Police dept. has a 2013 taurus. Engine light (appears as wrench on display) was on. Vehicle was sent out and we were told the light comes on because the transmission fluid gets too hot and we should not sit idling. This is a police package vehicle and police vehicles spend a lot of time idling and I have never heard of this. Is this mechanic right? I thought police package vehicles were built to withstand long periods of idling (engine hours)???
Has the transmission fluid been serviced?
Tester
Well, the car’s made it 5 years so far, hasn’t it? That tells me it did, indeed, keep cool while idling early in its life but doesn’t now. Even if this car “only” has 100K? 200K? miles, it probably has 8-10,000 hours on the engine and transmission if it’s only driven one shift a day, 7 days a week. A 3 shift car likely has near 25,000 hours. That would be far more (3-5 times) hours per mile than normal cars would see.
Give the old girl a break! She’s tired!
You do not say who the vehicle was sent to or if this was a new purchase or acquired from another agency . I think that you need to verify that it is an actual police vehicle and use a mechanic that is qualified for vehicles such as this.