got the car back today......

[Kyle]

i brought it in for three reasons:
-ticking, which i thought was exhaust manifold due to a/c condensation hitting it
-creaking when i turn the steering wheel
-tranny


well, i was right about the exhaust, mainly b/c thats the second time i had to bring it in for that. the creaking was due to the rack and pinion, which was replaced. the tranny wasnt fixed however, they claimed they ran a complete diagnostic test on it and found nothing, so my buddy that works there is gonna machine flush my tranny and we are gonna run some royal purple in there. it mainly does it when its driven for a while, which, if nothing is mechanically or electrically wrong, means that my tranny fluid is boiling over and the tranny is retarding itself to save itself from blowing something up........so i need some better tranny fluid and a tranny cooler shortly.....but first i'll try better tranny fluid, and hopefully that ties me over long enough to get a cooler, if not, i guess i'll get that this weekend.

[Thomas91169]

from the tbird forums(TCCoA) its recommended that one of the first mods, not only for performance, but for longetivity, is a tranny cooler. and its basically a requirement when doing tranny mods like shift kits, Torque converters, or rear gears, etc. that make the tranny work harder. same tranny (4R70w), same concept.

but fords way of checking it is to hook it to their fucktarded diagnostic machine which knows jack shit. it never found out what was wrong with the tbirds tranny and why the first 2 stops after sitting out all night it would die at the stop sign. wasnt until i took it to a mom and pop shop that a real mechanic with actual knowledge that didnt rely on some crap diagnostic tool just listened to my description and instantly said "99.9% sure its your torque converter". sure enough, he was right, and after going through 3 trannies in 3 years, that last one with the new TC(the higher stall one might i add) has lasted almost 3 years alone.

i hate large scale shops, they hire fresh out of UTI/WyoTech/Sequoia grads that know the book, but dont know anything else but what the computer hooked to the diagnostic port tells them.

[SpectorV]

change the fluid every year, easy enough.