2005 Ford CVT(Freestyle)

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It has a fill plug, dipstick and a drain plug. The fluid is a proprietary fluid, Motorcraft XT-7-QCFT. Your best bet is to get it online from Tasca or another Ford dealer that sells parts online--the fluid is expensive. You should only use this fluid.

There's a dipstick, though if it's not leaking I'd just drain and fill. There's also a fill bolt. Checking the fluid is tricky, as it expands much more than typical ATF. Unless you have a way to pull the transmission temp, check it hot, in neutral with the car running. In order to access the dipstick, you have to pull the airbox out of the way. The dipstick is buried underneath it. It's black, and hard to see. At full temp, the correct level is 12mm ABOVE the top hole.

If the fluid level is correct, just drain the fluid hot, let it get to room temp, measure how much came and and add the fluid. The drain plug is either a T40 or a 6mm allen. Do yourself a favor and order a new drain plug (the new ones are 6mm steel). The T40 are aluminum and they strip easily. If there's a T40 on there, use a high-quality bit and tap that sucker in hard before you try to remove it. The fill bolt is accessed from the top. It takes a 3/8" drive. You'll need a long socket extension, 18" or so. This is also accessed with the air box removed or bent up out of the way.

Lastly, there are two filters on this car-a full flow "high pressure" filter, and a pan filter. I wouldn't bother with the pan filter unless the pan is weeping, or 150K, whichever comes first. The HP filter needs to be changed, though. It's recommended in the service manual at 60K, though I think you go to 100K on the OEM filter without much trouble. I wouldn't go over that, though. The filter change is a bit of a bear, since you need to remove a wheel and engines/trans mount and support the transmission for access. It's not difficult, just tedious.

Fluid capacity it 10 qt. I'd get 7 qts. A drain and fill should get out 6-6.5 of fluid. A filter swap removes about a pint.
 
This trans is really picky as JOD stated.

We have had to do teardowns and unit replacement on a few that people incorrectly serviced. Usually quick lubes that see there is both a 6 speed auto and the CVT and put in fluid for the 6 speed auto in this unit.
 
Thanks guys. I was thinking about doing it. Its son-in-laws. He can go to Ford and overpay.


He is going to be up here this weekend..I'll check out what you guys said.

Thanks again,
Al
 
I had one of these and the Ford dealer put red fluid in it. Kinda sad isn't it? It needed a tranny either way but it sure didn't perform well on the two fluids in there together. When i drained it they drained and separated. Exactly why I will not let anyone touch my car. But not to get off topic, the trannys are pretty good as long as you use the correct fluid only and avoid dropping the pan unless you really need to because that gasket is a joke and will leak after that guaranteed. Drain and Fill should be plenty.
 
Originally Posted By: 71Chevyguy
I had one of these and the Ford dealer put red fluid in it.


Oh man... You'd expect that from the local Iffy Lube place, but from the dealer? Ouch..

Originally Posted By: 71Chevyguy
Exactly why I will not let anyone touch my car. But not to get off topic, the trannys are pretty good as long as you use the correct fluid only and avoid dropping the pan unless you really need to because that gasket is a joke and will leak after that guaranteed. Drain and Fill should be plenty.


Yeah, I've heard lots of horror stories regarding dealers servicing, including my own when I called around to check the cost of servicing it. The responses didn't inspire much confidence. I'm sure some dealers have experience servicing these--but not any of the ones I called....

Regarding the pan, there's a full-flow filter that is fairly easily replaced (in a different location), but like every ZF transmission I've seen, that pan is best left in place until it starts to weep. The filter down there is a simple screen and doesn't do much. Putting loctite on the bolts can help, but yeah, it's tough to get the pan in place without it leaking. It seems the bolt threads are undersized for what they have to do.
 
Yeah I thought it was kinda sad that the Ford dealer had no idea what goes in there. They actually didn't want to touch it to begin with. It was a vehicle that the dealer I worked for had bought with a "noise". It was sent to the Ford dealer to diagnose. Turns out it was a bad tranny because the bearings on the input shaft went bad. They said the pan was full of metal and it needed a new tranny. I ended up buying the car to put a tranny into it myself. I didn't see any metal in the pan after removing it myself, so they really just didn't want to mess with it. I replaced the cooler and all the lines since they had all been contaminated. Used the proper fluid and now 30k later it is still driving fine on the used tranny that I installed.
I had another vehicle with the same setup and the Ford dealer told me not to service it. They said it was best just left alone and will be fine if you never service it. I told them that I was now at over 100k and they said it will be fine. I think it is sad that even at the dealer nobody knows anything about the products they have to service. Very scary for people who can not service their vehicles themselves and trust the dealer to know what they are doing.
 
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