plastic thing in the tranny pan?

Tony8470

Registered User
Is there supposed to be?? I'm doing a tranmission flush on my automatic cougar(1993), essentially the same tranny as our cars. It's slipping alot and there is no shavings in the pan which is VERY good. BUT I found a plastic thing in the pan, white with a rubber washer around it. I'm gonna go take a picture in a bit if that helps.
 
Tony8470 said:
Is there supposed to be?? I'm doing a tranmission flush on my automatic cougar(1993), essentially the same tranny as our cars. It's slipping alot and there is no shavings in the pan which is VERY good. BUT I found a plastic thing in the pan, white with a rubber washer around it. I'm gonna go take a picture in a bit if that helps.

Just throw it away. It is the plug for the tranny dipstick hole to keep dirt out of the transmission before final assy of the car. The assy line worker just shoved the dipstick into the hole which shoved the plug into the pan. Since it is there, that means your transmission has never been serviced. That may cause problems when you replace the fluid. My 91 had 64,000 miles on it when I got it. It did not slip, but the fluid was very black, so I took it in for a ATF change. It started to have major slippage immediately after I drove away. Just letting you know. A dealer mechanic advised me not to change the fluid if it has not had regular fluid changes or is high mileage.

Mike Donley
 
Well its changed and it doesn't slip as much, if you can even say that. It still slips. The only other thing I can think of is a rebuild.
 
It could have been left in there if some one did a change but did not know you need to take that little ball out. ;)
 
More than a few experiences on this topic..

Heres mine: AOD tranny had a small time period many years ago when it would slip in 2nd after driving around in "D"; mysteriously fixed itself after I stopped driving in "D" and left it in O/D. Problem has never come back.

Changed the fluid with 135,000 on it for the first time and no problems with anything until 175,000 and then 2 problems (neither of which is currently happening). Drops out of O/D occasionaly on the freeway, and got stuck in 1st for a while. Talked to a transmission shop and the fellow told me that the reason shops won't change the fluid in a high mileage vehicle is mostly CYA.. The transmission is old and the parts are worn. Something is going to break, but the shop changes the fluid, the something finallly breaks afterwards, and the shop gets blamed for it. He said its not the changing of the fluid which causes it.
So, IMO, if you're having problems, you really have nothing to lose by changing the fluid. Just don't overheat the transmission in the process of running the shaft to push out the old fluid. In my case where it was stuck in 1st, I drained the fluid, inspected the pan, installed a new filter, and since it didn't look all that bad, poured the old fluid through a filter and poured it right back in. For whatever reason, the problem cleared up and it shifts just fine for now. :confused:
 
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