kruse

You probably won't believe me and then you will probably laugh about
it, but in reality, it doesn't have one.
Why? the dipstick costs money and too many people put engine oil in
the tranny and tranny oil in the engine.
I really don't blame them. That is, until the tranny starts to leak or
you have to add a shift additive under a factory recall.
Your focus probably doesn't have one either.

trainfan1

Ford has eliminated the ATF dipstick in many models, cars/trucks/SUV's.

It's not extremely difficult to add if needed, but a challenge to check
the level as part of cursory check-overs.

Rob

mike hunter

Did you try looking in the back set?

mike

el bandito

If it's like the one on my Grand Marquis, it's handle will be black, and
under some electrical harness

Why don't they shoot people designing those things?


--
Don't drink water, fish have *** in it!

jim warman

Is this a CVT or the 6 speed?

c. e. white

You probably don't have a dip stick. The CVT transmissions don't have
them at all. Some 6 speeds have them, some don't. If it was there, it
would be at the front of the drivers side of the engine compartment
near the air filter box.

Ford (and other manufacturers) have been eliminating transmission dip
sticks in recent years. It seems that people don't know how to check
transmission fluid (usually done with the transmission hot, idling in
park) and often overfill the reservoir, or even worse, pour in the
wrong fluid, often with dire results. It also makes it harder for
Uncle Joe's Discount Auto Repair and House of Ill Repute to inflict
the latest miracle transmission additive on unsuspecting Customers
(again, often with dire results). Modern automatics rarely leak, and
when they do, it means they need to be fixed.

I would not worry too much about the transmission fluid.

Regards,

Ed White

el bandito

What about checking the fluid for color & smell? that can tell a lot
about a transmission...

--
Don't drink water, fish have *** in it!

ed white

You could always unhook a cooler line to get a sample.

I am assuming this is a warranty thing. Ford (and many others) have decided
the dangers associated with people overfilling or miss filling the
transmissions is greater than the advantages of allowing for easy fluid
checks. For most passenger cars, Ford doesn't recommend routine fluid
changes. I've always been a proponent of routine transmissions fluid
changes. I've never actually changed fluid and found it to be discolored, so
I guess I am doing it plenty often enough. On the other hand my parents
never had the fluid changed in their vehicles, and they never had any
transmission failures either. Usually by the time the fluid is brown and
smells bad, unfortunate things have already happened.

Ed

ted mittelstaedt

No this isn't a warranty thing. This is a money-saving thing. They can use
the
same transmission in a lot of different bodies and don't have to engineer
different
dipstick tubes for them. The vehicle speed
sensor now doubles as the transmission dipstick on a lot of these Fords.
You have
to unbolt it of course. This is a similar approach to how manual
transmissions and
rear axle fluid levels are handled. Another technique is to use a standpipe
in the
drain plug. You intentionally overfill the transmission then let it warm up
and
open the drain plug until the fluid stops draining out. I think that one is
on the 4R75E

Note that with any of these schemes it would be very simple to fabricate a
real trans dipstick. Pull the pan and braze on a copper compression tube
fitting. Put the pan back on and run a copper line from that up into the
engine
compartment. Buy a universal trans dipstick and put it into the line. Fill
the
transmission to the correct level as per the manual, then pull the dipstick
and
mark the level on the stick. Instead of copper you could also use
fuel-quality
rubber hose.

Ted

c. e. white

Is this your assumption, or is this do***ented somewhere? I am guessing you
are just guessing (as was I). Probably both explainations have some validity.

The 5R55E uses the standpipe method (as do transmission from other companies
as well). My Fusion with the Aisin-Warner 6 speed Automatic still has a dip
stick (and warnings all over the place to NOT use Mercon ATF). The new Ford
6 speed FWD Automatic doesn't have a dip stick. My Nissan Frontier has a dip
stick, and it has an actual drain plug (something I wish all automatics had).


But why bother? What percentage of people ever check the transmission fluid?
How many people actually do it correctly? And, at lesat for me, when I check
the fluid it is often difficult to figure out exactly what the level is on
the stick (clean hot fluid). The standpipe method (done correctly) is very
accurate. Dip sticks are not (at least for clean hot fluid).

Why are modern automatic more likely to leak fluid than a manual? If you
leak enough fluid out of an automatic, it quits working, possibly with
minimal to no additional damage. If you leak the fluid out of a manual, it
will keep working until a bearing fails (been there, done that).

Ed