1999 Ford Explorer XLT transmission problem
 

Hi all,

I've had a 1999 explorer for a few months. The transmission has always taken a couple of seconds to "catch" in drive and was then fine. Today, I had to tow another car a short distance and now going into drive directly is useless. I must shift into 2nd and then back into drive. Then, for the most part, the car drives fine unless I have to put it in Park or in Reverse. Then I must repeat the procedure.

The fluid is fresh and the dipstick shows a slight overfill. Is there anything I can do about this or is this the death of the transmission. If I can run it another couple of years, I'd be satisfied.

does taking off with the overdrive canceled make a difference?

if pushing the OD OFF button helps, it is an indication of an internal hard-parts failure.

try that and report back.

other than that, you will probably have to get it scanned and see if there are any pending codes. something that has not tripped an error code (flashing "od off" light") but is in the system memory.

If you got a bunch of miles then it is probably time for a rebuild.

Checking into it now may mean a lower cost of rebuild.

Cooking the tranny will be a higher cost.

We got 170K out of ours before a rebuild. it was worth the cost as we now have 226K on the ride.

How much did a rebuild cost? If it is more than $800 or so, I'd rather just get a scrapyard tranny is good condition for $200 and replace it myself. I'm not going to spend more than the value of the car itself.

mine was 2800, ouch, 4x4 so the transfer case has to come out too.

I opted for this route as I got a warranty with it. The wifey travels for work and this ride goes all over northern VA, MD, DC, PA and sometimes in NJ and NY.

On edit, nearly everything had to be replaced as she really cooked it good. Even so when I went to get her and put it on the car hauler I used 4x4 low and gave it lots of power and she got up on the hauler..course wouldn't move after that.

WOW! I have a 4X4 also. Fortunately, I paid $900 for mine and put in about another $1,000. I'm more inclined to either replace it with a junkyard tranny or just ride it until it dies (hopefully getting another year out of it) and then get a few hundred from a junkyard.

The wife's explorer did similar things. Turned out to be the separator plate gasket. That's a fairly cheap repair if it works.

1999 Ford Explorer XLT Transmission update
 

Before either junking the truck or spending an enormous amount of money on a new tranny, I'd like the help of the people on this forum on how to troubleshoot my transmission problem and to soak in the wisdom of y'all on this forum.

Today, for the first time, it took me about 30 minutes of messing around with the transmission lever to get the truck to go forward. Prior to that, it was slipping in the first couple of gears, but driving fine after that. The slipping got worse after rope-towing my wife's corolla. It would no longer "catch" in Drive, but if I shifted into 2nd and THEN into drive it worked fine. Now, as I mentioned, it works fine in reverse, but not in any of the forward gears. Here are the symptoms to help you help me figure this out:

1. The car works fine in reverse, but does not work in any of the forward gears
2. I finally DID get it to go forward (although I could hear "chugging" from the transmission) after about 30 minutes of shifting back and forth.
3. The temperature gauge on the dash reads COLD (could this have something to do with it?)
4. I had a couple of instances of a misfire in cylinder one a couple of days earlier. It has not recurred
5. There are no codes in the ECU and the Check Engine light is off

My questions:

1. Could a blown valve body gasket be the cause of all this trouble?
2. Is the dead temperature gauge a related issue?
3. What would my troubleshooting steps be to identify the problem?
4. In your opinion, would it be worthwhile replacing the tranny on this vehicle which has 144,000 miles on it? Aside from a non-functional driver's side doorlock and underbody rust, the truck is in excellent condition.
5. What do you think about replacing the tranny with a junkyard tranny for $200? Is it difficult to do?
6. If replacement is needed, what should I be paying to have it done?

Thanks in advance for your help. We are NOT loaded and it's important to fix this problem as inexpensively as possible.

John