Ford PTU Oil Change - How to and Why You Should
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- How to change the oil in a Ford PTU. The PTU is basically the transfer case of front biased all wheel drive vehicles. This procedure will be mostly the same for any Ford set up like this, including, but not limited to, Escape, Edge, Explorer (2012-2019), Edge, Fusion and Taurus. Also Lincoln MKX and MKZ as well as Mercury Montego, Sable and Mariner. This may also apply to Mazda 6 and Tribute. There may be others as well.
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I extended the vent tube upwards as a fill tube and drilled and tapped the drain hole. Much better. 30’000 on each change. As far as the water pump, I keep the coolant system flushed at 60,000 and oil at 7000. Over 200,000 on the mileage. Still going good.
How did you go about tapping the bottom? I have an idea how I'm gonna do it on the 15 Explorer I just got, just curious how others have done it.
They couldn't even engineer the fill plug at the right spot to get to the correct fill level. Great job Ford.
There is a channel called MACTFORDEDGE. He shows exactly where to perform the procedure. I made the hole for 3/8”. It is so much better to perform the oil change now.
Nice video and bonus points for the victory burp! 🏆
One other way to do it is thru volume changes. More expensive but essentially, you drain it and refill it. Then drive it around the parking lot. Then drain it and fill it again and drive again. Third time drain it, and by now you have a really good purge and just refill. You are good to go with 3 volume changes.
At around 120K miles the PTU on my 2008 Edge was "completely destroyed" according the service shop. Now I know why.
One addition to this video if you're doing this at home. Apply PTFE to the drain plug threads before reinstalling. This will ensure a good seal at the drain plug.
So you said to keep the fluid level over an inch below the plug, then you went ahead and filled it to the plug. But i appreciate the video in general.
It doesnt really matter. When i serviced diffs that was the rule of thumb and once i joined the Army the principal carried on.
As long as it makes it through the warranty period that's all they care about.
Agreed
What's interesting is you had fluid coming out of the fill plug. Was the vehicle not level?
I had the problem at around 80,000 miles with the fluid coming out of the vent and down onto the exhaust due to it getting hot. I tried sucking it out without success. It was black, and as thick as wheel bearing grease. I got a piece of pex tubing and put an elbow on it so I could route it down from the top of the engine and used the elbow to direct the new oil into the PTU. I filled it until it ran out. That did fine for another 20k miles, then it started the same thing again, burping out of the vent and onto the exhaust. I then drilled the bottom of the case and tapped it for a pipe plug. No more than a tablespoon ran out. I refilled it again. Now at 130k, it’s burping out again. I’m going to have to remove it and split the case and clean out all of the black crud which I’m sure is packed in every crevice. I’ll probably use degreaser or lacquer thinner and Q-tips to thoroughly clean it. It’s either that or buy a new PTU. Some new PTUs have a small heat shield that is supposed to help keep the catalytic converter heat from baking the oil. Otherwise, this 2013 AWD Edge has been a great trouble-free vehicle.
Did you actually do this?
@@kyleschwab1876 Yes, if you mean drilling and tapping and trying to drain the PTU, then refilling it. However, since this post, it started making a wheel bearing type of noise. The day after Christmas I had a reputable shop to change it out with a brand new one from Ford. It was more expensive than the ones on eBay, but having done many of these jobs, the owner highly recommended going with the Ford one, so I said do it. I’m tired of trying to get by without a satisfying result. Since it began the bearing noise, it was time to replace it. Considering that otherwise it’s a great vehicle, it was worth fixing it the right way.
My brother owns a 2013 Edge and is on his third ptu. I owned a 2019 Taurus SE. At 35000 miles I took it to a Ford dealership to have the ptu oil changed. They said it was not needed and wouldn't do it, so I took it to a local auto repair/tire shop that I deal with and trust. They changed the ptu fluid and it was aready quite nasty.
Yeah it doesn't take long for the fluid to go bad. Ford claims it's not needed but it's also a very expensive repair when, not if, it does fail. The less fluids that need changed according to the owners manual means the cost of maintenance is lower, which is a metric used to grade cars. Never mind the fact that it destroys components once they are outside the warranty period.
I’ve seen a video on UA-cam where a 2018 Ford Explorer has the ptu fluid drained soon after driving the car around. He wore gloves and was carefully about getting burned. The fluid drained out easily because it was warm; about 14 ounces.
Yeah I don't know what I was thinking when I said the capacity is "about a quart". I think I was just thinking that you're gonna have to buy a quart. 🤷♂️
Until it is turning to mud, gear oil is not that viscous to need heating up, nor is there an especially high cling rate that would keep ounces left behind because of ambient temp vs operating temp difference. What keeps ounces left behind is where the drain point is. It is practically impossible to reach the bottom low point of the casing by inserting a tube in the fill plug, not anywhere near that low, so that method will leave a significant % of fluid behind. Drain plug at the bottom is the only way to ensure that most comes out, short of taking the whole side off, out of the vehicle.
