My 16 year old son bought a 1992 E.B. Explorer with automatic transmission a few months ago. This is the third Explorer in our family. It has 83K miles on it. Everything had been working fine. Last Friday we took it to the shop to have the tranny serviced. Everything seemed normal. The fluid that came out was pretty varnished but there was no significant deposits in the pan or screen. The tranny was flushed and the screen was cleaned. It was serviced with regular Mercon ATF.

Now when the Explorer starts in the morning the tranny slips. It slips in reverse and delays going into drive. Once it does get rolling it works normally. Fluid level is correct. I watched the tranny service and saw nothing and can think of nothing that was done that could cause this, but it absolutely did not behave this way before the service.

Any thoughts? Would changing to synthetic fluid help?

If this is the first time the tranny has been flushed then the slippage is known to happen in this case. Its usually better to not change the fluid at all if its never been changed for that long. If you have changed the fluid at regular intervals, then I'll have to let someone else give you some info.

if the tranny fluid hasn't been changed in awhile, which you said it looked pretty bad then when it was changed crud that was between the gears got removed or flushed out and this causes a "new" feel in the tranny....

thats the best i can decribe it.

its pretty normal though..

I sure hope it isn't going out..... Sometimes it is not a good idea to have a full tranny flush if the fluid has been run over 60K because it will cause crud to move around and partially block other passages. I believe at this time synthetic would cause the slip to be even worse. I would go easy on it and pray it isn't going to die. I doubt it will...but if the tranny was never serviced before, then it's a slight possability. I change my fluid every 50,000 miles and I use synthetic Amsoil Mercon ATF.

my 94 Limited was supposed to be a very well maintained car... and my tranny went out at 87kmiles... just some fair warning

Mine was maintained to standards I thought were good also. it started slipping so I had the tranny flushed...a week later it was dead. Sorry to break the possability of bad news...all I can say is if it goes...pay the extra cost for a factory rebuild verses a dealer rebuild!

Mine did the same thing. I fixed it by adding two bottles of tranny doctor and putting in synthetic while babying it. this fixed the prob. after about 500 miles. What barnd of fluid did you use? some of the "cheaper" brands will also cause this problem because they don't lubricate as well.

Ford did my tranny flush and 150 miles later there were metal shavings and burnt fluid they claim

On my new tranny I run amsoil synthetic and it's excellent

We have an answer to our problem - sort of. Took the son's Explorer back to the tranny shop and explained the problem. They dropped the pan, pulled the screen, saw nothing. Put the screen up with new o-rings, new pan gasket, new fluid. Tranny hasn't slipped since.

Go figure.

Originally posted by EliteConcept
if the tranny fluid hasn't been changed in awhile, which you said it looked pretty bad then when it was changed crud that was between the gears got removed or flushed out and this causes a "new" feel in the tranny....

thats the best i can decribe it.

its pretty normal though..


Well.... Actually this is the chain of events. You get a tranny that has has been neglected and possibly overheated. You change the fluid. Transmission fluid has a SUPER high detergent content. If you don't believe it try using it to wash your greasy hands.

Anyway, the detergents act on the overheated friction materials and cause them to break down at a rapid rate. This is what causes trannys to slip and fail after a simple fluid change. It's very common.

The chain of events: working fine, service tranny, slips in morning, service tranny again, back to working fine almost says to me we had an air pocket or were pulling air in. The second service either bled off the air or sealed the air leak. If the problem had been washing ot the crud I would think there would still be a noticable slip after the second service.

I have the same problem on my 2000 XLT, 4.0L after it's first tranny fluid change at 40,000 miles. What fluid should I use and is there an additive to help eliminate the slippage?

Al