I am so tired of this vehicle!

My husband was driving and noticed the truck hesitated, stuttered, and the o/d light started blinking. He slowly drove it one mile to our house. Opened up the hood, and ZERO transmission fluid.

He put in some fluid and it started up without the blinking light, and sounds better, but is definitely still hesitating and not driving correctly.

How would transmission fluid get to zero? There's never been any noticeable leak and just a week ago I took it in to get tires replaced and they said the fluid was dirty, but didn't say there wasn't any.

Is the transmission probably screwed? I have spent so much money on this piece of crap that I'm ready to drop the money to fix it and sell it to some other unsuspecting person.

 

Show up and insult that which we like, now there's a great way to win friends and influence people.

The seal between the transmission and the transfer case is leaking. This allows fluid to pass from the tranny to the TC without you seeing anything leaking. This can be confirmed by removing the top filler plug on the TC and seeing if fluid comes out. When the TC was originally filled, it was only filled up to that fill hole. So if fluid comes out when the fill hole plug is removed, then that means fluid went into the TC from somewhere else. In your case, from the tranny.

 

its funny how the vehicle makes it to your house and dosnt leave you stranded which you dont take for granded but.......anyways its not the vehicles fault that it didnt have any fluid its up to the operator to check it and also never listen to the shop lol what where they doing checking your fluid? was it not a tire shop??

 

That truck has been in one shop or another at least 10 times in the last 9 months. Some of it I expect - tires, plugs (changed at 80k miles), etc - but I didn't expect to have to rebuild part of the engine, change out the electronic throttle body, and now the transmission, on a vehicle with just around 85k miles. Something is now going on with the breaks as well, they hiss from the break pedal area even after removing pressure. If I have to spend $8k every year on fixing a vehicle, why not just buy something cheap and drive it until it breaks and then get another one? I have a 2000 saturn that has required about $2k in maintenance total since being purchased 11 years ago and now has 150,000 miles. If my little crap vehicle can last longer than a big, fierce Ford that is never used for towing, and is almost all freeway driving, what does that say about the Ford? I got me a bad one, that's all. It isn't the vehicle's fault, it's the manufacturer's fault.

I'm sure there are some expeditions that are just fine and dandy, it's great looking and nice to ride in, BUT - the one I have has been nothing but a money suck. And I haven't even begun to scrape the surface of all the little things that aren't working. The passenger window doesn't work most of the time. The rear windshield wiper fluid actually pumps INTO the vehicle instead of onto the window, when I adjust a mirror, the auto seats somehow decide to adjust themselves too...sorry, I want to love it, but it's been problem after problem.

When I bought it used I got the carfax and service records and it appeared to be well taken care of. It has had the proper oil changes, and the tire shop checks all fluids, I don't know why. It was actually in two different shops a total of 3 times in the last three weeks for an unrelated issue.

Off to the tranny shop I go.

 

The diaphragm in the brake booster has ruptured and is leaking vacuum. Ultimately, this vacuum leaks throws off the efficiency of the engine.

 

Is it dangerous? It seems to only make the noise when my husband drives it because he breaks so hard.

My husband is a Ford truck lover which is why we own this vehicle. It's his baby, and I know we need to fix the issues, but I'm just frustrated.

 

Yah think!

No it's not dangerous because even if the booster fails the brakes will still work. The pedal will be much harder to press though.

 

The rear window washer leak is a pretty easy fix. Usually the hose just popped off of the connector at the rear of the headliner about in the middle. 10 minutes at the most.

 

So, to update the original post.

Drove the truck slloooowwwwwlly to the transmission shop. Guy pulls the code from the engine and it's "incorrect gear ratio" (but didn't say which gear). Bad news.

Guy takes it to road test, and after being gone for 10 minutes comes back walking. Says it stopped and wouldn't go forward anymore, and he drove it back as far as he could in reverse, but didn't want to take it on a busy road in reverse. So we walk over to the truck, he is able to drive it about 50 feet forward, but when he stops to pull out of the parking lot, it stops again and does nothing but rev and rev and rev. We get it back to the shop in reverse, he drops the pan, drain plug still there. Metal shavings, fluid smells burnt.

Quoted me $2500 to do a rebuild in 3 days. $500 for the torque converter and the rebuild kit which he had in front of him, $2000 for labor/all other hard parts he's taking from a left over transmission from another 2005 expedition that he has sitting in his shop that is getting a used transmission from somewhere else (apparently extended warranties suck). Only a one-year warranty.

The whole thing was a little sketchy, but I guess if he pushed it hard while road testing it, that could have been the nail in the coffin. And then he had us stuck there, so not much choice in the matter at that point.

 

One other option is to buy a used tranny from a junkyard and swap it yourself.

 

It's an unfortunate reality thet a lot of transmission shops are less than honest. I suggest that if you have to have a rebuilt transmission that you take it to a Ford dealer or a shop that deals with Jasper engines and transmissions. Ford and Jasper stand behind their warrantees, for the most part. If a Jasper product goes bad during the warrantee they pay the shop for thye work involved as well as another transmission. I would get my truck out of that shop pretty quick if I were you.
What part of Va. are you in?

 

Richmond.

The place I took it to another friend of mine had been to and he was happy with their work. If I take it to a dealer, it's going to cost me a lot more. I'm really worn out on spending $$ on this truck.

I'm going to go sit across the street from their shop and watch if they pull the same trick on other people! I want to believe it was just coincidence, but I got that pit in the stomach feeling when the truck got to the shop fine, but then all the sudden didn't work when THEY road tested it.

I already have issues with the dealer in my area. They're nice enough, but they completely misdiagnosed another issue and it cost me $400 to replace a part that probably didn't need to be replaced yet. I think I am going to take a class at the community college just so I don't sound so stupid next time I have to take it somewhere.

 

The last time I checked a price at the dealership was a couple of years ago and the price for a Ford Reman trans was about $1450.00 plus about $600.00 for the R & R labor at any qualified shop and the warrantee was good anywhere in the US and Canada. Thats why I suggested Ford. Ford will sell the trans to you through their parts department and you can have any qualified mechanic or shop install it. Ford requires that the dealer inspect and verify it was properly installed to activate the warrantee.