PTU oil change write up?

[Auggie]

Well, I read all 7 pages and what's the bottom line here? I have a 15 non PP so in order to get to the fill plug do you need to remove the DP or not? Has anyone found the fill hole and if so is the pic with the red paint it? Has anyone changed fluid yet?? Ect, Ect ?

[ZSHO]

Its not any easy task to perform,first you will need to remove the passenger side DP & heat shield in order to gain access to the plug,since your vehicle is a 15 SHO would not sweat it until the later stages of ownership,had mine changed at the dealer at roughly 32k on her for reassurance purposes,but for the meantime sit back and enjoy the SHO.  Z   

[polskifacet]

For non PP you dont have to remove anything. You can fit your hand and a wrench next to the ptu and fairly easily unscrew the plug. Drilling and tapping the ptu is really the way to go for draining otherwise you have to do magic to get a good amount of fluid sucked out through the fill plug.



You can see the plug sticking out a bit where the o2 sensor ends.

[BlueSHO]

For non PP you dont have to remove anything. You can fit your hand and a wrench next to the ptu and fairly easily unscrew the plug. Drilling and tapping the ptu is really the way to go for draining otherwise you have to do magic to get a good amount of fluid sucked out through the fill plug.



You can see the plug sticking out a bit where the o2 sensor ends.

Did you put this drain plug in?

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

[polskifacet]

Yes

[Windstang]

I changed the PTU oil by taking the fill plug out from underneath the vehicle with a 3/8" ratchet. ON the MKX it is fairly easily accessed from under the vehicle but it is best to do this when the vehicle is not not because of the close proximity of the exhaust system. Then I sucked out the oil by inserting a small tube down as far into the PTU and used a hand pump to suck out as much as I could. I was a bit worried that it felt like the tubing might break off inside the PTU - the plastic tubing that came with the pump was kind of rigid and more flexible tubing (clear plastic type) would have been better. it was tight going in and was sort of held by something coming out - probably a gear. The oil that came out was disgusting - very thick and black. Almost like grease. Then I re-filled with new 75W140 GL5 gear oil and thought I'd do that a few more times but I didn't really get too much oil out. Then I started reading these forums and saw the posting of where to drill and tap a drain hole so I built up the nerve, bought a tap and drill bit - and I did it! The location was fairly easily accessed with my drill once the heat shield was removed. I initially used a small 1/8" drill bit to get the pilot hole drilled in. I was careful not to let the bit go too far into the PTU once it broke through. Once through, the oil started to drip out. Once the dripping just about stopped, about 1/2 an hour later, I used a 7/16" bit and drilled until through again being careful not to go too far into the PTU. The little bit of dripping oil provided lube for the drill bit. The PTU casing in the recommended area is about 1/2" think. Once through, I used some bent Q tips to clean out any residual aluminum cuttings from the drilling process. After that I started tapping the hole with a 1/4" NPT (National Pipe Thread) tap. It has to be NPT because that makes a tapered hole so the threads on the plug snug up when inserted. I find the 1/4" plug is a decent size. I used this size incase I screwed up the tapping and had to go to larger to correct any screw ups. Fortunately all went well with the tapping. I again cleaned out the inside of the PTU as much as possible with the bent Q-tips. Then I put the plug in, refilled and ran the vehicle for about 10 minutes and drained it. (I love the drain plug!!) The oil that came out was really black. I did a drain and fill procedure 4 more times to get the dirty oil out. It's still black as hell but it looks thinner coming out now and the vehicle seems to run smoother. I think it will be a while before the drained oil looks cleaner. I'll do it weekly for a while until I see an improvement in the look of the old oil. I see that some people use diesel fuel as a solvent to clean out the PTU but I haven't done that. I refill to the bottom of the fill plug.  Part of installing the drain involves removing the heat shield which is pretty simple to do. I also added an extension to the heat shield to hopefully help reduce the cooking of the PTU oil by the exhaust which is very close. I used a small (~3"*5") piece of tin screwed to the top part of the shield. It was a bit more difficult to re-install but it did fit eventually.
It is really great to have clean(er) oil in the PTU. If you are at all handy, you should really consider installing the drain and changing the fluid regularly (IMO). Good luck...

[SHOdded]

Welcome, Windstang!  Please introduce yourself in the New Members section here:
http://www.ecoboostperformanceforum.com/index.php/board,14.0.html

[Auggie]

Wind, how many rounds on the OD, what year is your SHO and is it a PP ?

    Auggie

[ZSHO]

Wind, how many rounds on the OD, what year is your SHO and is it a PP ?

    Auggie

I believe its a Lincoln MKX.  Z   

[Auggie]

Yup, it sure is(brain fade) but I still wonder how many miles on the OD?

    Auggie

[glock-coma]

Wow hell of a first post windstang, did you happen to take any pics?

[Windstang]

I have an 08 MKX with 140,000 kms on the OD. (That is about 90K miles.) Sorry no pictures, but the photo of where to drill the hole in this thread pretty much says it all and the procedure was pretty much as I described other than me sweating to not screw up the PTU as I drilled the hole. LOL. Once you perf the casing with the drill bit, that is the point of no return!  I will take some pic's of the drain hole for next post but again it is like a video available to view on Youtube. A pic of the heat shield with addition will come too.

I also wondered about the vent that is on the top of the PTU and if it is plugged or not. From under the vehicle, I can put my arms up around the PTU (lovingly of course), I can feel the vent, it jiggles and there is no buildup of any oil or crap around it so no puking from it (yet) - that I can feel. When I now take the fill plug out, I hear a bit of a sucking sound indicating that there is a vacuum in the PTU. I can only explain this by the fact that a jiggly vent that I took out of a Mustang rear axle allowed venting but won't allow air back the other way (not a vacuum release. I can blow into the vent and it releases air, but not the other way). The Mustang axle vent is threaded and I don't believe the MKX PTU vent is threaded but is a press-fit. Next time I drain the thing, I'll try putting a little air pressure in the drain hole and feel to see if the jiggler vents. There is a Ford TSB (for a Taurus I believe) that replaces the jiggler vent with a tube to allow any vented oil to drain back into the PTU. (The mustang rear axle vent was replaced with a turkey baster type vent).  I went to the local Ford dealer and had a look at a new PTU and saw the jiggler. The Parts guy verified that most of these PTU's are the same and the Taurus TSB would work for the MKX - but I couldn't get the vent out. I pried on it a bit with a small screw driver but it wouldn't pop out and I didn't want to break it and of course no spares for purchase other than the TSB tube mod which costs about $120. And I don't want to take the PTU out just to replace a vent which may or may not be working correctly. I think it does build up a bit of pressure in the PTU when it gets hot, vents then when it cools and no air comes back in, it creates a vacuum. Probably as designed but I don't know that.

[SHOdded]

Good observations

[Windstang]

I've seen references to a 'BG' service - what is that?
Also - what is a PP as asked in a previous post?

[glock-coma]

Bg usually uses some kind of cleaner to loosen deposits then a fluid exchanger that flows the old out at the same time the new goes in.