I have a little over 500 miles on it since the change and no whine, just nice smooth shifts. So, heres hoping this holds up, since, as I said before, I love this car.