5R55E od light blinking

[field explorer]

Transmission 5R55E od light blinking

On my 2000 ex sport,43000 miles,V6 4.0 ohv, my OD light is blinking. Tranny is slipping in what I believe to be between gears 2 and 3. Have all the usual symptoms, increase in rpm's before shifting, shifts hard when finally engages in gear, etc. I ran the codes and got "P0733 Gear 3 Incorrect ratio". I pulled the pan to check sol.'s. The TC sol. did not have a cracked tang or bracket and is snug. The EPC sol. cannot be "wiggled or pulled for slack" but, I can rotate the sol. in the bracket about .750" in either direction. Is this normal? On the code tester I cleared the OBDII but the problem continued and the light started blinking again(default mode). If it is the EPC sol., do I have to pull the valve body to replace the sol.? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Fluid is extremely clean.

 

[field explorer]

I should have mentioned, exp. only has 43,000 miles. Fluid was in extremely good shape, nice red color, no unusal odor. Pan had only dust shavings. No other codes were present when tested. Tried taking it out of OD, the slipping did not seem as pronounce, but was still there.

 

[00XLS]

Seems 43K is the time for the trannys in 2000's to go. Recently mine started to act up a bit, not downshifting right, also no passing gear, revs all the way up when floored. Changed the fluid, fixed it for a bit, pan had a lot of friction material in it tho good luck.

 

[TPLYNCH]

There is an issue with the valve body coming loose causing shifting problems. There is a TSB for it. Generally, if you bring it to Ford for a tranny fluid/filter change they tighten things up. Another side effect is a lack of engine braking when tranny selector is on 1.

 

[field explorer]

update, changed EPC solenoid and checked torque on valve bolts(used a good t.w. that shows in/lbs) changed fluid and filter. Problem still exsist. I have looked at a thousand threads and cannot find anyone who has had a specific code "PO733 third gear ratio incorrect". Threads seemed to point to ECP solenoid or loose valve body, but that didn't pan out after the replacement solenoid and re-torquing(was not loose) of valve body. Any other suggestions? help would be greatly appreciated by all.

 

[tmsoko]

Seems similar to the problem I had in my 5R55E at 52,199miles. I replaced the solenoids first, to no effect. Then I read about the loose valvebody issues. I pulled the valve body and sure enought, the gasket had blown out on the one side. I bought a new gasket and put it all back together - then I could not get it to "re-prime". I kept dumping fluid in and it would not move in drive. At that point I threw the towel in on that and swapped in a 5.0L/4R70W combo.

Basis is, I would check the vavle body to separator plate and sep plate to case gaskets. You symptoms are very similar to mine and I would bet you have a blown gasket. Only a few dollars for the gaskets. Keep in mind you need to but the $30 VB alignment pins from Ford Rotunda/OTC.