PSA: A4LD/4R/5R transmission oil pan paint peeling off inside

[Shran]

If any of you have purchased an ULTRA-POWER 265831 oil pan from RockAuto (the one with a drain plug) for a Ranger I would highly encourage you to go out and pull it to see if the paint on the inside is peeling off. I put one of these on my wife's truck in 2020 and pulled the transmission yesterday to have it rebuilt (unrelated to this issue) and you can imagine my shock when this started oozing out of the drain plug hole:

Yeah, that's paint, or powder coating from the INSIDE of the pan. I did install this 4 years ago but it only got driven about 500 miles after that. The transmission fluid just peeled the paint right off in big sheets. I don't think any of it got past the filter but obviously this is a pretty major issue.

What did the pan look like? Well:

 

[sgtsandman]

I've never been a fan of power coat and think it is over hyped but WOW! I would have never expected that!

 

[Uncle Gump]

By the looks of it... you sure it wasn't the cause of your transmission failure?

A piece of that could have essentially shut down fluid to the filter.

 

[Shran]

By the looks of it... you sure it wasn't the cause of your transmission failure?

A piece of that could have essentially shut down fluid to the filter.

I'm going to say "no" pretty confidently on that, because it was doing weird stuff before I swapped pans, and had been acting up for years, before we got the truck. Did it contribute to other weird problems that cropped up AFTER that? Probably. You can see where it got sucked up in the middle, right where the filter pulls fluid from.

I have one of these pans on my '94 as well and will be pulling it inspect and strip off the paint inside it. That trans hasn't acted up at all and the pan has been on it for about 6000 miles. Fingers crossed I guess. I hope Ultra Power AKA www.surplusparts.com is proud of their piece of shit, I will not be buying any more junk from that brand.

 

[pjtoledo]

my powder coated parts washer tub did the same thing after a year or 2.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Yikes…

I have stock pans on everything but my 92 and that has a Dorman with the drain plug

 

[morsetaper2]

Why would they see a need to even paint the inside of a pan anyway? I guess masking the interior would add cost to the part?

 

[Roert42]

Why would they see a need to even paint the inside of a pan anyway? I guess masking the interior would add cost to the part?

That and they don’t have to coat it cosmoline or anything while it’s sitting on the shelf.

 

[Shran]

I pulled the pan off my 94 today and thankfully it was fine, no peeling paint, but I will be stripping it to bare metal on the inside before I put it back on something.

FWIW aircraft stripper and “2 minute stripper” barely have any effect on the paint/powder coat… crazy.

 

[morsetaper2]

A/T pan w/ drain plug...

Years ago when I first got my truck in 2013, I brazed a drain bolt into the A/T pan. Machined up a fitting to braze to inside of pan. Bought a replacement drain plug from auto parts store and machined it down to a smaller length. Best mod I ever did to the truck.