broken servo cover, massive leak???

[pjtoledo]

broken servo cover, massive leak??? update & resolved

Auto trans in my 2000 3.0 4x4 broke the servo cover, resulted in sudden loss of fluid. It had been a slow leak for the past few days, then yesterday morning it let go in a big way while the wiffie was driving to work.
How convienent it was to have the leak directly above the catalytic converter, if it was summer that smoke would have killed millions of mosquitos.
Anyway, towed it to a Ford dealer and they seem to think the tranny is toast.
The cracked servo cap may have been caused by my full throttle excursions thru a few snow banks, or perhaps the -10 temps did it in.
I had been adding fluid daily, truck seemed to run OK until it let go. Then it was basically and instant death.
Anybody else had this happen?
Any hope it will work after the cover is replaced?


Know of a good tranny shop near northwest Ohio?

Perry

 

[adsm08]

If I were in the shoes of the dealer tech I would also be covering my own ass by saying that I didn't know that the trans wasn't toast and recommending a replacement.

If she lost all power , coasted down and shut it off quickly, instead of sitting there revving it, there is a good chance it survived. If it was my vehicle I would get a cover and some fluid and try it before spending thousands on a new trans. Yes, it's a gamble, but at this point whatever damage is going to happen has already been done and it's worth spending $200 to try and save $2000.

 

[pjtoledo]

It went from driving to nothing in a few hundred feet, she didn't even have enough time to find a place to pull over. Didn't try to restart it. I'm hoping it didn't get too hot in that short time.
I did tell the dealer to just replace the servo cover and pan gasket then see what happens. Told them I knew they could not warranty that fix.
If its good enough to drive 2 miles home I'll be happy. I can swap the tranny here at home if thats what it needs. (when the effin weather straightens out!)

I replaced the seperator plate & gasket, soleniods, and EPC in it a couple of years ago. Ran fine except for a sharp 1-2 shift. So I at least got my monies worth from that repair.

Perry

 

[pjtoledo]

update on servo cover leak, its fixed

new cover on, new pan gasket too.
seems to run exactly is it did before the leak.
test drive was only about 10 miles, mostly city, about 2 miles at 70 on the xway.
the servo cap had a 1/2" crack right around the base of the center raised area.

I'm happy, now that the wiffie has her Ranger back, she doesn't need to drive my 91 SHO to work in this crappy weather.


Perry