Do you need to get every last drop out? No, that is the ideal but even if you only got 1/3rd out, just replace the fluid more often to make up for that, and it still extends the life of the unit.
Not "about a qt". 32oz way too much. 18 oz max
I'd say you are correct. I think it's "about a quart" if it is completely empty, which is impossible to achieve without drilling a hole in the bottom or removing it and dumping it out. This one only took about half a quart. I have had one that took probably 28 oz (guessing), but most don't. But, since gear oil only comes in quart or larger jugs, you have to buy a whole one anyway. With any luck you have just enough sitting on the shelf for the next oil change.
The way I fill it up is I get my Edge on ramps and the back wheel on the ground, so the level is uneven. That way the PTU is never over fill but filled enough. I never had any over filled spilled with 2 oil change with over 200,000 km. Drain plug snug tork is perfect.
I was with you until you implied that stop and go driving is severe. It's not in the context of the PTU, where what is severe is the temperature it reaches which is not that hot from stop and go driving. On the other hand, steady speed highway cruising is easy on the engine, staying at relatively low RPM and actively cooled, and the tranny doing RPM conversion, but the PTU is operating at high speed to propel the vehicle at highway speed.
The color of the oil isn't that significant "yet". It's common for any oil in a hot, loose tolerance metal on metal application to turn dark, but rather it is the metal particles, like those you saw stuck to the magnet, that accelerate wear and even worse when the fluid breaks down past the point of darkness and makes sludge. Unfortunately much of the sludge clings to internal components and does not get drained out so easily. It will continue to build up, so the fluid change is just trying to still make the PTU last as long as the rest of the vehicle.
How many liters need to fill up ?
Roughly 1/2.
gigaty got me
Thanks for the video. Could I ask you what year is that Edge it looks like a 2008. I think it is a good idea to use Ford oil since that is what is in there.
You're welcome. You are correct, it is a 2008. The difference between the Ford oil and pretty much any other gear oil is the amount of lube you need to apply when making the purchase, if you catch my drift...
The The escape has a drain plug
Good to know, I was not aware of that. The Explorer the woman got recently doesn't have a drain plug, but it will soon!
@@darkhorseautoanddiesel - Luckily, Escapes do. Also some PTU's on the 3.7 equipped cars do too (and maybe some others). I do a drain and fill every 30k on our Escape PTU and Transmission. It's super easy to do and take very little fluid so it's cheap insurance in my opinion. I also do the rear diff on our Escape over 30k which is overkill...but it's easy and I just do all those services every 30k and it makes it easy to track. I do have to use an extractor to suck it out through the fill hole on the rear diff but it's also fairly easy if you have an extractor. BTW, an extractor costs about 1/3 the cost of having a shop do it once...so it's a good investment that I ended up using more than I ever thought once I actually had one.
I have seen a video where some one mentioned that newer PTU revisions have drain and fill plugs. Is that true? For example if you have 2007 Edge and then 15 years later PTU goes out, then a replacement unit will have drain and fill plugs.
I'm not sure on that. I've never seen one that has a drain, unless it was modified to have one, which eventually I will be making a video on how to do it. It's possible that Ford made a revision adding a drain, but I'd be surprised if they did. I think there is aftermarket ones with a drain, I think made by Dorman, but don't quote me on that.
From what I have gathered if in the Flex community is if it's a 14+ with tow package, you get a drain plug. Our 14 without the tow, is still this annoying sucking it out procedure.
There are UA-cam videos showing where and how to drill and tap a hole to add your own drain plug. There is a certain spot that works, and they give you. Measurements to it. Don't randomly drill a hole, or it might be where the gears are at.
Bent zip tie measurement of fluids and “lifetime” change intervals should be unacceptable. I was born in the 80s and I miss my old truck from the 70s.
No airflow. No heat shielding. WCGW?
I had to look up what "WCGW" meant, but now that I know, I agree. Looks like a great idea! 🤦♂️
To be fair, they kinda had to put it where it is, theres not really a good alternative, but what I don't understand is why it isn't plumbed into the transmission and share fluid with it that runs through the cooler. I'd think ATF would be fine in that unit as long as it's cooled. Transfer cases on pickups, including diesels with way more power, have been using ATF in them for decades with no issue.
@darkhorseautoanddiesel Agree. It's gotta go where it's gotta go but the engineering leaves something to be desired.
I have a 2022 Edge 2.0L, fleet vehicle, and at 52k miles the AWD disables itself when in the snow.
The PTU spec calls for 75w85 lube.
I have to take it to the dealer for service and the service department plays dumb when I ask questions, like they've never heard of or seen this issue before.
