Those of you with the 6R75 or 6R80 (Ford’s newer 6-speed auto transmission found in 2007+ Expedition and 2009+ F150) may have been slightly alarmed when you popped the hood for the first time and can’t find a transmission dip stick. A few Google searches may also leave you baffled and ready to get rid of your vehicle because of all the misinformation. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of it, too much, imo.
I bought a 2007 Expedition back in April and found it amusing that I couldn’t check my transmission fluid. It’s one of the ‘regular’ things you should always do, I still check my oil at almost every fuel-up, that’s pretty much just how I was raised. I pull a trailer from time to time, so not having something I can put my own eyes on worried me. I did some Googling and was met with such phrases as “sealed system”, “dealer only service”, but the gold medal winner wrote it was a ‘throw away transmission, just use it til it breaks and get another’. Seriously? How ignorant can one be? The manual states something along the lines of fluid change at 30k miles if you’re pulling a trailer 100% of the time, and was vague otherwise (or I simply ADD’d over it). My friend Google gave me a wide range of 100k to 150k miles.
I decided to do what I should have done before going to Google, and that was simply get personal with my vehicle.