Hey, the soon to be wife just bought a 98 F150, 4x4, 4.6, automatic trans. Well, I am wondering about the shift characteristics with this trans. I have never dealt with ford's newest electronic controlled transmissions, and this one irks me a little bit. On 2 different points. On WOT, the 1-2 shift, feels like it slips into 2nd gear for a second or two untill it locks solidly into 2nd gear. Watching the tach, it will hit 5k, shift, come down to about 3800, (i can't notice any slowing down) and then a second later will come down another 2 or 300 hundred RPM. Is the trans slipping, or is it supposed to do this?
The second is on the highway, if you turn OD off, it will sound as if it freewheels a second and then go into 3rd.. I assume this has alot to do with the lockup dissengaging though.

any help here? I beat on it a little bit more, and thats the only "slippage" i can notice. On WOT downshifts it is TIGHT, snaps into the next lower gear and gets moving. On manual down/upshifts it is fine also. I can't notice this "slip" if it is not at WOT. I checked the fluid, is still pretty red, but could probably stand to be flushed. BTW, it has 53,000 miles.

Matt

 

I had a 97 setup the same as yours. I noticed the shifts from 2nd to 3rd had some slipping and assumed it was normal since it did it from new. Also, when in O/D it would shift down whenever I got to the slightest incline. I found this to be VERY annoying and ended up driving with the O/D 'off' all the time.

One day I was driving to Eastern Wa. over the mountain pass and after I crested the pass I shifted into O/D since I was going downhill for several miles. After I got to level ground, I started giving it some throttle and noticed the tach climbed to around 5k. Turned the stereo down and tried it again. Same thing and I was slowing down!!! It worked fine with the O/D off though. I only had 57k miles on it at the time!!!

I took it to the tranny man when I got home and he tore it apart. My reverse clutches were on the verge of being totally fried, the O/D clutches were toast and the other clutches were in very poor condition. I have to add that I had the tranny FLUSHED not drained at 20k mile intervals because I did a lot of towing every summer of a 3000 lb boat.

I am not saying that this is the case with all the 4r70w trannies, but that was my experience and it made absolutely no sense to me since I probably had, at the most 5k miles in O/D. Hoe do you explain reverse? I don't know, that's for sure. The tranny man said the only tranny worse than the 4r70w was Dodge who averaged 2 trannies before warranty expired!!

Don't mean to scare you, just wanted to share and get it off my chest that I will NEVER own another automatic transmission.

Ron

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 26-Sep-02 AT 09:08 PM (EST)]Interesting.. I'll have to take it to a trans shop before the warranty is up on it then!
Also.. I know how much people hate some auto's.. But, I'd never get another stick in a truck (car, yes) around here, especially with the driving we do. Lots of rush-hour, and sticks SUCK when wheeling..Unless you have ungodly low crawl..
Matt