PTU fluid change frustration

griggs95 said:
This PTU thing has bothered me for such a long time. The fact that it's non serviceable but yet its serviced all the time. Knowing that at some point it will go kaboom is just not cool in my book

The average joe who purchases a vehicle with one of these in it (especially used or out of warranty) will have a really bad day at some point. This is not an obvious thing to look for, especially if the owner takes the time to service an awd system that even a dealer would say is not serviceable. Your car is ready for the snow mrs. Johnson...have a fun time with your kids on vacation...

Has Ford changed there minds on making this a priority service option for those with a PTU? If they haven't, that just makes me even more mad at Ford. I guess its still true that the money is made on selling parts, rather than the vehicle itself.
Click to expand...


Almost every vehicle has a weak point and this is one of ours.  I wonder how much trouble they would give if you changed the oil in them every oil change since the day it was new?  The garbage I pumped out of mine at 42,000 miles makes me believe it's already half way shot.  I think the cat being where it is has a lot to do with it.  Even more so in hot climates and stop and go driving.  Have failures in hot southern climates been more of an occurrence than with us yankees?
 
SilvererSHO said:
griggs95 said:
This PTU thing has bothered me for such a long time. The fact that it's non serviceable but yet its serviced all the time. Knowing that at some point it will go kaboom is just not cool in my book

The average joe who purchases a vehicle with one of these in it (especially used or out of warranty) will have a really bad day at some point. This is not an obvious thing to look for, especially if the owner takes the time to service an awd system that even a dealer would say is not serviceable. Your car is ready for the snow mrs. Johnson...have a fun time with your kids on vacation...

Has Ford changed there minds on making this a priority service option for those with a PTU? If they haven't, that just makes me even more mad at Ford. I guess its still true that the money is made on selling parts, rather than the vehicle itself.
Click to expand...


Almost every vehicle has a weak point and this is one of ours.  I wonder how much trouble they would give if you changed the oil in them every oil change since the day it was new?  The garbage I pumped out of mine at 42,000 miles makes me believe it's already half way shot.  I think the cat being where it is has a lot to do with it.  Even more so in hot climates and stop and go driving.  Have failures in hot southern climates been more of an occurrence than with us yankees?
Click to expand...

Agree totally that every vehicle has a weak point, and most have more than a few. I love this car still to this day but my point was Ford knew this part would need service and if it didn't, you'd be find out the hard way somewhere along your journey. Most likely it would be the average mom/dad that is not an enthusiast like us here.

Even the person that takes the car to the dealer and changes oil severely and makes every possible safety precaution wouldn't know to change this fluid because the dealer wouldn't say to do so. That is my beef with the PTU.

Sorry, just atmospheric venting; not meaning to hijack the thread but, like you said, every car has a weak point.
 
YOUTUBE...DIRTYHARRY 70585
CUT THE BREATHER TUBE TOP OFF AND ADD 5/16 NIPPLE AND EXTEND TUBE AS A FILL HOSE!
USE A PUMP TO SUCK OUT THE OLD OIL VIA 3/8' NUT PLUG.
 
I let my dealer do the change, since Motorcraft Synthetic gets high marks and with my dealer being a BG dealer they also do a cleaning of the PTU with every change.  It is a little expensive but worth it to know the fluid is new and the PTU is clean.
 
Bringing up to live :)

2014 SHO, 25K miles on the dot.
Yesterday came home, very strong, Im talking propane tank blew up on your backyard strong smell came out of the car, my wife thought something with the house, I almost called gas people over, in 5 min smell went away and I noticed its coming form the car, great...
Started reading and came to many posts about PTU, thank you all for all the info I got from this forum
So not to waist anyone time, I got to work, car in the garage, on the jacks, I'm under, my car has one one upper plug, getting to it was a B, capitol B...
Anyway, did my best, sucked out about 12oz of very dark and very, VERY stinky mess, it was liquid but very smelly.
Put in about 14OZ of Motorcraft 75/140
Drove around today, smell still there, here and there, very mild but there, I think all that left over oil that is still in the case giving out some aroma, I am planing to go in again this week and changing it again,
now, what I really wish to do is to drill and tap drain hole on the bottom for complete swap,
I keep seeing reference on the forum for this kind of job, but every time I click on link its ether expired or very bad DYI, anyone has one had I can use, just hate drilling it in the wrong spot :)
or picture would be nice of the plug location if you have one done.

Thank you all once again!!!
 
