small metal bits in tranny pan

[kennychainsaw]

I found some small metal parts in the bucket after changing my transmission filter. (see picture below) The small fragment was stuck to the magnet. The small round things do not stick to a magnet.

The fluid was practically black. A few months ago, it failed to go forward after stopping at a stop sign. I had to put into second in order to move. At this point, I bought a siphon pump and took out a quart, replaced a quart, then did the same thing the next day. It ran better and I didn't experience failure to move. Today was a day off of work, and I used it to work on the truck! To my dismay, it looks like some parts of a valve or something was left down in the pan...

the truck is a 2001 Ford Ranger, Edge. 3.0L 6cyl, Automatic transmission.

What should I do?

 

[Josh B]

Check the reply on the other post you made

 

[Dirtman]

Start saving for a new transmission...

 

[Craig0320]

Clutch dust is normal in the trans pan but not that.

 

[Dirtman]

Even without the mystery chunks, once the fluid gets bad enough to become black the damage is done.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

Dump the autotragic for a manual.

 

[snoranger]

Those are perfectly normal to find in there... they’re part of the pan gasket.

 

[Dirtman]

Never seen those and I reused my pan gasket 5 times now.

Guess the earlier gaskets were different. I'm still more concerned with the black fluid.

 

[Josh B]

Never seen those and I reused my pan gasket 5 times now.

Guess the earlier gaskets were different. I'm still more concerned with the black fluid.

They're in older cork type gaskets and keep the bolts from pulling the pan in too far on the gasket

 

[Dirtman]

Ahhh I see. My gasket is steel cored rubber so no weird gizmos on it.

 

[sheep herder]

Ahhh I see. My gasket is steel cored rubber so no weird gizmos on it.

Your transmission has a weird gizmo operating it.

 

[Dirtman]

Your transmission has a weird gizmo operating it.

Cant argue that...

But I'm no expert but I have torn that thing apart many times and learned every nut, bolt, valve, solenoid, etc. They are not great transmissions... but if you care for them well beyond what the owners manual tells you, and upgrade it a bit they can be fairly reliable. They have a suprising amount of aftermarket support for repair and upgrade parts. Nothing like a c4 or c6 but sonnax has kits to essentially fix every known issue they ever have. At 65k I tore mine down and did it all. It runs like a beast now. Best thing I ever did was disable the adaptive shift control and let it shift hard and fast like it should. That lowered the operating temps more than my auxiliary cooler did. Adaptive shift control is the stupidest thing ever created. Its whole reason for existence is to make the shifts smoother for the driver at the cost of generating tons of heat in having slow overlapped shifts. An automatic works best with rock hard shifts.

 

[Josh B]

Cant argue that...

But I'm no expert but I have torn that thing apart many times and learned every nut, bolt, valve, solenoid, etc. They are not great transmissions... but if you care for them well beyond what the owners manual tells you, and upgrade it a bit they can be fairly reliable. They have a suprising amount of aftermarket support for repair and upgrade parts. Nothing like a c4 or c6 but sonnax has kits to essentially fix every known issue they ever have. At 65k I tore mine down and did it all. It runs like a beast now. Best thing I ever did was disable the adaptive shift control and let it shift hard and fast like it should. That lowered the operating temps more than my auxiliary cooler did. Adaptive shift control is the stupidest thing ever created. Its whole reason for existence is to make the shifts smoother for the driver at the cost of generating tons of heat in having slow overlapped shifts. An automatic works best with rock hard shifts.

Very interesting Dirtman! I hope you wrote a thread on that

 

[19Walt93]

Gm transmissions used to shift "smooth" and slushy and die young, Torquflights shifted harsh and rude but didn't fail unless someone backed down the TV adjustment,C4's would often burn them selves up under hard use. I used to remove an accumulator that we called the hockey puck to firm up the 1-2 shift and make them live a lot longer and just explain the new firmer shifts to the customers. Then the Fairmonts showed up weighing less than a Pinto so the firmer shift sounded like someone hit the floor with a rubber hammer so I started using the hockey puck with the tiny hole in them instead. Until electronic shift solenoids came along a smooth shift meant slippage.

 

[Dirtman]

Very interesting Dirtman! I hope you wrote a thread on that

I'll write a thread on your face!