Hello all,


Very new here! Hoping to have some experienced Ford/Explorer owners' opinions.

Yesterday we purchased a used '99 Explorer with 180k miles on it. We didn't get it from a dealership. Long story short, test driving it went really well, no issues minus the fact that it may have been sitting for a while (unknown length of time).


Buuuuuut my husband went to drive it this morning into work, only to notice that the overdrive light came on and was flashing a bit (keep in mind, driving it 20 minutes back home after buying it, it drove FINE). He stopped at a gas station to grab some things and when he got back in the truck, the light wasn't flashing anymore. He mentioned that it seemed kind of sluggish or something going into one of the gears, but I only spoke to him for a minute and still don't have the full story as to how it really drove, etc., all I know is that he told me the O/D light was on/flashing.


Is there a possibility that it may just be low on tranny fluid? He will more than likely stop somewhere to run the codes to see what it may be, but he and I both are going to be thoroughly PISSED if this truck we JUST bought has major transmission problems-- or worse, it needs to be replaced. The Carfax and other similar websites do verify in every way that this Explorer is clean and has in fact had only one owner, with WAY lower mileage compared to other '99 Explorer we looked at (and those other people would easily want 1k+ what we paid for this one!).

Halp/advice?


- Ford Newbie.

 

Do you know if your Explorer has the 5-speed auto or the 4-speed auto? For that generation of Explorer, if it has the V6 engine it would be the 5-speed and if the V8 engine it will have the 4-speed.

-Rod

 

It's a V6! So I'm guessing, 5 speed automatic.

 

The ONLY way to know what's wrong is to read the codes. Anything else is guessing.

 

We are going to try today. He will be home soon and we're first going to check the tranny fluid and then take it somewhere where their machine actually works (he took it to a place earlier today where the codes couldn't be read). Blegh.

 

The places that read codes free CANNOT read these codes. You need either a good independent shop or a Ford dealer.

 

There's a good chance there is no dipstick since few of the 5-speed autos have dipsticks. Ford considers them a "sealed transmission" and didn't provide the standard dipstick. To check the fluid level you need to have the vehicle up to temp on a level surface, then remove the stand pipe plug and see if fluid trickles out. If no fluid comes out, the level is either correct or low.

-Rod

 

Well I'm sure this one has one, because my husband checked the transmission oil and pulled out like a 5 foot long dipstick lol.

We have a transmission specialist up the street looking at it and we should hear back in about 1 hour, 2 hours. They're going to run a diagnostics on it and test drive it. Hopefully they're able to pull some codes and we can figure out why the O/D light flashes.

 

Okay, so apparently it's an incorrect gear ratio problem within the transmission. Got quoted between 2.3k-3.5k worth of a repair job and I am thoroughly pissed.

It's drivable and it only seems to happen once you accelerate between 40-70mph. I don't know a lot about trucks/cars so I'm unsure what gear that is?

May take it somewhere else for a different opinion but yeah, probably going to go after the ******* the sold us the truck considering the guy at this transmission shop stated the fluid was burnt. He essentially sold us a truck that has a major tranny problem and hasn't been serviced in who knows how long.