Just as a warning, if it was puking there may be damage to the strength of the gears.  Obviously swap the fluid as best as possible.. but I'd be cautious of drag racing or hard driving .. did u save the fluid that came out? If so analyzing might save some peace of mind concerning it breaking down on a road trip..

Phone post.. sorry for gramnar
 
Solid instruction, that what I was looking for.

Smell, still bugs the heck out of me, from all of a sudden, nothing to just explosion of the smell, I understand if it was building up, little stronger overtime, but from nothing to all that, wow, crazy stuff, maybe it's a good thing, kind of warning sign, if it wasn't for that I could of been few months too late, I was planing to change at 30K.
Oil still looked "OK" still runny and all, black but runny, anyway interesting how some people never get smell until there is no oil left and other like me get it
Anyway, I did few strong pulls today, ran it kind of hard, no issue, rolls nice, no noises, everything works, great,
Fingers crossed hoping for best.

 
SuperPete said:
Solid instruction, that what I was looking for.

Smell, still bugs the heck out of me, from all of a sudden, nothing to just explosion of the smell, I understand if it was building up, little stronger overtime, but from nothing to all that, wow, crazy stuff, maybe it's a good thing, kind of warning sign, if it wasn't for that I could of been few months too late, I was planing to change at 30K.
Oil still looked "OK" still runny and all, black but runny, anyway interesting how some people never get smell until there is no oil left and other like me get it
Anyway, I did few strong pulls today, ran it kind of hard, no issue, rolls nice, no noises, everything works, great,
Fingers crossed hoping for best.
Click to expand...

Personally I would go ahead and tap your PTU with a drain plug like you mentioned.  Drain that fluid, and then put in some Redline Lightweight Shockproof Fluid.  Your PTU will like you even more, and you will see a significant difference in feel while you drive.
 
I have 18oz of Motorcraft fluid left, today I am sucking  current stuff out and dumping that in today for another "flash process" and after about a week I will drill, tap and put good stuff in it.

Thank you all

 
Quick update.
I did another oil change on PTU today,
This time I was able to suck out little more 14oz VS 12oz last time, trick is to get very flexible thin hose, try to find silicone one that feels very soft and flexy so it drops straight down once you put it in the hole.
This time oil was allot less stinky but still had some odor from leftovers of last time and this time my hand was covered in silver "glitter" nothing large, very fine shavings, I know I know it can be bad thing but you know what, I was laying under the car and thinking to myself, I will not let this PTU ruin my fun, it is what it is, if it fails, I'll replace and move on...
I will drive it like I stole it and have fun with car and what ever comes my way I will deal with, it's not end of the world at $1500...

Anyway, happy with oil change, hoping to do it once again in a month by drilling drain plug.
Car drives great,

Hope this writeup helps other people who is dealing with same issues.

P.S. To drill drain plug you have to remove downpipes to get to the bottom of the PTU with drill, I figured why not get PPE downpipes and upgrade as well :)
Sounds like a plan...

 
SuperPete said:
Quick update.
I did another oil change on PTU today,
This time I was able to suck out little more 14oz VS 12oz last time, trick is to get very flexible thin hose, try to find silicone one that feels very soft and flexy so it drops straight down once you put it in the hole.
This time oil was allot less stinky but still had some odor from leftovers of last time and this time my hand was covered in silver "glitter" nothing large, very fine shavings, I know I know it can be bad thing but you know what, I was laying under the car and thinking to myself, I will not let this PTU ruin my fun, it is what it is, if it fails, I'll replace and move on...
I will drive it like I stole it and have fun with car and what ever comes my way I will deal with, it's not end of the world at $1500...

Anyway, happy with oil change, hoping to do it once again in a month by drilling drain plug.
Car drives great,

Hope this writeup helps other people who is dealing with same issues.

P.S. To drill drain plug you have to remove downpipes to get to the bottom of the PTU with drill, I figured why not get PPE downpipes and upgrade as well :)
Sounds like a plan...
Click to expand...

Just make sure when you drill it go slow and use a generous amount of grease to catch the shavings. esp towards the end.
 
Today is a GOOD Day! I finally figured out source of my smell,
I was looking inside and I noticed that vent hose came off of the PTU vent hole.
SO I pulled that off, the vent cap has filters that are completely clogged up with oil and absolutely not passing air in or out.
SO I guess all the exhaust out of PTU was spitting out some oil on the PTU it self and smelling .
I remove filters out, plugged hose back and I believe that will solver the issue, will update after test drive today-tomorrow.


ONE MONTH LATER EDIT: My PTU just crapped out, LOL, HAHA:  https://www.ecoboostperformanceforum.com/index.php/topic,10231.0.html
 
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