About a week ago I noticed some burning/gear oil smell coming from the car after spirited runs. Even though ford serviced the PTU and replaced the seals about 10k miles ago I figured I would have it checked again anyway. Brought it to a local transmission shop and had them drain, refill with royal purple, and replace the vent tube with a longer tube that I can zip tie higher up in the engine bay. They said my PTU fluid was nasty and burnt for sure, like it has been overheating (they didn't think my PTU was long for this world).
I thought this was a little odd for 10k miles after a service. So, that night I took a look at the new vent tube with the old filter still on it. I popped off the filter to trim down some of the extra tube and re-secure it in the engine bay. When I took the filter off I got a hiss of air from the PTU (obviously under pressure from the gas/heat). Upon closer inspection of the filter it was completely clogged with PTU sludge. The design of this vent/filter is odd to me, will attach pics as soon as I can. I cleaned it out the best I could, but it does not seem like it will vent any gas/heat at all. Maybe the white membrane/rubber piece is normally supposed to be permeable, but it certainly does not let much through when it's gummed up with PTU sludge. Perhaps this is contributing to the PTU overheating?
This vent is supposed to vent the excess heat/gas out of the PTU correct?
Would it be more efficient to put like a mini breather filter on the end of the vent tube instead?
Has anyone else noticed this vent/filter clogged on their ecoboost?
I haven't noticed any other adverse effects (no grinding, or groaning, or other weird noises) coming from the PTU, I'm hoping I caught it in time. Definitely planning on more frequent PTU fluid changes for sure.