Ford Experts...I Need Your Help 4 Speed Automatic

[fhm555]

Hey folks about a year ago I bought a 2010 E150 cargo van with a four speed automatic. It was a former work truck and had a full car fax history from the time of purchase and always got scheduled maintenence and service at the dealer it was bought from. The mileage was a little on the high side but I did some reading and they have a rep of going well over 200K if given a little TLC so I was satisfied I'd get my money's worth out of it. It drove really good so I snagged it up. Last week I was driving along and the transmission just slipped out of overdrive/4th gear. I slowed down and when it downshifted it reengaged and started going like normal until it shifted out of third gear when it just disconnected from the driveline again. I got it home and since it's not my daily driver I'm not in any hurry to get it repaired so I started reading up and apparently it is common enough to warrant steady traffic on a lot of Ford sites. After reading up I drove it down the road a ways and tried it with OD switched off and it worked just like it should except it never shifted into 4th gear. If i turned the OD on it would jump out of gear every time it shifted to 4th. Except for the loss of 4th gear it is working exactly like it has since I got it, nice smooth up and down shifting, and reverse are all functioning normally. From what I've read the usual culprit is a bad shift solenoid or solenoid wiring harness/plug, or a retaining clip has come off the 4th gear band. I've been given conflicting information by a few local repair shops and wanted to see what the Folks on TB with product knowledge might think.

The dealer says it could be any number of things and rather than burn a lot of labor looking, he wants to sell me a factory reman transmission with a pretty healthy warranty for a couple grand installed. A local independent trans shop says they can redo the thing and also offer basically the same warranty as the dealer, but they don't pull and replace so I'd have to get that done separately which is going to put me really close to what the dealer is asking. Last of all I found a wrecked van with less than 50K on the clock with the same driveline and can buy the transmission for a few hundred bucks, but I'm worried I might just be buying more trouble down the road. According to the independent guy it's a matter of the OEM shifting electronics being of poor quality and him using better stuff.

Anywho, if this is your bailiwick and you have any advice or suggestions, please let em fly. Thanks in advance for any and all.

 

[hondo4life]

Since you say it had scheduled maintenance done and it works fine with OD turned off, I have to assume the transmission is not garbage. How does the fluid look? How is the level (warmed up with the engine idling)?

Of course they want to charge you for a new one, rather than do a little bit of diagnostic work. That's the easiest, and most profitable. It may also be the best way, though.
I say the solenoid should be fairly easy and "cheap" for a shop to diagnose and replace, so they should at least rule that out before telling you to replace the whole thing.

The 4th gear band is a bit more iffy. The servo seal can start leaking and/or the servo retaining clip can break. Since your 4th gear is holding intermittently, I'm guessing the seal is bad, rather than broken. I could be wrong, though. Dropping the pan is always a good way to find broken parts floating around. The servo is serviceable without removing the transmission, but the 2-3 hours (I'm guessing) of labor to get to that point would be wasted if they take it apart and find the servo housing is damaged beyond repair. And then, if the band has been slipping all this time, it might be toast, too.

I guess it depends how many more miles you think are left in it this transmission, how long you intend to drive it, and just how nice of a van it is. A new or rebuilt unit may be worth it, but I always prefer a proper diagnosis before throwing parts (especially giant, expensive parts) at a problem.

 

[Downunderwonder]

Surely there's a nearby transmission specialist who is a one stop shop? Diagnose and repair would be the go.

 

[DreadyDiggs]

At the dealership I work at the only time we ever open up a transmission is for warranty repairs. Other than that, we're normally selling a reman unit or used unit and just swapping. More profit, less risk. If I remember right we'll even install units brought in by customers, though I've yet to have that happen when it comes to a transmission.

I just had a situation where building didn't work out. I put a cylinder head on a Chevy Aveo that warped it's old head. I drained over 2 gallons of water/oil mix out the oil pan. I suggested to my service manager we just replace the engine if we're not going into the bottom end, he figured it'd be alright cause the car was running fine, it'd just overheat and of course the mixed fluids. Swapped the cylinder head and gasket, and at idle the car has low oil pressure light. Even with Lucas and thicker oil, still a light at idle. Goes away as soon as you apply throttle and no overheating at all. Can't give a car to a customer like that, and they gave the customer an exact guaranteed price, and more work is needed (oil pump and/or bearings). So the shop is eating the first job (service manager ended up quitting before the car was back together for another reason), and we're swapping the motor out instead of going into it again.

Your unit is buildable from what it sounds like, but you won't know exactly what happened without a peek inside. Getting a unit built usually means getting a valve body update, which will improve shift quality and overall dependability, but you can do that to your junkyard trans as well.

My 1995 E250 was bought with 220K on it, and now has 278K. No transmission work done to it yet since I've owned it, just one drain and fill of the trans fluid. No records were received from the previous owner, so I'm kinda just waiting.

 

[fhm555]

Thanks for the info.

Apparently i didn't properly convey my situation regards 4th gear. If allowed to shift out of third it freewheels. Turing the OD off keeps it in third gear so it never shifts up to 4th. It works fine withot 4th gear but i'm not comfortable with running a high mileage engine at the RPM required to keep from getting run over on the freeway.

As for the diagnose and repair, i got the impression troubleshooting all electrical problems associated with shifting can be done on the bench. I truly wish i could find a one stop place capable of doing an IRAN on it but after many calls the three options are what i practically have. Plenty of places will pull and install, but the dealer is the only one who will troubleshoot and they apparently are not comfortable doing so. There is also the fact that all the electrical components save the connecting harness are either in the bellhousing or transmission proper so dropping the pan only exposes some components but apparently not the possibly offending solenoid.

I truly hate it when i'm at the mercy of strangers for things mechanical but i can no longer crawl around or under my rolling stock to do it myself. In the past i'd have simply dropped the trans and had a go at it myself, but that is no longer an option.

Again, thanks for your help. It is greatly appreciated.

Oh almost forgot, fluid is fine and at the proper level. Even though Ford now marks their dipsticks with both cold and hot level ranges i'm too much a creature of habit to not check AT levels unless the unit is fully warmed up.

And no leaks i'm aware of. No spotting where it's parked and no sign of any drool on the undercarriage.