Eddy Kilowatt

My hatch lifts itself as soon as I release the latch. Maybe your gas struts are just a little tired?

Well, I don't really have a dog in this, um, conversation... and I've never done more than an oil change on my van, so I'm not claiming any hands-on experience... but what you are saying is not what the shop manual says. Under "Engine Cooling, System Operation", these are direct copy-paste from the manual: "Transmission Fluid Heater Coolant Control Valve The transmission fluid heater coolant control valve is an electrically controlled solenoid to allow or block the flow of engine coolant. This electrically controllable valve is normally closed when not energized. The valve receives a fused 12V B+ supply when the ignition is in the run or start position and is grounded by the PCM via a low side driver. The PCM monitors the solenoid and circuits for electrical faults and sets an appropriate DTC." "Transmission Fluid Cooler Coolant Control Valve The transmission fluid cooler coolant control valve is an electrically controlled solenoid to redirect the flow of engine coolant. This electrically controllable valve is normally closed when not energized. The valve receives a fused 12V B+ supply when the ignition is in the run or start position and is grounded by the PCM via a low side driver. The PCM monitors the solenoid and circuits for electrical faults and sets an appropriate DTC." "The transmission cooler - warmer is mounted on the transmission. On initial startup, the transmission fluid heater coolant control valve opens and allows warm coolant from the engine to enter the transmission cooler - warmer to warm the transmission fluid. As the engine and transmission warm, the transmission fluid heater coolant control valve closes and the transmission fluid cooler coolant control valve opens, allowing cooler coolant from the radiator to enter the transmission cooler - warmer to cool the transmission fluid." Bottom line, the valves are electrically controlled by the PCM (Powertrain Control Module), and they are used to both warm and cool the trans fluid, depending on whether hot or cold coolant is sent to the heat exchanger.

The trans is not the only source of heat in the system. According to the shop manual (303-03B, Engine Cooling), the TCs have a coolant valve that is specifically called the "transmission heater coolant control valve" (item 24 in the Engine Cooling diagram above), whose job is to direct hot coolant to the transmission heat exchanger for the purpose of speeding the warmup of the trans fluid. Ford seems to have a temperature they want that trans fluid to be at, and they seem to want it to get to that temp faster than just letting the trans warm the fluid up. I haven't dove into it far enough to figure out how that plays with the "transmission cooler bypass valve" on the fluid side of the heat exchanger, but anyone contemplating mods would probably do well to understand how the whole system is supposed to work -- both heating and cooling the trans fluid -- before adding additional cooling.

Consensus of my online reading is that the 6F35 puts a lot of wear products into the fluid, which gunks up and/or wears out the valve bores, causing poor shifts and eventually burned clutches. A major source of wear products is the torque converter clutch (TCC). It's apparently a carbon material (would explain the black fluid we see) which is durable enough that Ford programmed it for continuous slip under some operating conditions ( https://www.sonnax.com/tech_resources/254-a-slippery-slope-the-what-and-why-of-woven-carbon-friction-material ). There's a PCM parameter for TCC slip that you can see with ForScan, TCC_Slip_Rat or something like that... sure enough if you watch it you'll see it slipping at a steady 20 rpm rate around 14-1500 RPM in 4th, 5th, and 6th, and slipping briefly during throttle transitions. (At least, my newly-rebuilt unit does this... I presume it's deliberate.) Based on the nasty black fluid everyone sees, I myself am leaning toward trying to fit an external filter, rather than an additional cooler. There are a bunch of filters on the market, popular with the trailer towing crowd ( http://www.trailerlife.com/tech/diy/tranny-filter-tech/ ), though I haven't found a direct 6F35 application and am just at the beginning of figuring out how you'd plumb it in (and whether the pressure drop would mess up tranny operation). But if you're seeing 230F on the regular then that seems excessive to me, so I might be looking at the fluid cooling too. The fluid cooling system seems pretty elaborate, at least per the shop manual... there's the fluid-to-water heat exchanger, the fluid cooler bypass valve, and (apparently) two PCM-controlled coolant valves, one sends hot coolant to warm up the fluid, the other sends cool coolant to cool off the fluid (!). Plenty of things to break. Any way to get a couple of temperature sensors on any of the coolant or fluid lines, to verify how the system is operating? Also, what's your engine coolant temperature when this 230 is happening... it might well be 210, and a 20 degree drop is the best the little factory cooler can do.

