Can Trans filter fall on its own?

[Denethor]

About a year ago, I had all the fluids changed on my 2011 Expy, as routine maintenance at 150k.
Driving home from the shop, there was a strange whirring/moaning sound kind of like power steering pump that is low on fluid, but coming from the trans area. I took it back to the shop that did the fluids and they said Ford had sent the wrong filter over and it was starving the trans for fluid, the "noise" was the fluid being sucked between the filter and the pan that were damn near touching and the torque converter starving for fluid.
They changed the filter with the correct one and all has been fine for 10k miles or so.
I just took a 500+ mile trip and the next day the odd whirring noise is back.

I've never changed the filter on this style trans and they hid the dipstick so I can check fluid level easily.
I'm still 500 miles from home so i have only basic tools and no lift.
Can the trans filter "fall"? Like could road vibrations (lots of grooved pavement from spring repaving projects) cause the filter to dislodge and the trans really is starving for fluid again?

No codes have been triggered "yet".
Seems to drive fine, no leaks that I can see, so it "shouldn't be" low on fluid but anything is possible. It's been raining here pretty non stop for the last month so any small leak would be washed away.

The only other oddity, was my power steering fluid was on the low side. I filled it to max line. Again, no sign of a leak, so not sure how it lost that much fluid in a year since it was changed and topped off.

 

[JExpedition07]

Well I changed my trans fluid and filter a while back and I can tell you the filter just pushes up in there and there is a “gasket” that hold it up with friction . There is a little nib it holds on as well. I guess it possible but when I pushed mine up it holds pretty strong. There are two things that come to mind for me, either part of the old gasket is stuck in there so the new one isn’t grabbing or they aren’t pushing it up hard enough on install. You have to give it a good shove.

On mine I had to take needle nose and work the old gasket out because it got stuck up in there. New one would have never sealed properly. Also possible they are using cheap filters which the gaskets tend to leak on over time. I used a Transmaxx filter and have had no issues, that was a more pricey aftermarket option.

 

[1955moose]

I think J hit it. That shop probably put a kid to do the job, and didn't school him about pulling out the old rubber sleeve. That or he didn't push it far enough like J said. My older brother did the same thing about 20 years back on his V6 Thunderbird, He popped the pan down and saw the filter just laying there. After he saw the old sleeve stuck in there, and removed it, the new filter popped right in. Don't know why Ford does it this way. A couple of small bolts is the way most used to hold the filter in. As long as your transmission is ok, I wouldn't worry, although I'd let the shop know that if you have problems in the near future, that they would take care of it.

Sent from my N9131 using Tapatalk

 

[Hershburglar]

I changed my transmission fluid and filter approximately 8K miles ago. When we dropped the pan, the filter was just laying in it.

 

[Denethor]

Turned out to not be the trans or filter at all this time. Even the mechanic at the shop thought it was the same noise as before.
The idler pulley and tensioner pulley bearings were shot and sending a whining noise throughout the drivetrain.

 

[mjp2]

Crazy but at least it was a cheap and easy fix. Congrats on getting it resolved.