Yesterday morning when I was almost at work(20 minute drive) I went to accelerate from a stop sign and my truck acted like it was in neutral. Once the rpm's dropped to just above idle speed the transmission caught and I was able to accelerate as normal. I guess I didn't think much of it until I was coming home from work, again about 20 minutes of driving, when I was accelerating while turning left from a stop sign. Halfway through the turn my rpm's shot up to about 5000 and it was acting as if I were in neutral again. Just as before, when the rpms dropped to just above idle, the transmission reengaged and everything was normal.

I decided to take my wife's van to Walmart and grabbed a bottle of lucas oil "transmission fix". I figured it might buy me a little time before I am able to get it to a shop for diagnosis. I used a suction pump to remove approx. 24 oz. of tranny fluid through the dipstick tube. I then added the lucas oil "tranny fix" (24 oz. bottle). I inspected the fluid that I removed. It looks pretty dirty. I would say that it was a nontransparent brown color with a slight red tint. when poured onto a paper towel it still looked brown. It didn't smell burnt at all. I checked the fluid level twice before I added the lucas oil, and twice after. Both times the fluid level was at the full mark (fluid at normal operating temp, with vehicle in park after shifting through all gears).

Fast forward to today and I was able to drive from my current house to my new house(being built) which was about 10 minutes away. I had no issues at all with the transmission. after being at the new house for about an hour and a half I came back home with no issues. about 30 minutes after returning home I headed back out again to run some errands. About 15 minutes into the drive my transmission slipped again as I was making a right turn into the barber's shop parking lot. after about an hour at the barber shop I headed for home again. As before everything was fine for about the first 15 minutes until I tried to make a right turn after sitting at a red light. the transmission slipped as described before, but it did it twice this time in the same turn. Nothing happened after that within the last 5 minutes of driving home.

The slipping only seems to happen when accelerating from a dead stop or from an extremely slow speed(under 5 mph). At highway speeds the transmission down shifts and upshifts just like it always has. My truck has 78,800 miles on it and has never shown any previous signs of transmission issues other than a leaky dipstick tube that I replaced about 3 years ago.

Any ideas?

My father had a 94 Taurus that had similar symptoms in the past and it ended up needing new clutch disks and was rebuilt. I'm hoping for that rather than a new or reman'd tranny!

 

And the engine was running?

What's the difference between a rebuilt and a reman'd transmission? Mostly spelling.

 

yes, the engine was running every time I checked the fluid level.

I suppose you do have a point as far as the rebuilt vs. remanufactured. I guess I was thinking that it would be cheaper for them to rebuild mine vs. ordering a remanufactured one and replacing.

 

I ended up dropping off my truck at the local transmission shop last night. they called me while I was at work with some bad news.

they said it had the same symptoms as I described and that they got worse the more they drove it. the mentioned that it started up shifting and downshifting for no reason at all during flat level driving with no other inputs.

they said they removed the tyranny pan when they got back to the shop and found a pretty significant amount of metal in the bottom. looks like my new gun safe for Christmas is going to have to wait. they said they could rebuild my transmission in 6 days for $1900.00 or they could install a remanufactured one for about $1000 more.

 

I seem to remember a few posts on problems with the later 4r75e's. Not a lot, but more than I seem to remember on the slightly older versions.


I may be all wet, but it seems like the ones that are having problems at relatively low mileage, are the ones using Mercon LV rather than Mercon V.


maybe I'm wrong...


I'd like to know what physical changes were made to the 4r's when they started using LV.


just seems odd. there is no reason to be having a failure like yours at such low mileage with that transmission. the 4r75's should be VERY well sorted out by 2010.

 

At almost 80k mileage...the transmission fluid and filter should be on its 3rd change.

 

As per the manual, the fluid change interval is 150,000 for normal service.

 

I was going to change the tranny fluid and filter at 100K as well as the coolant. I guess that's been taken care of for me. With that said, should I now follow the manual and change it every 30,000 from here on out or would I be safe to keep it until I hit the 150k mile mark (if the fluid doesn't look too dirty)?

I will admit that the color of the fluid on the dipstick when checking the fluid level is a bit deceiving. It looks very red and pretty clear, which was not the case when I pulled approx. 24 oz. out for the lucas oil additive. Once I get back on the road I will definitely be paying closer attention to the color of the fluid by removing some via a suction pump every now and then.

 

After lightening my Wallet by $2045.00 I got my truck back today. I ended up with a remanufactured torque converter and valve body along with all new bearings, bushings, seals and clutch plates. I asked the technician if they found anything definite and he brought out the malfunctioning part. I forget what he said it was, but I could clearly see where the bearing was supposed to be attached to it in 1 piece, and it was in several pieces. He said that the debris had made its way through the valve body and that was most likely what was causing the issue. The said that they replaced my transmission cooler and it's lines to ensure no debris was left in the old one.

I thought this was strange as I didnt' think my truck had a cooler, in a sense. I knew there were cooler lines running to the front of the truck, but I swore that they just looped back to the transmission, as if it had the lines for the cooler but that it just wasn't installed. after I got home I popped the hood and I could see the aftermarket cooler strapped to the front of my A/C condenser. The lines connected to the cooler in the same area where I thought they previously looped back to the transmission. I then noticed that the sheet of rubber used to direct air to the radiator was loose on the drivers side near the headlight. I peeled it back to see a rubber hose running from the top of the radiator to the bottom. Is this where the tranny cooler is/was located? does it share the same radiator as the engine coolant, just separate passages?

I guess I was unaware that I had the tranny cooler if the above is in fact where the cooler was. I dont' mind having the aftermarket one in place of it if it is true, I just wish they would have routed the hard lines from the tranny a little better.