Lincoln Town Car Transmission Fluid and Filter Change
1996 and up Lincoln Town Car
Its important to change the transmission fluid every 20,000 miles in the Lincoln Town Car, and it isnt that difficult. If your are experiencing slipping or other major fault with your transmission, you should take it to a dealer or trusted transmission shop for an examination.
Tools and parts you will need:
Safety glasses
Rubber gloves
Ratchet, extension, and 10mm, 11mm, 18mm metric sockets
Jack stands
Cleaning solvent
Drain pan
Funnel
Rags
13 quarts Mercon V transmission fluid - DO NOT use Mercon or Dextron III.
They are not interchangeable.
Filter Kit (Fram FT1167) for the Lincoln
Town Car
Flashlight or worklight
A friend to help
Note: wear safety glasses while under the vehicle for eye protection as there's lots of dirt and grime under there just waiting to drop into your eyes.
The new filter and gasket. I used the filter brand Fram model FT1167. The fit was good.
Drive your Lincoln Town Car onto the ramps. Put a block of wood behind the back tires to brace the car.
Wait until the Lincoln Town Car has cooled off for at least an hour to ensure your not dealing with hot transmission fluid. VERY IMPORTANT -You dont want to be burned and transmission fluid can become very hot.
Remove the rubber inspection grommet (1 1/2inch diameter) between the engine and the transmission in the bottom of the Lincoln Town Car transmission bell housing. Use a flathead screwdriver to pry it out carefully.
With an assistant
under the vehicle looking into the inspection hole with a flashlight or
worklight, use the 18mm socket & wrench to turn the crankshaft pulley
(by the radiator) to turn the engine (clockwise). In the inspection hole
you will see the torque converter. Have your assistant stop you turning
the engine when the 11mm drain bolt is visible in the torque converter.
You can do the procedure yourself but it is a lot of climbing under the
vehicle and back to turning the crank pulley until you find the plug.
Place your drain pan
under the inspection hole and remove the drain plug out of the torque
converter with an 11mm socket and extension. The oil will pour out slowly...
in fact it may take a couple hours to fully drain the torque converter.
It is estimated that the Lincoln
Town Car
holds almost half of
the transmission fluid capacity or around 6 quarts in the torque converter.
Replace the drain
plug and tighten securely but do not over-tighten. Some people like to
use locktite on the threads to prevent it coming out. After tightening
the plug, replace the inspection cover on your Lincoln
Town Car transmission.
Loosen all the bolts
holding the transmission oil pan on. Carefully remove the bolts by one
corner of the pan. Carefully pry the pan down at that corner with your
drain pan underneath. There will be fluid going everywhere. Try to get
a drain pan that is at least 18 inches wide.
Remove the other bolts but leave them loose on one edge to hold the pan up. Tilt it more to get more oil out. Once you have drained half of the fluid hold the pan back up with an assistant if you have one and remove the rest of the bolts while your assistant holds the pan up. Then carefully drop the pan (without spilling fluid all over yourself) into your drain pan. Give it about an hour to fully drain all the transmission fluid. The Lincoln Town Car holds about 13 quarts of Mercon V transmission fluid.
Here's a picture of the Ford 4R70W transmission pan with the gasket sitting on top. The OE gasket is re-usable and is stamped as such shown by the red arrow on the right side of the picture below. Notice the grey colour donut magnet shown by the arrow on the top left of the picture.
The transmission with the pan off.
Using rags or paper towels and solvent clean the interior of the pan and carefully remove the sludge from the pan magnet at the bottom. Clean the edges of the transmission that the gasket touches. A rag or your scraper might be needed to get any rubber that's stuck on. This surface must be very clean to allow a good seal when you put the Lincoln Town Car transmission back together.
Clean out the transmission pan and remove all remaining parts of the rubber gasket around its edges. You might notice a metallic film on most of the pan surfaces that will wipe off. If you find a little plastic plug with a rubber O-ring, discard it. This was in the dipstick tube while the engine was assembled on the assembly line and falls into the transmission pan.
The clean transmission pan. Don't lose the round magnet that's in the bottom of the pan! It goes on the little bump and it collects any metal shavings that might be floating in your fluid. Take it out and make sure it is clean.
Note the position of the current tranmission filter, pull it off and replace it with the new one. Make sure the old rubber seal comes out too. Pop the new filter in place of the old one in the same position. Use clean rags to clean the gasket mating surfaces on the pan and the transmission. The old gasket is re-usable but the filter kit for the Lincoln Town Car comes with a new one. Its up to you if you use the new one.
Place
the pan back up onto the transmission and hand-tighten all the bolts.
If
you have a torque wrench use it to make sure you don't over-tighten
the bolts.
Using
a long funnel and fill about 5-6 quarts into the transmission through
the dipstick tube. You'll need a small neck funnel as the tube does
not have a large diameter on the Lincoln
Town Car.
Start
the engine. With your foot on the brake, slowly move your gear shifter
to each position, leaving it in each position for about 10 seconds before
moving to the next.
Shut
the car off and fill another 4 or 5 quarts.
Start
the engine again. With your foot on the brake, slowly move your gear
shifter to each position, leaving it in each position for about 10 seconds
before moving to the next.
Put
car in Park and let the car run for about 10 mins. Then inspect the
fluid level with the dipstick.
Add
more Mercon V transmission fluid until it reaches the "full"
mark on dipstick.
Drive it around the block a few times and check the transmission fluid level in your Lincoln Town Car.
Capacity if the Lincoln Town Car transmission, fluid radiator and lines are empty is listed at 13.5 quarts.
Cost: $105.00 (approximately)
13
quarts Castrol Mercon V semi-synthetic $5.00 per qt - $65.00 for the
job
Trans filter kit $35.00 - $40.00 (with gasket that isn't needed)
Whole thing should take 4-5 hours to complete.
Many transmission shops do a "power" fluid change by hooking up to the cooler lines and doing a pressure fill/exchange without dropping the transmission oil pan. This isn't the best since you have old fluid mixing with new, and you haven't changed the filter. As well the magnet in the pan won't get a cleaning and won't work as effectively to catch metal sludge/particles out of the oil. Think of a power flush as taking a shower, then putting your dirty clothes back on. Not exactly ideal. The Lincoln Town Car transmission will last much longer if you change fluid and filter every 20,000 miles. The Transmission in the Lincoln Town Car is quite expensive to replace and spending a few hours once evey 12-18 months (20,000miles) can keep your Lincoln Town Car running well for a long time.
Do
it yourself, then you'll know it has been done right! Take pride in
your Lincoln Town Car!
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