Something like that. There's a lab full of chemists down the hall from me and their trash often contains useful and... interesting... items. You just have to avoid the ones marked "biohazard". But they toss graduated plastic labware that's only seen simple volatile solvents or even just DI water... I won't take it into the kitchen on principle, but the garage is fair game ? .

Tires, brakes, steering... not a place to cut corners. Just say no and move on. Life will be simpler and, in a dozen ways you'll probably never know about, safer for you and everyone else. P.S. My van came with the 97H Cinturatos and they seem fine... quiet, good grip, zero balance or roundness issues. They compare favorably to the premium Michelins I have on all my other cars, which coming from me (I like gooood tires), is pretty high praise.

I'd assumed that when there was a dipstick, it used the same location as the vent plug we have now. Googling around a bit last night, I didn't see any 6F35's with such a dipstick, but I did see several with an ungainly external dipstick tube plumbed back into the final drive/differential housing, like this unit (below) from a 2011-2012 Fusion. That's not what I had in mind, and would be a major hassle to modify and fit into the foreshortened TC engine bay so, unless I (or anyone) comes across some other form of 6F35 dipstick, I guess the answer to my initial question is "no chance, at least without major work".

Mine's the one that was rebuilt by Ford at 62k miles, 65k on it now. I wouldn't mind doing a change now to get the swarf and break-in debris out of there... or at least get started on draining/adding 4 quarts at each oil change, which is the plan I currently have in mind that seems like it ought to have the same long term average effect. I just need to get a little better equipped with some accurate measuring containers, suitable funnel, etc. before I start on it.

Has anyone looked into whether there's a chance of using a dipstick in this trans? I believe that the first few years of the 6F35, in some applications, had a dipstick... then at some point it was deleted. Did they need the space inside the case for something else? Were too many people being careless and putting dirt back into the transmission? Did they just want to save a buck? For whatever reason, we're left with a level-check procedure that's cumbersome at best -- unless you have a lift -- and an impediment to frequent and regular trans fluid changes. Flipping idly through the manual, it looks like the vent/fill port (upper left in the render below) might go into the solenoid/valve body chamber, which at least doesn't have any spinning or moving parts... I haven't been able to confirm from other views whether that's the case. A tech who overhauls these for a living would probably have the best idea whether there's "stuff" in there that would interfere with a dipstick. Peering into the vent hole with a flashlight (or a borescope!) would probably be the next reality check.

I just changed at about 5k miles with 42% showing on the oil life, but that was just to get this new-to-me van onto the yearly-in-August schedule that fits with the rest of my annual cycle of activities. I'll consider myself to be advised by the IOLM but will stick to yearly changes unless the monitor disagrees a lot with my planned schedule. I understand the IOLM has a calendar component, in addition to the operational stuff like number and severity of cold starts, extended idling, etc. I only drove the van several times this summer due to travel, plus driving an electric on the daily commute... and the IOLM took a pretty big drop anyway. So maybe it'll be nagging me each August regardless of miles driven, cold starts, etc. I did the change on 5" ramps and didn't find any difficulty, not that I wouldn't turn down a powered lift if they were handing them out (with garages to match!). A somewhat annoying amount of oil ABOVE the filter waiting to waterfall down, and the oft-noted "feature" of tucking the filler neck under the cowl to ward off falling satellites ? . I put off tackling the tranny oil change till next week, or maybe even next year...

Ecoblue, that's the new(ish) line of Ford small diesels, right? We were slated to get that engine here in The Colonies but Ford axed it. But folks here would likely be interested to hear of your experiences with it... hopefully it's not the source of whatever issues you've been having.

Mine's optimistic by 8-10% (i.e. Not Very Accurate), observed over several tankfuls. 2015 w/ 2.5

I've been using the OBDLink 426101 "Scan Tool MX Bluetooth", with Android 8 on a Moto G5, based IRIC on advice from the ForScan website. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006NZTZLQ/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's a little finicky about connecting (mostly when I've been using the phone on my other cars), but seems solid once it's hooked up. The flipping between high and low speed CAN busses seems seamless and fast.