But then they play dumb about everything.
Maybe it's not playing......
I'm here because I was looking up any Ford AWD PTU to see if anyone took it apart so I could see the insides.
I have an AWD Maverick and since the tires were over-filled from the factory, I decided that I don't want to trust the PTU & Rear differential fluid all the way to 40,000 miles. After I pumped fluid into both, I found that I used 150ml to top them off. The PTU only takes a ⅓ of a quart to begin with so that was almost empty from the factory. The rear diff. takes a quart + almost half of one more quart.
Anyway, I would recommend changing the rear diff. fluid also. Thankfully, Ford put a fill & a drain plug on both ....plus both are fairly easy to access. Amazing that Ford customers put up with those PTU designs.
You're not making any sense. Tires over-filled from the factory has nothing to do with anything, unless you are somehow trying to suggest that the same guy who overfilled the tires, is somehow also in charge of filling the drivetrain components and did the opposite by underfilling them.
No, you should not need the differential done at 40K mi unless it's severe duty hauling loads in a hot climate, and you did not mention draining them, only "pumped fluid into both" suggesting that you have now overfilled both? No, the PTU was not almost empty from the factory, unless you have a leak then otherwise you must have simply not been able to drain much of what was there out, if you tried at all, or as already stated you have reached a false conclusion about the correct fill level and then merely assumed it was low because of the volume it needed added to arrive at the amount of overfill you caused.
Please just forget everything you think you know and put it back to the right fill level. None of what you wrote is the right way to handle this. The correct way is pretty simple in concept: Drain out fluid. Put back the amount you drained out, no more than that unless there was a leak. If you didn't drain out near what the capacity was supposed to be, it means you had fluid left behind that didn't drain out, NOT that you need to put all that much more in until it is overfilled.
The tires being overfilled from the factory just means someone wasn't paying attention ...thus there could be more things overfilled or underfilled and I was right in thinking that.
The PTU and rear diff only have a fill plug and a drain plug. (there's no dipstick) The procedure has to be done on a level surface because the only way to know how much fluid is currently inside is to fill until the diff fluid streams out of the fill port. (Not just a drip) I only needed to add fluid since it was very early on \ low mileage. So adding diff fluid without draining is only when a vehicle is new.
@@Aaron_Voltz It's your vehicle to do whatever you want to it, but that does not seem right, very unlikely you didn't overfill them if the factory fill had no leaks.
Overinflated tires can depend on context. There's the door sticker inflation level, which can sometimes be for fuel economy, and other times low for smoother ride (remember the Ford Explorer Firestone exploding tire fiasco?), but ultimately many owners inflate to higher than the door placard #, just not past the max inflation level marked on the tire sidwall, unless the owner is a hypermiler and cares not about tire wear or safety, just about bragging that they raised their mile that little bit more.
Either way, as already stated, it's not the same guy inflating your tires, no reason to correlate one with the other any more than to wonder whether any particular bolt on the vehicle is torqued to spec because of some tire inflation level. More likely, it just sat around somewhere deflating a bit, and a dealer had their low paid lot grunt worker inflate the tires with an air compressor and didn't really care how close it was because nobody was double checking his work.
Suit yourself though, it is now your vehicle to molest any way you want as long as it's safe.
30k intervals on the PTU
I sure don't know how you got your hand up there..no way I couldnt . impossible. I had to drop the exhaust..should be about 12 onzes..not much of anything.. See
I have small hands 🤣 My friends joke about it but guess who they call to help work on their vehicles!
This only applies to AWD vehicles?
Correct. 2wd vehicles don't have a PTU. The PTU is the part mounted to the trans that transmits power to the rear wheels.
Thanks for the reply.
@@crodz530You're welcome.
I just canceled my awd.. removed the back shaft car runs front wheel drive now runs Excellent
@@kal-ms6mj Does that really solve this? If you remove the back shaft, you still have the PTU, it is still spinning and if it fails, won't that still cause a problem with it connected to the transmission?
Where are you located?
That depends entirely on why you're asking 🤣
I have a 2010 Ford Edge and need my PTU oil changed@@darkhorseautoanddiesel
Lifetime Fill
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
That statement was put into the owners manual upon orders
from marketing. Blown up PTUs lead to a lot of new car sales.
Change ALL gear box oils @ 30,000miles and those components will last FOREVER.
REMEMBER:
Oil is cheap, gearbox components, not so much.
!
If you live your life right & went to church last Sunday you might be able to drain the PTU from one of the lower case bolts.
A lot of times the bolt holes in a gearcase are punched all the way thru into the oil chamber. So, do this - remove the fill plug,
THEN, start removing those lower case bolts 1 by 1. If God smiles upon you, oil will begin to drain out of one of them. You
wernt home last Sunday sleeping it off were you? Again?
!