99 F150 4.6 auto. trans. slipping pretty bad when shifting from reverse to drive and when down shifting at a lower speed or to pass. Truck has 134,000 mi on it I bought it with 131,00 last August for my sons 16th birthday. I don't think there is an abuse problem on his part it's just something that happened. I first noticed a problem a couple of weeks ago when I changed the oil there was hesitation going into gear.

I don't know weather to find someone to rebuild it, buy a reman. or go the salvage route, I do have a good friend that owns a salvage yard he might cut me a deal on one. What should I expect to spend on each of these options? I am self employed and business is real slow so money is definately an issue. This is the first Ford I have ever owned so I don't have any Ford guys to go to. Not having any history with Fords if I went salvage what should I look for milage wise as far as being to much?

Thanks in advance for any help
Bobby

 

I had 98 that slipped when starting out or sometimes goen around turns..
I ran a quart of TransX trough it fr 50miles or so then changed the screen and fluid and was told by an old mechanic to add a tbl spoon or so of brake fluid to the new fluid.
Afterwerds it stopped slipping and shifted great.
It may help....

 

Rebuild is the best choice. As far as adding snake oil to the trans, now you have a trans with snake oil in it, that is still doing damage to itself. You buy time, but increase the wear and tear in the trans, making the future inevitable failure more costly. When something goes wrong, you have to fix the problem, not mask it.

 

Thanks guys I a Lucas product in but it did help some but problem is still there.

 

buy a reman 3yr/100k parts and labor warr.

 

You maybe right but I drove that old truck fr another 2 years b4 I sold it and he drove it a few more b4 he blew the motor.
Just sayn it would'nt hurt to try $75.00 b4 spending a few K..

 

A rebuild of a 4R70W without damaged hard parts will cost less than $500.
I've purchased complete low-mileage salvage yard 4R70W's for as little as $250.
Using the snake oil aproach will band-aid a problem long enough to do permanent damage to hard parts and contaminate the trans oil cooler in the radiator which will require replacement of the radiator.
JL

 

Exactly, you can spend a couple hundred and do it right, or you can spend some money on snake oil now, and then spend more money down the road after the bearings, gears, and other expensive parts inside the trans have been toasted.

A salvage unit might be worth it, the problem is the salvage unit might be ok, or it could be worse than yours. This is why repairing your old one is in my opinion, usually the best option. When you tear into it, you know what you replaced, you know what you replaced it with, you can upgrade OE deficiencies, you can even beef it up to handle more strain.

 

I like snake oil,I drink it every morning..
All I can say is I used transX and it worked for me,snake oil or not.
After running it through the trans,then draining and new filter and fluid it shifted and ran good fr another 4 years.
Maybe I got lucky...

 

Yeah, and maybe it just needed a filter and fluid change.

 

Yeah, and you have never torn into a transmission where that stuff had been used. Its funny because the original problem would only cost $500-$1200 to fix (paid professional), but after you run it another couple years with TransX or any of the other snake oil out there, it is always a $1200 - $3500 repair job. The gears get chewed up, the bands are toast, the clutch packs are wiped out, the torque converter is fried, often the little bearings in the planetary are chewed up, everything ends up with excessive play. It ends up to be a far more costly mess.

Myself, I have fixed my trannies up right. And they save me money because they do what I ask them to do. All I have to do is take care of them and they take care of me.

 

I respect your opinion but yours is not the only one.




