Bad Valve Body in my tranny..

[Jay Pearson]

Posted in the other thread on slipping during 2nd and 3rd gear. I got lucky and finally got a blinking O/D light. Dealer called today and it's a bad Valve Body. They won't have it till Friday.

Luckily i have the Premium ESP (i'm at 62,000) so it's all covered.



While on the phone the service guy reminded me that there are a few other "servcie" related items they checked for me. They recommened the Brake Fluid flush ($116) the 4 wheel drive transfer case flush ($65) and an injector cleaning($112).



I know they're trying to make a little back on the ESP work. Any thoughts on if i should have the "other" services done.



Tks,

j

 

[Gary DiPietroSr]

You could buy injector cleaner for $5.00 a bottle. Sounds very high for brake fluid flush too. Get some prices from a quick lube garage.

 

[Ben Poche]

your transfer case should be fine all it needs is changing do not know about a fulsh. i use mine often 1 or 2 times a week not to hard and mine is fine at 67000 miles.and what Gary said.

 

[Andy Szkutak]

You May want to change the transfer case fluid...I changed mine just now at 99k, and it was like mud inside...the fluid was thick and mucky. I know other members have had really dirty transfer case fluid with less than 50k miles on their tracs, so it wouldnt hurt. My local mechanic did it for about $25...I'd stay away from the dealer.



By the way, how much would that valve body have cost if it wasnt under warranty?



Thanks

Andy

 

[Todd Z]

Even if you don't use the 4wd the transfer case chain is allways turning.. and at 60K miles i would most certainly change that... Mine was trash at only 21K.....



The brake fluid can Waite till the next brake job, and the injector cleaning is a bunch of crap..

Todd Z

 

[Richard L]

I agree. The injector cleaning is BS if you are not having any drivablility problems. If you use a quality brand of gasoline an change your fuel filter every 20K miles you can add a $5.00 can of injector cleaner to you next fill up about every 10K-15K miles and you will not likely ever have any problems.



I also agree that the price for flushing the brake fluid is high and prefer to do this as part of a standard brake job since I don't believe in just pushing the caliper pistons back in to change pads. I open the bleed screw and push the fluid out to expell the old fluid and then do a brake flush to clear out all the fluid.



I don't have a 4X4 so I can't make any recommendations about the transfer case, but you can get better prices from independent garages rather than from dealers and none of them are hard to do yourself.



...Rich

 

[Jay Pearson]

Thanks for the responses everyone..

I'm going to take her to my local repair shop to have the brake and transfer case work done.



Andy, I should be picking her up on Monday. When i get the paperwork back I'll post what the charge would have been without the warranty.

 

[Kevin Palmer]

The injector cleaning is not just an additive. I am not saying you need the service, just want to bring it to your attention to what it really is.



At our shop, we remove the Throttle Body (Most shops do NOT do this) and clean it very well from the back-side. To see what I mean, open the Throttle Body and look at the back-side of the flapper and you will see that it is more than likely black in color as opposed to the nice shiny color that you see on the front side.



Then we use a brush and scrub into the intake as far as we can using a special cleaner that Ford developed years ago. The cleaner will not harm the inside of plastic intakes or the fuel injectors them selves.



Then we put it all back together. Then we hook up an external fuel pump that is submerged in a mixture of gas and the same cleaner we use for the Throttle body and the intake. We remove the fuel pump fuse from the vehicle. In some cases you plug the return line in other you reroute it back to the tank of the external fuel pump you are now using.



You then start the external pump system and regulate it to the required pressure plus 5 PSI more. You start the vehicle. You watch a vacuum gauge. As the injectors get cleaner and cleaner the vacuum guage will increase. After 20 minutes or more if the gauge keeps increasing you then turn off the vehicle and put everything back together.



The vehicle will run smoother and have an increase of fuel mileage. This is true in more than 90% of the cases. Every now and then the improvement is small and not real noticeable.



We charge $169.00 to do it as I have just described.



Fuel injector cleaner you put in your tank will keep them clean. I have not seen it remove stuck dirt within the injectors itself.



The system above does as it forces the cleaner through the injectors as you restrict the return line.



Normally, once an injector gets to s predetermined PSI it simply allows the fuel to bypass it and rerun to the tank. So the injector cleaner you put in your tank does not even pass thru if it is dirty or stuck closed.



With the system above it MUST go thru it with very rare exception, like if the solenoid is defective and it can not open the needle valve. But if the solenoid is working, the pressurized cleaner will go thru it.



Hope I did not lose you, just trying to help you determine what is what.

 

[Todd Z]

The system the dealers use ( here any way) is the (mighty) system or the (run-rite). We used to use them here.... All they where was a hose that injected the cleaner into a vacuum line such as a brake booster, and ran the engine till all the cleaner ran through...



If they take the time that Kevin's place does, then it is worth it, BUT the most common ones are NOT!

Todd Z

 

[Richard L]

The normal Injection cleaning process is to connect a pressurized can of cleaner/fuel to th3e fuel rail and disable the fuel pump by removing the fuse. The engine is started and run using only the cleaner/fuel in the pressurized can and it takes about 15 minutes. These injector cleaning processes run from $130-$180 at most dealers and do not include cleaning the IAC or Throttlebody as CoastieJoe does.



If your injectors are not misfiring or causing drivabliity issues, they do not need to be cleaned. If you use a quality brand of fuel it will contain detergents and cleaning solutions to continuously keep the injectors clean, and adding a can of injector cleaner periodically adds an additional bit of insurance that the injectors should stay clean.



Paying for an injector cleaning process when your injectors are not dirty is a waste of money. It is not part of the normal mainenance process and is a big source of revenue for many dealerships. If there is a problem with an injector, there are tests that can be done to isolate that problem while still on the engine, and most dealers have a test bench that will check the injector for proper electrical operation, proper fuel flow, and proper spray pattern after it's removed.



Even if you are experiencing injector related problems, the tech needs to run test to determine what the problem may be and if cleaning would resolve the problem. You can spend big money for cleaning injectors only to find out that they are not dirty but may just be worn out!



If injector cleaning is part of an entire IAC/Throttlebody/Intake cleaning, and you are expriencing some drivability problems related to intake and fuel delivery, then it may be worth it, but again, most package deals financially favor the dealer, while most independent shops will charge a lower price and will only do what is necessary.



...Rich