Yeah, I don't do #1 or #3 at all, and not to much of #2.

2015 with the 2.5, here's my stats for this year. Approx equal mix of town, country, and freeway driving; I set the cruise to 70 on the freeway. Like GBL says, the laws of physics are not subject to the whims of fashion.

GBL, that's the front cabin air filter, which is replaceable. Tom seems to be asking about the rear cabin air filter, which is indeed under the driver's seat where the rear cabin air blower is located. It's porous foam and seems washable (i.e. mine didn't dissolve when I washed it) so shouldn't actually need replacing too often. It's been awhile since I did mine but the procedure is straightforward... slide the driver's seat forward, go in thru the left sliding door with a good light, there's one small screw to remove that locks it in place and then (IIRC) a tab to squeeze at which point you can rotate the cover a few degrees to release it. Wash the element, vacuum under the seat while the element's drying, reverse steps to re-assemble, and you're done.

Lack of engine braking is a trait of diesel engines and in fact the absence of a throttle plate is one of the reasons for their greater fuel economy. So if you have a small (1.6?) diesel, a well-loaded van, and lots of traffic lights and stop signs, then perhaps that could explain your short pad life. Although it's also possible that something in the engine management is applying a small amount of fuel when coasting in gear... I seem to remember that early gas emissions-control systems (late 70s/early 80s) did this to keep early catalysts and thermal reactors warmed up. I'm not sure how you'd diagnose this in a modern common-rail diesel, but perhaps briefly switching off the engine while coasting in gear might be an interesting experiment. If you have a scanner (e.g. FORScan), there are probably fuel system parameters you could monitor to check whether fuel is cutting off completely when coasting in gear.

I recall seeing "Electronic Brake Distribution" listed as one of the features of this van. Normally that means that on everyday light brake application, the system will apply the rear brakes first, and the front brakes only on heavier braking. This is done to (somewhat) equalize brake and tire wear between the front and rear axles, instead of the usual case of the fronts doing almost all the work. It's a great side benefit of ABS systems. I would think that any fault that affected the EBD (bad sensor or something) would set an ABS warning light and an error code already, but if you have FORScan it could be worth a look at the brake module to see if there's anything showing.

For those who think long-haul, Ford supplies the Motorcraft oil in the 6 gallon bag-in-box package, complete with a nifty tap. Rock Auto has it for $3.70 per quart for the full synthetic (https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=8121040&jsn=327) and I've seen this package from other vendors as well. No piles of 1-quart, or even 1-gallon, bottles to send to the landfill.

Nice clean running engine, but then... they all are these days (except in case of gross failure). Pretty much makes it worth having lived through the first generation of smog-controlled engines in the 70s, though of course we didn't know that in those awful days. Just my opinion, but even those 96k plugs could be re-gapped and run another 60k. The gap's important though... too wide and the firing voltage makes extra stress for the coil too. So maybe 60k intervals to pull, gap, and anti-sieze the plugs is about right.

Eddy was meaning "normal" in the sense that the fluid temperature is thermostatically regulated, so -- if the plumbing is properly designed and has sufficient control authority -- the temp should fairly quickly go to its setpoint, and then stay there... like the engine coolant temperature does. It seemed mildly "abnormal" for a regulated system to vary by 35-40 degrees depending on load, but again... my sample size is one, so I have no idea what normal is, and am curious what others might observe.

Wow! I didn't read the brochure, I presume that's a nice little turbodiesel and imperial gallons? Hard to see how you could push a big box thru the air on that little fuel.

The Gen2 TC (at least) does have a heat exchanger between the trans fluid and the engine coolant, so in principle the trans should warm up faster and then should maintain a steady temperature during operation. In practice, I monitor mine using the OBD port and ForScan, and it doesn't seem particularly quick to warm up... several miles and/or 10-15 minutes to reach 160-170F (compared to the engine which is really fast, 1-2 minutes to reach 190F). My trans stays around 165F for most driving including freeway, unless I do a mountain grade of a thousand feet or more, in which case it climbs to around 200F during the climb. I don't know if this is normal performance for the trans cooling system, but it's what mine does.

So does this mean you wound up going with the original 215/55-16 size?