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Performance Upgrades - Maintenance - Modifications - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street Trucks. Covering the Explorer, ST, Sport, Lincoln Aviator, Sport Trac, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Aerostar. Featuring H.I. - Human Intelligence.
I may be looking at a rebuild on my 05 with 76,000 miles...having codes read today. I had the flashing o/d light with hard shifts three days ago. Although this has not happened again in the last 3 days.
For those of you that have had your tranny rebuilt, what would you say is the expected life of the rebuilt tranny?
Just trying to figure out if I need to get a new vehicle or if I should stick it out with this one...just spent $1300 on 4 brand new tires and new front/rear brakes so this is driving me somewhat crazy. I really like this vehicle and do not want another, but need to make a sound decision.
Just wanted to post an update in case anyone finds this thread and is looking for more data/information...
I have not rebuilt or installed a new transmission since the initial indications on or about Nov 22nd. The vehicle has been functioning normal since then. Around 600 miles or so.
Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself, but wanted to update. I will post any and all changes--hope this is my last post in this thread!
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I am with a few of you on here. I'm at 142K on my 2005 and it's still running strong. However, once every few months on a long trip after about an hour of driving there will be a big clunk at highway speeds but that is the only issue I have had. My mom just got rid of her 1996 Explorer with an odometer that broke at 389K miles 2 years ago and she never had transmission issues either. I believe it's the way the truck is driven and how often the tranny is serviced. This truck needs to last me a couple more years!!
I think it is important to replace the fluid and filter within the first 30k-40k miles a transmission is driven and preferably at 30k. Then every 30k-40k thereafter. The longer the time to the first fluid/filter change the greater the odds of a transmission rebuild before 120k miles.
I think it is important to replace the fluid and filter within the first 30k-40k miles a transmission is driven and preferably at 30k. Then every 30k-40k thereafter. The longer the time to the first fluid/filter change the greater the odds of a transmission rebuild before 120k miles.
Lol I flushed mine at 30 at 33 it needed a torque converter another at 77k and a full rebuild at 97 I'm at 110 and its going back since its not all there....
Owned by my grandma and babied...never towed anything...
Mom has a 04 and raggs it to death (4k every acceleration) never flushed works great....112k
I would still say its no way near 80% fail rate or ford would be forced to do something...
I think the 80% is just what the shop has serviced, 20% of it could be non-transmission related for ford. Only the warranty claim guys and Ford knows the real(or approx) percentage. It's really a matter of luck with this servo design, even if you do 30k fluid changes (or do it yearly) it might still fail, some owners here are very lucky not doing any fluid changes and still surpassed 100k.
Lol I flushed mine at 30 at 33 it needed a torque converter another at 77k and a full rebuild at 97 I'm at 110 and its going back since its not all there....
Owned by my grandma and babied...never towed anything...
Mom has a 04 and raggs it to death (4k every acceleration) never flushed works great....112k
I would still say its no way near 80% fail rate or ford would be forced to do something...
There are anomalies for anything. If your transmission failed at 33k miles then there was obviously something wrong with it from the factory. I am referring to wear and tear based repairs. Not repairs due to defective parts from the factory. Your experience is rare, even for Explorers. If the transmission was rebuilt properly the first time then you shouldn't need another rebuild for quite a while. It sounds like your transmission repair shop dropped the ball on something in the rebuild if you are taking it back after putting 13k miles on it.
I still hold that regular maintenance is a better strategy than ignoring maintenance all together. I would lay odds that your mother is going to be seeing a transmission rebuild in the near future (before 140k miles) if she drives it like you say and has no plans to do any maintenance on it. Then again she might be one of the lucky few that ignores transmission maintenance for a third gen Explorer and never needs a rebuild.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was an 80% failure rate by 150k miles. The reason for this would likely be the servo bore problem that is inherent with the 5R55W transmissions.
My question is...is there certain trannys that are more bullet proof that can be swapped into my 93 Explorer which has maybe 187K on it. I'm looking to beef up the power plant and tranny to accomodate more high performance offroad gear.
Thanks for all the responses. I'll keep my Explorer for now since I don't want to buy any vehicle, used or new, until the Japanese catch up with supply; hopefully sometime in 2013.
My current problem, which I'll post elsewhere, is that the my wife spilled gasoline in the back seat. A dude used a machine that's normally used for ridding a house of the smell that is left after a house fire. The smell that his machine left is as bad as gasoline, only different. If it's not one thing, it's another! Thanks again!
Mike, What newer MODS are you refering to. Since I have just acquired my second Explorer I am definitely interested in hearing/ seeing the MOD list. I am currenly at 120k so this could be me in a very short time. Thanks, Don
Just FYI there is a TSB out regarding the repair of these 5R55 transmissions... TSB 09-12-12 is for the model years 02-09. It has very specific information on how to properly service the transmission when rebuilding it.
WHile we're on transmissions, should a person baby it while driving, or just drive it normal? In other words, is there any wear saved by trying to ease it up through the gears, or when it shifts is it just gonna cause the same wear no matter what?
