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dropping the transmission
- Thread starter buchshot1
- Start date
this is where problems come to roost
this is where problems come to roost
maintained means fluid is kept clean and cool. these boxes are reliable in the hands of someone that is willing to follow the basic rules to promote auto tranny longevity. which includes sane driving. this or any other auto transmission in its native form is not designed to be "raced for the entire service life".
i have had 2 aod trannys with 430k between them. the tbird is still in my garage with 159k and ticking. this car was bought new as my teen son's first car. the down the road, town car was flat abused including towing overloaded and long hot fast drives. the tranny never failed becaues of a big trans cooler and regular service including 30k oil changes under normal service and 15k during heavy service.
additionally, i have ridden in 500 dulles flyer cabs with aod trannys and all from my memory were high mileage, meaning approaching 500k. discussions with these drivers is what prompted me to consider fix or repair daily again.
furthermore, there are a lot of high mileage markviii's hanging about. mine is a 192k version that has been even more reliable than my 280k town car. heck that engine had the afront to require plug wires every 50k. this one gets irridium plugs and a 1 cop every 100k. this darn lincoln might outlive me. happy motoring...tom
this is where problems come to roost
Sorry but FMC Transmissions are total crap until 98.
My 1996 Transmission Failed at 80k miles
(1994 Mark) Another fellow members transmission failed at 90k.
(1995 Mark) Another fellow members failed at 110, and then again at 140k.
At least 2 were well maintained.... there are countless transmission failures of the 4r70w in pre 98 models... where as the rare failures I have heard of in the 98 models were due to increadibly high mileage or increased HP due to super charging etc. I have been around Mark VIIIs since 2000 so I have heard and seen plenty.
Tons die right around 80-120k. Expecting the 93-97 transmissions to last to 200k miles is madness... hell even these engines die right around 150-200k miles.
maintained means fluid is kept clean and cool. these boxes are reliable in the hands of someone that is willing to follow the basic rules to promote auto tranny longevity. which includes sane driving. this or any other auto transmission in its native form is not designed to be "raced for the entire service life".
i have had 2 aod trannys with 430k between them. the tbird is still in my garage with 159k and ticking. this car was bought new as my teen son's first car. the down the road, town car was flat abused including towing overloaded and long hot fast drives. the tranny never failed becaues of a big trans cooler and regular service including 30k oil changes under normal service and 15k during heavy service.
additionally, i have ridden in 500 dulles flyer cabs with aod trannys and all from my memory were high mileage, meaning approaching 500k. discussions with these drivers is what prompted me to consider fix or repair daily again.
furthermore, there are a lot of high mileage markviii's hanging about. mine is a 192k version that has been even more reliable than my 280k town car. heck that engine had the afront to require plug wires every 50k. this one gets irridium plugs and a 1 cop every 100k. this darn lincoln might outlive me. happy motoring...tom
With the above statement, I should qualify that I purchased my car with 94,000 miles on it and from the appearance of the fluid when I changed it (and swapped out the 1/2 accumulator AND just because I feel like I need to say it I literally drove this car from the place I bought it to my garage and performed that swap before driving it any further) no one had ever done any service to the transmission at all. So now it is failing, but that's not that much of a surprise.
I am of the opinion that most of us are 2nd or 3rd owners of our cars, and you really have no control over what the person before you did or did not do in terms of transmission maintenance. That being said, I think that is why many Mark VIII transmissions fail at 100-120K.
I am of the opinion that most of us are 2nd or 3rd owners of our cars, and you really have no control over what the person before you did or did not do in terms of transmission maintenance. That being said, I think that is why many Mark VIII transmissions fail at 100-120K.
ditto
ditto
in my opinion. it is a crap shoot where purchasers have a great disadvantage since most automobile owners don't know or care about keeping the tranny clean and cool. i have never seen statistics on the failure rates of these units and until i logged in here have never heard such carping about these particular transmissions. here is s tip tho, if there is a big transmission cooler on the prospect you can buy with more confidence if not expect the worst and make your offer accordingly.
on another note if i had a box that was slipping i would try type f fluid before i invested in the rebuild since f is sticker than v you just might get more service out of the box but if you don't whats to loose?
on this same vein i own vehicles from another manufacture that is stuck on stupid. Mercedes tells owners that the fluid is designed to last the life of the transmission. they don't even provide a dip stick to check the fluid level. they call it a tool. i replaced my oil at 30k and every 15k since when i found out i could only replace the 4qts in the pan. for the past several years i have been evacuating the oil through the dipstick tube with a pump. removing the t oil using this tool makes removing and replacing tranny oil easier than doing engine oil. you might want to try it between filter changes.
i gave up on installing drain plugs since they always leaked.
carpe diem
ditto
With the above statement, I should qualify that I purchased my car with 94,000 miles on it and from the appearance of the fluid when I changed it (and swapped out the 1/2 accumulator AND just because I feel like I need to say it I literally drove this car from the place I bought it to my garage and performed that swap before driving it any further) no one had ever done any service to the transmission at all. So now it is failing, but that's not that much of a surprise.
I am of the opinion that most of us are 2nd or 3rd owners of our cars, and you really have no control over what the person before you did or did not do in terms of transmission maintenance. That being said, I think that is why many Mark VIII transmissions fail at 100-120K.
in my opinion. it is a crap shoot where purchasers have a great disadvantage since most automobile owners don't know or care about keeping the tranny clean and cool. i have never seen statistics on the failure rates of these units and until i logged in here have never heard such carping about these particular transmissions. here is s tip tho, if there is a big transmission cooler on the prospect you can buy with more confidence if not expect the worst and make your offer accordingly.
on another note if i had a box that was slipping i would try type f fluid before i invested in the rebuild since f is sticker than v you just might get more service out of the box but if you don't whats to loose?
on this same vein i own vehicles from another manufacture that is stuck on stupid. Mercedes tells owners that the fluid is designed to last the life of the transmission. they don't even provide a dip stick to check the fluid level. they call it a tool. i replaced my oil at 30k and every 15k since when i found out i could only replace the 4qts in the pan. for the past several years i have been evacuating the oil through the dipstick tube with a pump. removing the t oil using this tool makes removing and replacing tranny oil easier than doing engine oil. you might want to try it between filter changes.
i gave up on installing drain plugs since they always leaked.
carpe diem