I have a 97 F350 diesel 4x4 that had the flashing OD in June and the transmission shifted real hard when it was on. Suddenly it went off and it shifted fine till this week. I changed the fluid and filter on wednesday and noticed no metal shavings in the pan or on the magnet in the bottom of the pan. A couple of days later the od light starts flashing and shifting hard again. I pulled the battery cables and it shifts fine again with no light. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what may be the problem? Keep in mind I do not think the tranny needs to be rebuilt as it usually shifts fine and seems to be a widely intermittant problem.

 

When it is flashing did you check for codes?
Maybe a speed sensor going bad? You are only hit and miss unless you check it.

 

any luck wih your problem? my truck is doing the same thing

 

Flashing OD light indicates the computer has detected a fault in the readings being given by various sensors located in your transmission. Do not ignore this light. The right thing to do is have the computer codes pulled as soon as possible so that the exact nature of the problem can be detected. The hard shifting is a result of the "safety" being enacted by the computer. When the computer detects slippage, regardless of the reason, it boosts the pressure circulating in the transmission to counteract whatever is slipping. It is kinda like "safe mode" on computers. This was only designed to help you limp the vehicle to a repair facility and it is not a good idea to continually drive it in this mode.

Best case scenario, you have a bad sensor. Most realistic scenario, your torque converter is starting to go and the computer has picked this up. Worst case scenario, your clutch discs in the tranny are going and your tranny is dying. If it is your torque converter, you can just swap it and move on with life. If you wait to swap it, or wait to even get the vehicle in for a diagnostic, tiny bits of metal from the deteriorating converter will make thier way through the rest of the tranny and you will in fact be doing a rebuild when all that might have been necissary was a TC.

Nothing against Ford, I love Ford, but in this instance I would NOT take it to a Ford dealer. Ford does not routinley rebuild their trannys on site or just replace the TC. Their response is "your tranny is toast, it needs to be replaced" even if it is something relatively simple to fix. It is thier way of limiting liability and warranty problems. I would say to get the most economical fix, take it to a tranny shop you trust and get them to do a diagnostic. If you find one that does a lot of work on these transmissions they can most likely tell you what is wrong before they even pull the pan.

 

Howdy and amen to Mike's comment. My experience with Ford and trannys has always been lacking on their part. Find a good tranny shop and query them about your problem. 9 chances out of 10 they have seen it before.

 

These guys are right elrod. Mytranny did'nt last 2 months after the eratic od light incident. Lucky for me my cousins best friend rebuilt it for cheap. Get it looked at quick and Good luck, desy

 

Check the brake light on the cab, or for a burned out rear brake light.

 

Wow, is everybody like that about the dealership? Dealerships have the best test equipment and for the most part the best transmission techs available. In our dealership, I would say the ratio of repaired transmissions to boxed remans is about 20:1. Tranny guys don't like throwing remans in because they don't make any money off of just replacing a tranny.
Regardless of that, you definitely should get it checked out for codes. The E4OD/4R100's had a lot of sensor problems and a lot of cooler problems as well as TC problems. Driving with your tranny in limp mode also puts tremendous stress on the rest of the driveline. I've seen plenty of busted pinion gears and broken u-joints form ignoring the flashing OD light as well.

 

spikebee, the problem with the dealers is that even if they will repair or rebuild as opposed to just taking a rebuilt out of the box, they only do it stock. And stock is the problem to start with. If the original design is bad and the stock parts are bad, why do I want another one just like it? If all you want to do is drive around, then stock might be ok, but my trucks work hard, and I need everything extra heavy duty, not a trans that slips into gear so you don't feel the transition.

There are a lot of very good wrenches working in the dealerships. I'm not knocking that. But the problem is that Ford is not in the custom trans business. And now I hear that other truck manufacturers are starting to use allison transmissions, That will hurt Ford too. Everyone of my trucks has had the trans replaced. It is a weak point for Ford.

 

at the dealership if i pull out your box,all the latest updates are installed.if you want trick accumulator bodys and recalibrated main control body and higher line press from the epc.i can do that.if you want a billit converter and higher volume pump, no problem.its just gonna cost more.what the cust. wants, he gets .he just has to ask.most just dont because they assume that you cant or wont do it. but with that being said, a rebuid at the dealership will only come with a 12/12 warr.all ford reman trans now come with a 3/75 wrranty.thats pretty hard to beat.

 

Hey Trike,
While I'll admit that the E4OD was a step in the wrong direction, I saw tons of improvement when it was upgraded to a 4R100. In the ambulance fleet that I used to maintain it went from the E4OD problem child to a 150k+ transmission. And ambulances are nowhere near being at the bottom of the abuse chain as they are at pretty much max load at all times. There was a bad introduction year for the Torqshift with it's snap ring problem, but that was pretty much limited to plow trucks. But I think the Torqshift is going to outperform the 4R100 and I'd almost put it up against an allison.

 

I know of 3 alison transmissions in the GMC's from 2004 and up bolter to the duramax that has blown up, not abused or nothing, the most recent, 65,000miles on the truck.

the cheapest price that was found, $5000 for a used transmission.