'21 transmission leak

[Kiab]

Well, put about 100 miles on this morning with a trailer, that weighed about 5k for the last 70 miles. Most of it had the cruise set at 70, but when I stopped on the off ramp saw steam/smoke rolling up from under the pickup. Opened the door and immediately smelled something burning.
Pulled into the closest parking lot and saw fluid covering the front of the trailer, and the underside of the pickup. Looked to be leaking from the rear of the transmission pan, directly onto the exhaust causing the smell and smoke.

Let it cool down, went the last mile home, put the Chevy on the trailer and took the Ford straight to the dealer.

Luckily only 50k miles so hopefully covered under warranty, whatever it is.

Maybe unrelated, but noticed in tow haul transmission would never shift out of 9th. Anyone know if that is normal behaviour?

Sponsored

 

[jhelrey]

You wouldn't have to worry if you had a Ford ESP.

 

[Ricksc]

Normal for tow haul to lock out 9and 10. I have noticed on very flat it will hit 9th rarely. As far as smoking and leaking nope. I pulled my 6000 pound trailer with my 3.5 eco did great 950 miles. Very rarely hit 9th.

 

[Kiab]

You wouldn't have to worry if you had a Ford ESP.

Wouldn't have to worry if my transmission didn't blow fluid out the back end at 50k lol

 

[Kiab]

Normal for tow haul to lock out 9and 10. I have noticed on very flat it will hit 9th rarely. As far as smoking and leaking nope. I pulled my 6000 pound trailer with my 3.5 eco did great 950 miles. Very rarely hit 9th.

Only time I really paid attention was dead flat at 70, so makes sense it would hit 9th. I figured that was a feature of tow haul.

 

[Ricksc]

When mine hit 9th at 70 flat land my mpg tanked lol. Manually dropped it to 8th

 

[Kiab]

You wouldn't have to worry if you had a Ford ESP.

In all seriousness, I was pricing these from Granger just a few days ago.

Does anyone have experience with the aftermarket aluminum pans such as This

Wondering if it's worth the upgrade if a cracked pan is the problem.

 

[fordtruckman2003]

Power train warranty should cover it.

Adding ESP at 50k would require inspection at dealer.

 

[Kiab]

Well, if anyone else has a similar problem I heard from the dealer today.

Apparently back in 2021 well before I owned it, a dealership replaced a valve body in the transmission on warranty. When they refilled the transmission they overfilled it. With "normal" driving it never caused a problem but with the trailer the oil warmed up though that it was blowing out the breather tube.
They said even with the amount that had come out it was still significantly over the max fill mark, so they drained it to the appropriate level. No cracks, damage, etc.

Of course, since another dealer was in there Ford warranty won't cover it, but they knocked it down to a half hour of labor to get it inspected and taken care of. Just glad it wasn't something major. Will definitely keep an eye on it but sounds like should be good to go.

Will also be curious if fluid level affects driving. I have had it in for a warranty relearn to correct hard shifting about 4k miles ago so will see how it drives now vs before.

 

[fordtruckman2003]

Would have expected dealer work under warranty to be covered under warranty. That is dumb.

Transmission relearn sucks. I use sport mode to force it to use the gears and it seems to learn better. I think Snakebitten was the one that mentioned that and I've done it twice now with good results.

Hopefully you have no further issues from it. These transmissions have been mostly trouble free for most of us.

 

[FaaWrenchBndr]

I thought it was best practice to lock out 9th and 10th when towing?

 

[FaaWrenchBndr]

Well, put about 100 miles on this morning with a trailer, that weighed about 5k for the last 70 miles. Most of it had the cruise set at 70, but when I stopped on the off ramp saw steam/smoke rolling up from under the pickup. Opened the door and immediately smelled something burning.
Pulled into the closest parking lot and saw fluid covering the front of the trailer, and the underside of the pickup. Looked to be leaking from the rear of the transmission pan, directly onto the exhaust causing the smell and smoke.

Let it cool down, went the last mile home, put the Chevy on the trailer and took the Ford straight to the dealer.

Luckily only 50k miles so hopefully covered under warranty, whatever it is.

Maybe unrelated, but noticed in tow haul transmission would never shift out of 9th. Anyone know if that is normal behaviour?

By chance did they say exactly where the leak originated ? I would think the transmission got a bit warm and pushed fluid out the vent. It would be nice to have known what the transmission temperature reached.

 

[Kiab]

By chance did they say exactly where the leak originated ? I would think the transmission got a bit warm and pushed fluid out the vent. It would be nice to have known what the transmission temperature reached.

That's exactly what happened. Agreed on knowing where the temp was. To be honest couldn't find the trans temp, and was more focused on getting it off the road! Little unnerving for smoke to be rolling up around you... But now I'm curious where temp was as well.

 

[Kiab]

Would have expected dealer work under warranty to be covered under warranty. That is dumb.

Transmission relearn sucks. I use sport mode to force it to use the gears and it seems to learn better. I think Snakebitten was the one that mentioned that and I've done it twice now with good results.

Hopefully you have no further issues from it. These transmissions have been mostly trouble free for most of us.

It's interesting you say that. I was having the common hard shift between 3 and 4, and relearn seems to have taken care of it. Have put any 5k on since. However, if I go into sport mode that 3-4 shift seems to get much harder then the others.

Sponsored