Hey guys, we have a 98 EB 4wd w/ 4.6 and 169k and i believe the 4R70W tranny.

we are at the point of replacing it and getting something newer. i know we won't get squat on a trade-in, so i am thinking about keeping it, making it my daily driver and parking my Wrangler for the weekends. but before i decide to do that i want to get some advise and opinions.

the problem is, the tranny shifts hard (between 2nd and 3rd) under slow to moderate acceleration, which is the way i drive it most of the time to save gas. but it shifts very smoothly during hard acceleration; like accelerating to pass or merging onto the highway. it started doing this shortly after we bought it 2 1/2 years ago, but hasn't got any worse.

we bought the Expy w/ 110k on the clock. it had been a company vehicle for someone, so the miles are mostly highway. i originally planned to take it and the tranny flushed, but while doing research on "the flush" i heard alot of horror studies from people w/ high mileage vehicles doing a flush. so i decided to do it myself. so w/ some help from my shade tree mechanic of a father-in-law, we changed the fluid, filter and added some tranny additive. after that, the hard shift eased up some but is still present.

so my question is; is there anything i can do to help this? is it likely to just up and die anytime now? should i keep it, drive it and fix the tranny when it fails? is it expensive to replace or fix?

i really would love to keep it for my DD but i don't want to be driving around a "ticking bomb", i don't want to get stuck out of town w/ it or stranded out somewhere w/ my kids. and i certainly don't want to spend a ton of $ on it either.

sorry this is long, but i wanted to list as much info as i could.

please help, not sure what to do!

 

nobody?

 

How much fluid did you change? Did you change only the pan, or also the torque converter?

What garbage (I mean additives) did you put in it? As you might be able to tell I am not in favor of additives.

The answers to these questions may shed some light on the problem.

 

Well, i had my 97 flushed with 93,000 on it, 99,000 now.. The dealer said the guy before us took care of this vehicle. What were the horror stories you heard about flushing the tranny? As far as the shifting, mine shifts smooth. I'll bump you back up on the hard shifts.

 

well to be completely honest, it seems like we didn't drain the torque converter. it seems like there was quite a job to do that. i may be wrong but i honestly can't remember, but i don't think we did.

if we didn't, is that why it seemto clear up after a while and then start the hard shift again? because it really seemed to clear up and then it slowly came back but not as bad as befroe the fluid change.

as far the additive, it was from Lucas Oil. i have used their products before with good results. do additives typically cause tranny problems instaed of help them?

thanks for the replies

 

I'd try this procedure to change ALL of the fluid. You changed less than half by not draining the torque converter. Draining the torque converter is easier than dropping the pan, but this method makes the whole thing easy.

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