Here's my advice on this. Take it or leave it; but note well I have rebuilt, repaired, modified and diagnosed tranamissions in the automotive and off-highway fields for 15 years, and provide training for tranny repair for a major off-highway equipment OEM. If someone argues with this, they only show their ignorance.
If the transmission is damaged already, changing the oil will not repair it nor kill it faster than it was going to fail anyway.
If the transmission is in good shape all around, changing the oil will only help it.
If the transmission is in good mechaincal shape but contains lots of sludge; changing the oil will dissolve the sludge and may cause some temporary valve-sticking. As soon as the sticking resolves its self, change the oil again to remove the sludge that is now circulating. Valve sticking feels like delayed shifts and erratic operation of passing gear.
If the oil in the transmission is worn out or burned, and you leave it in there the additives will be depleted and the level of contamination will grow out of hand. The piston seals will harden, bearings will fail from marginal lubrication, and the clutch linings will clog with particles; guaranteeing a major problem.
The filter in the 125C, 440T4, and 700R4 (maybe others?) is so large that nothing short of a catastrophic failure will create enough trash to plug it. The fine sludge particles are too small to be caught by this filter. It is a waste of time to change the filter unless you already want to remove the pan to inspect for chips, change gasket, etc. If it's a high-mileage transmission I'd want to see in the pan and inspect for chips if it were mine. Curiousity you know!
In my opinion; the best value for the money is the transmission flush offered by fast oil change places. This connects inline with the trans oil cooler circuit and exchanges the old oil for new as the transmission pump pushes oil through the cooler. It flushes the torque converter and exchanges about 80% of the oil. No dismantling needed and only takes minutes.
The myth about changing the oil ruining a transmission comes from human nature. People notice symptoms of a transmission problem, and have the oil changed as a corrective measure. The problem progresses to a full-blown failure within the next few hundred miles and the technologically-illiterate vehicle owner beleives that the new oil ruined his transmission.
I've analyzed 3 transmissions specifically because they suspected "oil change induced failures." One was a 440T4 that has a bad charge pump bearing which looked like it had been spalling for months. The second was a Ford C5 that had a broken belleville return spring due to metal fatigue, and the last was a Funk DF250 that had a snap-ring pop out of position due to an inferior aftermarket part. NONE had anything to do with the oil changes.
If the oil is dark and burned, CHANGE THE OIL and diagnose the overheating problem. It won't go away and correct its self if the old oil stays.
Make sure the cooling system is working properly. If the radiator is marginal, the transmission oil cooler may not be able to keep the transmisison cool. Make sure the torque converter lock-up clutch (TCC) is working. Overdrive transmissions especially will run hotter than normal if it never is able to lock the TCC.
If the transmission is having delayed engagement when cold, going to Neutral when cold, etc. the piston seals are probably hard and not sealing. I like K&W Trans-X additive for this. Seems it will restore the hardened piston seals so they function again. It fixed my mom's transmission for 6 months actually. Change the trans oil before using it, though.
Hope I didn't bore you to death but this is something I've dealt with too many times not to comment!
Thanks,
David


Ford Muscle.com

Tranns X????? Good, bad ugly???
Chryslers are the car's I've had to use it in the most..... Them and a few Escort automatics....
Directions:
Buy 2 can's of Trans X, the Pint NOT the Quart...
Remove a pint of tranny fluid.
Add ONE pint of Trans X and start the car and let it idle or drive it for a FULL day. (that's 3 hours or so in people talk)
Get that tranny on the highway and on the back roads and in the city and work it. NOT hard, just drive it up hills and down and stop sign to stop sign, regularly like daily driving...
Change your fluid and filter at that point. A fluid flush would be 100% better option but they cost about $80 bucks in this neck of the woods... I recommend it because it removes ALL the old fluid, not just what's in the pan.
Add 1/2 pint of the Trans X to the fresh fluid and the car should be driving fine after that. But ONLY if the tranny issue is because of not changing the fluid ever and having a bad varnish build up, which is generally the case in many cincumstances.

FE
P.S. It will NOT fix a broken tranny, and it will NOT break a good Tranny.

 

Wow I didn't expect this to become such a lively discusion, I have gotten some great info and insight from it thanks to all of you. I have seen forums that are like a bunch of school kids trying to one up each other and some terrible info given, I want to commend all of you guys for keeping things on the up and up.

Bobby

 

It aint over yet...

 

yup, as long as there are fords on the road, well be here talkin about them.