Transmission overheating

[ryanc111]

So I suspect that I have something going on with my auxiliary transmission pump again. I had it replaced roughly a year ago and thought I was good to go.

Today I was pulling my trailer with two motorcycles on it and I got an alert that my transmission was overheating - 274 degrees. The road was hilly but wasn’t a mountain pass by any stretch. I backed off the accelerator a bit to slow down significantly and the temp slowly came back down. Before the alert it did seem that the transmission was hunting a bit for the right gear but the revs weren’t excessive. When I got to the trailhead I looked at both coolant reservoirs and they were both over minimum. I had thrown code P0218 - “Transmission Fluid Temperature Sensor ‘A; Over Temperature condition.” No kidding. But it was a different CEL than what I had when I had the original issue with the transmission.

After the ride I double checked the coolant and still looked good. We decided to drive home but this time in ‘Normal’ rather than ‘Tow Haul’. The trailer is super light so wasn’t really worried. It didn’t over heat on the drive back but the temp did get high - up to 266 degrees and the transmission was hunting for gears again.

In both cases I didn’t notice anything until driving for 45-60 minutes. Speeds were 75-80 (and much slower after the overheating) and I never went in to low power mode. For those familiar with Montana was driving from Bozeman to Pipestone - again, hilly but no mountain passes.

I haven’t noticed any obvious leaks from the transmission but who knows?

Going to reach out to the dealer tomorrow but curious if the collective has other ideas. 2021 Powerboost. Here’s a pic of the trailer for reference (we had two bikes on there but that 250lbs shouldn’t have made a difference):

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[Snakebitten]

I doubt that trailer was much the culprit.
But 274F would have me flushing that transmission for sure.

Do you have digital transmission temps displayed on your instrument cluster? Normal temps, according to the manual is 205-215F

 

[ryanc111]

I haven’t turned them on but apparently when it gets to 260 it starts showing the actual temp. The dial stayed blue until it broke 270 when it went red and threw the alert/code.

 

[Icecoldak]

That trailer weight is Nothing to that truck!! more like towing nothing really---

 

[Gros Ventre]

Agree that the trailer weight is insignificant. Still step one would be to unload the truck to nothing more than the driver & fuel and recreate the same trip. See what the temps are. This sounds like an underflow issue. The small electric oil pump is not the issue as you were on the main pump for nearly all of the trip. If the fluid is at proper level, then there is a reduction in flow, either the pump output is low or there is a restriction in the system somewhere. I had a transmission problem that turned out to be a folded over rubber grommet inside the transmission.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

So I suspect that I have something going on with my auxiliary transmission pump again. I had it replaced roughly a year ago and thought I was good to go.

Today I was pulling my trailer with two motorcycles on it and I got an alert that my transmission was overheating - 274 degrees. The road was hilly but wasn’t a mountain pass by any stretch. I backed off the accelerator a bit to slow down significantly and the temp slowly came back down. Before the alert it did seem that the transmission was hunting a bit for the right gear but the revs weren’t excessive. When I got to the trailhead I looked at both coolant reservoirs and they were both over minimum. I had thrown code P0218 - “Transmission Fluid Temperature Sensor ‘A; Over Temperature condition.” No kidding. But it was a different CEL than what I had when I had the original issue with the transmission.

After the ride I double checked the coolant and still looked good. We decided to drive home but this time in ‘Normal’ rather than ‘Tow Haul’. The trailer is super light so wasn’t really worried. It didn’t over heat on the drive back but the temp did get high - up to 266 degrees and the transmission was hunting for gears again.

In both cases I didn’t notice anything until driving for 45-60 minutes. Speeds were 75-80 (and much slower after the overheating) and I never went in to low power mode. For those familiar with Montana was driving from Bozeman to Pipestone - again, hilly but no mountain passes.

I haven’t noticed any obvious leaks from the transmission but who knows?

Going to reach out to the dealer tomorrow but curious if the collective has other ideas. 2021 Powerboost. Here’s a pic of the trailer for reference (we had two bikes on there but that 250lbs shouldn’t have made a difference):

Hi there, I'd be happy to look into your F-150 concerns on my end. Will you send us a message with your VIN and dealership info? I can look into things on my end.

 

[ryanc111]

Hi there, I'd be happy to look into your F-150 concerns on my end. Will you send us a message with your VIN and dealership info? I can look into things on my end.

I'm going to give my dealership a chance to look at it first. If I have issues with them I'll let you know.

 

[ryanc111]

Update - truck is back from the dealer and hopefully fixed. Shout out to them for getting it in next day after I called - even if it did take over a week to resolve. Luckily the weather has been nice so riding my KTM for daily transportation wasn’t an issue.

Reading the report they did a thorough job, including driving it over 80 miles through mountain passes to verify the fix. The write up is extensive but here is the relevant bit:

”Checked the fluid level and found that it is excessively over filled and cavitated. Removed 2 Quarts of fluid to get it to the correct level. Cleared the trans adaptive table and performed an adaptive drive cycle. Road tested several times while monitoring trans PIDs with the datalogger under different conditions including over mountain pass on the freeway and stop and go traffic.”

The delivered the truck today but haven’t had a chance to drive it and verify the fix but hopefully I’m good to go. Time will tell . . .

 

[Gros Ventre]

Overfilled... I had my dealer change oil and filter. There was a glitch in the procedure and it ended up overfilled by a quart or so. The truck would start and run but would not move., even after adjusting oil level. They ended up having to disconnect the main and auxiliary battery to do a "master reset." So I'm wondering why, with two quarts overfilled, it ran even if overheating...

 

[ryanc111]

Overfilled... I had my dealer change oil and filter. There was a glitch in the procedure and it ended up overfilled by a quart or so. The truck would start and run but would not move., even after adjusting oil level. They ended up having to disconnect the main and auxiliary battery to do a "master reset." So I'm wondering why, with two quarts overfilled, it ran even if overheating...

I believe it was the transmission that was overfilled, not the oil.

 

[Gros Ventre]

Glad you told me that...

 

[ryanc111]

Glad you told me that...

Regardless, it seems crazy that they could fit an extra two quarts in there but I’ll admit my transmission experience on this truck is very limited.

 

[Snakebitten]

The 10r80 has plenty of space for 2 more quarts than necessary. I believe the recommended level requires something like 13 quarts? I don't know why that number comes to mind. I might be way off. I'll check.

 

[Snakebitten]

Ooops
12 liters for a dry fill.

 

[Samson16]

Cavitated due to overfill? So, does that mean air bubbles in the fluid reduced efficiency? Both my reservoirs are just above the minimum line from the factory. Is that the true max fill level? I thought the fill containers were for venting overfill and protecting us from the heat of the risky radiator cap removal attempt.

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