I got a '06 Five Hundred from my brother, who bought it new. It has @180,000 miles on it. He told me that he had the transmission fluid change at his dealer on the maintenance schedule, which I think he said was at 60,000 miles. Hasn't been changed since. I took it to my local Ford dealer to have them do a couple things and also change the trans fluid. The techs there didn't want to touch it. They said that the last few times that they changed the trans fluid on high mileage Five Hundreds that the transmission stopped working soon after.
Does this sound legit?

 

Well, can't tell about their shop experience, but my owner situation is similar to yours. I bought a high mileage, fine condition (tiny lady owner, mostly 300 mile highway trips) 2006 F500 CVT at 210,000 - the tranny had never been serviced. CVT fluid was brown color, vs blue-green fresh out of bottle.

Took to local Ford dealer who asked if I wanted them to flush the tranny with some cleanser; I said I wanted nothing to go into the tranny except Ford CVT fluid. They did drain and fill then (5 qts out of 10 capacity) so 50% new fluid. Within 5 months I did a second drain and fill, so now was 75% new fluid. Car now has 235,000 on it and CVT tranny works fine. I suggest printing out this post/thread, take it to your dealer shop and ask them to do the tranny fluid drain and fill work you want/need using the Ford (light blue/green in color - have them/you check this) CVT fluid that's specified. Making sure they have/use the right fluid (*) seems extra worth while for you - since the dealership is discouraging service of this tranny, they may need to order the right fluid.

(*) Ford 500 Motorcraft CVT fluid comes in red plastic quarts - "Transmission Fluid Continuously Variable Chain Type."
Checked on the partial bottle I have on hand:
on lower left of front label is number 1076277-00;
same spot on back label is number 1076276-00;
above the bar code is number 1039302.

Luck, and welcome.

 

Yeah at my dealer we will not do a transmission flush on a vehicle high then 150K miles.
When we do a transmission flush we truly flush out all the old fluid and flush new fluid in by connecting the flush machine in series with the transmission lines to take out the old fluid and put the same amount of new fluid back in, then double check and adjust fluid level.

The reason we will not do a flushes on high mileage vehicles is that there is the risk of being sludge buildup in the transmission just minding its own business but when we do a flush it gets agitated and may end up clogging an internal passageway and now the dealer is blamed for the inoperable transmission, thus we eliminate this risk by not offering the service.

You could ask to talk to the service manager about doing a drain and fill, much like a oil change, the vehicle is off for this and there is no risk/drastically less risk of sludge getting moved around. This is what the above member had done to his vehicle.

Depending on what transmission you have there is either a single transmission fluid filter or both a regular and a high pressure transmission filter. You will have to open the transmission up to replace these filters and of course due to the age of the vehicle that could lead to other issues if you do not replace all the seals, the high pressure filter has over seven seals to replace if you had it changed and the transmission has to be taken apart a bit to get to it.

 

What about the 6 speed tranny? Any problems with fluid change.

 

@saemetric
What year?
What transmission? CVT or Aisin?
Drain and fill or complete fluid flush?
Mileage?
Transmission issues?

 

2005 with Aisin 6 speed with 125,000 miles. No problems with trans, just looking at drain and refill only.

 

Material Item Specification Motorcraft Premium Automatic Transmission Fluid
XT-8-QAW (US); CXT-8-LAW12 (Canada) WSS-M2C924-ADraining

1. With the vehicle in NEUTRAL, position it on a hoist.

1. Remove the transmission fluid drain plug and allow the transmission fluid to drain.

Refill

1. Install the transmission fluid drain plug.
   • Tighten to 47 Nm (35 lb-ft).

1. Remove the transmission fluid fill plug.

1. Fill the transaxle with approximately 3.7L (4 qt) of clean transmission fluid.

1. Install the transmission fluid fill plug.
   • Tighten to 39 Nm (29 lb-ft).

1. With the transaxle in (P) PARK, the vehicle should be on a level surface, the engine at idle (680-780 rpm), foot pressed on the brake, move the selector lever through each gear and allow engagement of each gear. Place the selector lever back in the PARK position.

1. Wipe the transmission fluid level indicator cap and remove the fluid level indicator.

1. Wipe the transmission fluid level indicator with a clean cloth.

1. NOTE: In order to get an accurate transmission fluid level reading, the vehicle should be on a level surface, the engine at idle (680-780 rpm) for 5 minutes and the transmission fluid temperature should be at least 70°C-80°C (158°F-176°F) using the scan tool.
   If transmission fluid needs to be added, add transmission fluid in 0.25L (1/2 pint) increments through the transmission fluid fill plug located on the top of the transaxle near the transmission fluid level indicator. Do not overfill the transmission fluid. Install the transmission fluid level indicator back in the transmission fluid filler tube until it is fully seated, then remove the indicator. The transmission fluid level should be at the upper-most mark on the transmission fluid level indicator. Only fill to the upper-most mark on the transmission fluid indicator. Do not overfill. Damage to the transaxle will occur.

 

if a fluid change equipment for flushing out all the fluid then it will certainly harm your transmission. I found this to be true by talking with a mechanic and having the flush machine used on two vehicles just take off the pan to change filter and fluid( 3 quarts or more) replace the gasket and without fail use a quart or two of Lucas transmission treatment. I used Lucas on a transmission that was slipping and got another 4 years out of the car before it was wrecked hope this helps and thank your mechanic for being honest he saved you a couple of grand or more. Hope this helps

 

Decided to do the drain refill. Bought a 6 pack of proper fluid removed drain plug and carefully measured what came out. 3 quarts exactly Replaced plug and added 3 quarts slowly thru dipstick tube. Worked great. Next will do it again with another 3 quarts. Won’t be 100% new fluid but better than nothing.
6 quarts was $48 from Amazon.

 

FYI it’s Mobil 3309 ATF for the Aisin 6 speed auto.