Welp. Guess who forgot the magnet?

[monster1]

I dropped the pan today on my 48re for a fluid and filter change. The fluid was a burgundy red color. The reusable gasket was junk because the shop I used at 50k used gasket sealer in conjunction with the reusable gasket. I tossed it and bought a felpro. After completely cleaning the mating surfaces and pan, I bolted the pan back up and snugged down the pan bolts. I put new atf+4 in the dipstick tube and brought it to the proper level. When I was cleaning up, I noticed that I forgot to put the magnet back into the bottom of the pan. Can I just stick it to the outside and secure it with foil tape until the next service? Btw, the pan looked good with minimal crud in the bottom. The magnet had blackish goo stuck to it which I'm assuming is wear metals. I'm thinking of running it and dropping the pan again next year to reinstall the magnet and get the fluid even cleaner. Thoughts?

 

[Donald]

Install a Magnefine inline filter.

 

[JHZR2]

Get a filter magnet and stick it to the exterior. The added size may make up for the reduced strength.

 

[Dyusik]

This stuck to the underside of the oil pan. Just don't expect to pull it off without a winch.

 

[Warstud]

Just loosen the pan enough to slip the magnet in. And with another magnet on the outside you may be able drag it into place. IDK... Just a thought.

 

[JMJNet]

Get a high temperature strong Neodymium magnet (N42 or stronger) and stick it outside with foil tape.

 

[Smoqueed]

Personally I would say [censored] it and just put it back in the next time you drop the pan. If you're worried about it, crack the pan just enough to jam it in there (and make a big mess), or install a magnefine inline filter.

 

[JLawrence08648]

Originally Posted By: JMJNet
Get a high temperature strong Neodymium magnet (N42 or stronger) and stick it outside with foil tape.


Agree, this is the only magnet to get but since it's in the outside you can go with any rare earth magnet. You'll never pull it off and through the metal, it will attract more filings.

 

[vwmaniaman]

just keep it in the normal location so it won't have any effect on the shift solenoids.

 

[camrydriver111]

Originally Posted By: monster1
The magnet had blackish goo stuck to it which I'm assuming is wear metals.


If that's the case I would put the magnet back in.

Reasoning: BITOG paranoia.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: Smoqueed
Personally I would say [censored] it and just put it back in the next time you drop the pan...


If the unit has some miles on it and there was little debris in there this time, that's what I would do too. Just put the magnet back in there next time.

I'm not a fan of the external magnet idea. If the magnet gets pulled, what ever was attracted to it is instantly free to drift about.

 

[i_hate_autofraud]

Typically these pans are .050" thick steel or more, this means magnets on the outside have less then
20% of their field reach the inside. You'll need to stick on 3-4 extra magnets on the outside
just to come close to the OEM on the inside.

I know, because I had the pan off a while ago and tried magnets on the outside and checked how
strong it was on the inside, not very good at all.

When you do drop the pan, plan on placing extra mags on the inside. What I found was that if
the mag is missing on the inside, the wear metals will migrate to the valve body and get into
and stay in the shift solenoids.

The PCS (pressure control solenoid) is at highest risk of contamination and sticking leading to
malfunction since it's duty cycle is very high.

So even as you change the AFT in a year, a lot of wear metals will be in the valve body, once you get
extra mags back inside the pan, they'll slowly flush out and get trapped on the mags inside the pan.

In my case solenoid operation improved over time improved with the extra mags inside the pan.

I bolded the word inside because it's really important!

48re are pretty good, so you might get away with it for a while, but I'd drop the pan
now put back the OEM magnet and a few extra! All manufacturers only put in the bare minimum they can
get away with! You'll never make that mistake again! LOL

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Won't make a difference either way. Put the magnet back in if it will make you sleep better at night, but as for AT longevity, won't matter squat.

 

[Jim Allen]

Saying not to bother is very bad advice in the long term.

I'm 100% with Ihateautofraud above. Don't be lazy. Drop the pan. Install the magnet. If you took your car to a shop and the tech forgot it, you'd rightly demand the owner do it right. YOU owe YOURSELF the same quality work. Not having it installed won't be a problem today, tomorrow or the next day, but sooner or later....

Why? According to John Eleftherakis and Abe Khalil, did a series of studies for the OE trans manufacturers and the aftermarket that started in the late '80s, and continue to today, the contamination makeup of the average transmission oil is 90 metallic. Of those metallic particles, 51 percent are ferrous (iron/steel), 21 percent copper, 11 percent aluminum and 7 percent lead. The particles range in size from 5 to 80 microns, about 82 percent of them larger than 5 microns. The pan filter is no better than a 60 micron... a very few get down to 40. The issue is that the solenoids in the trans are nothing more than electromagnets, so as your trans generates ferrous metallic contamination, those are going to be the places where it collects. That's why the pan magnets are there in the first place, to try and catch them before the solenoid does. It's a cheap OE way to get the trans out of warranty. The bare minimum, as was stated above. Transmissions really need better filtration and why I have a cooler line magnetic filter on every automatic I own.

As an aside, I recently cured a slip-bump problem on my 4T65E by installing a Magnefine cooler line filter. The vehicle is fairly new to me and while I had changed the trans fluid, the Magnefine installation was a bit more challenging and I hadn't gotten 'round to it yet. It began doing the notorious slip-bump, typically cause by a"fuzzy"(with steel) PCS and that would have eventually killed it. Got off my dead butt and installed the Magnefine. It did it a couple more times and then stopped. Four months now without a relapse and it was starting to do it about every other time I accelerated from a dead stop.

Some say an inline filter/magnet is better than a pan magnet because too strong a magnetic field near the electronic solenoids can interfere with their operation. I don't know that to be true but there is some logic to the idea anyway.

 

[demarpaint]

I'd drop the pan and do it right. I wonder how would magnets from an old HDD work stuck to the bottom of the outside of the pan until the next pan drop when you can install the magnet inside where it belongs?

 

[Lubener]

Run it for a week and do a pan drop and just replace the fluid lost and a gasket.You will benefit with the added new fluid.

 

[UncleDave]

Agreed W Mr Allen based on firsthand look at what was on my mags.

My titan came with 2 pan magnets. the truck has an 80% tow duty cycle in its 92K mile life - so it gets worked pretty hard.

These have been in place and are original last week I dropped the pan to change the internal filter

The truck has had 3 drain and fills over the course of its life.

You can see a finger imprint on the "upper" mag there is a good amount of goop on it. The other mag has far less goop, but still a notable amount.

Id rather have that on the mags than floating around in the oil - BY FAR.

UD

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

Add a drain plug while you're at it.

 

[Kestas]

I vote for forgetting it and leave it as is. I'm assuming this is the first change for the transmission. The first time gets a lot of the break-in debris, which is the worst. There won't be so much to clean out next time.

I bought a Mercedes at 48K which didn't have a magnet in the transmission pan (or maybe it was serviced before I got it and the tech didn't put the magnet back in). It has one now.