Transmission Replacement on a 2015 Lincoln MKC in Russellville, KY

One of our wholesale customers came to us with a 2015 Lincoln MKC that was believed to have a transmission problem. According to them the vehicle would not move at all. Of course we gladly took a look at it. Upon entering and starting the vehicle to do some of our preliminary checks we could smell a sort of burning smell. We instantly shut the vehicle off. That burning smell is a good sign of two things typically. One, there is a massive leak that is causing fluid to hit something hot (like the exhaust) and burning. Option two, there is so little fluid inside the transmission that it is burning something internal up.

With that knowledge we lifted the vehicle up, expecting to see a massive leak, and what do we find? You guessed it, a massive leak! Sadly we did not snap a picture of what we had on the lift at the time and even if we had it would have been hard to pinpoint in just a photo. Transmission fluid was leaking in between the bell housing and motor, this tells us that either the front seal or the torque converter are leaking. If caught quick enough we can typically repair or even rebuild a transmission that has had these issues, but in this instance the unit was believed to be to far gone. The fluid that did remain was black as charcoal, indicating that there was internal damage from lack of fluid.

After informing the customer of the bad news, they decided the safest route for them (as they are a car lot) was to put another unit the vehicle. They were able to get a low cost / low mile unit from car-part.com, a website dedicated to used parts for vehicles, and we were able to do a swap without hassle. It is important to know that with most modern day vehicles when replacing the transmission you must program the TCM. In this instance with the vehicle being a Ford product, we needed to program the Strategy ID numbers into vehicle itself and not the transmission.

Upon completing the Transmission Replacement, programming, and adding fluid (Figure 1), the car lot was ready to sell a trustworthy vehicle to their lucky customer in Russellville, Ky.

Service Date: 3/20/24

Mileage: 148,133

Service provided: Transmission Replacement

Location: Russellville, KY