Kinda what I thought, I did some reading on the Ford Servo Bore fix solution, gave me a bit of a piece of mind, if it would go out. Sounds like that fix is fairly successful and not too expensive. I've got 72,000 on mine, I'm planning on doing some trans maintenance after the first of the year when I have some freed up money. Not sure what the previous owners have done since I bought it at the dealer, but it has no problems yet. It does have the intermittent torque converter rattle, but it doesn't do it all the time. Only hear it when idling, but have read it's just mostly an annoyance issue.
WHile we're on transmissions, should a person baby it while driving, or just drive it normal? In other words, is there any wear saved by trying to ease it up through the gears, or when it shifts is it just gonna cause the same wear no matter what?
I think there is some benefit to driving it gently verses beating the cr@p out of it. Also, if you are driving in a mountainous, or hilly, area on the highway and the transmission keeps shifting from overdrive to a low gear then turn off overdrive. The constant up and down shifting is not good for the transmission and being in overdrive when the engine is seeing a continuous high load puts a lot of stress on parts.
IMO, the best way to prevent a premature rebuild is by changing the fluid and filter every 30k-40k miles.
4600.00 at the dealership for a factory rebuilt tranny. I still have 9000.00 on my loan. I feel like such a heel. Maybe Toyota or VW will give me something for it. If I am gonna buy a vehicle with cheap parts, I may as well buy a cheap vehicle. Too bad the Government bailed out the Big 3 without giving them the speech about providing loyal Americans with crap. If ever buy American it will probably be an older Jeep 4.0. I can't believe I gave up my early 93 ZJ.
4600.00 at the dealership for a factory rebuilt tranny. Too bad the Government bailed out the Big 3 without giving them the speech about providing loyal Americans with crap. If ever buy American it will probably be an older Jeep 4.0. I can't believe I gave up my early 93 ZJ.
$4600 for a rebuilt tranny is way too much for a 'rebuilt tranny". You gotta stay away from the dealerships for repairs like this because if you don't , you get ripped off for certain. An average rebuilt Explorer tranny shouldn't cost more than $1600 to $2300 installed depending on where you live.
On the Big 3 gov't bailout, Ford didn't get bailed out, they didn't need or take one, GM and Chrysler did. More like a Big 2 bailout. Ford got their bailout thru us, Ford owners and repair costs, by putting crappy parts that fail when they shouldn't in these vehicles. I understand your frustration though and I owned a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 4x4 4.0L (straight 6 easy to work on and plenty of power) and loved it. Never a problem with the internal engine parts, hubs, diffs, transmission and transfer case. The thing was a bear in the snow. Also, everything in the doors and behind the dashboard worked flawlessly, unlike these Explorers. We live and learn.
I'm currently in the same boat as many Ford Explorer owners and I'm sure there are multiple threads here about the transmission. I've read a few of them but I'd like some opinions on what the best course of action is for me.
After towing a small 4X8 trailer with a motorcycle on it for 1400 miles, at 105K miles by transmission began the torque shudder a couple of days after the trip. I took it to the Ford Dealership to have the transmission flushed, paid them $208 and when I received the car back it wouldn't shift out of first without letting off the gas, nor will it shift into O/D now. I don't blame them (although I'm at a quandry about how they flushed the tranny - when I crawled under it clearly the drain plug had not been touched and I actually stripped the hex head plug trying to remove it).
I don't have an O/D light on but it sounds like the classic O/D servo problem. I'm very interested in the Ford Server Bore Fix where you replace the servos with sleeves without dropping the transmission, however what I'd like to ideally do is rebuild this transmission from the ground up and make it bullet proof.
I would assume that means buying after market shift kits, etc - I'd really like a link to a thread if one exists here where rebuilding the transmission right is discussed.
At any rate, my options are
1. The Ford Servo Bore fix for roughly $250 with me doing the labor on a warm spring day in my driveway. If I get another 40K miles out of with this fix, I'd be thrilled. That would be long enough for me to get the $$$ saved for a replacement auto
2. Having a local shop rebuild the transmission including the servo bore to the tune of I'm guessing $2500. For that kind of money I want another 100K miles at least and I'm keeping this beast until the wheels fall off. If its a crap shoot as to how many miles I'll get, I'm not doing a rebuild. Let me add that I do tow, perhaps 4 times a year. The camper comes in around 2300 pounds, the motorcycle trailer comes in around 1200. I'm an old man driver - I have owned the car for a little over a year, put 20K miles on it and have never pushed the car acceleration wise so I don't point to my driving as a cause for the failure. I had a 2000 Honda Odyssey with the horrible transmissions and I put 250K miles on it without ever needing a repair, towing the same camper and trailer.
3. or - Dump it now and buy a towing vehicle deemed more reliable.
For now at least I still like the Explorer - the ride is pretty good, there is ample room and it tows my pop up and motorcycle trailers with relative ease when I'm not replacing transmissions in it. I'd kinda like to keep it for another 6 or 7 years but not if I have to pump a $2500 tranny into every 2 years.
Suggestions and links to other discussions welcome.
Thanks
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note: I found the transmission thread - figured there had to be a collection of topics on it, just didn't find it right away
I ordered the Ford Servo Bore Fix. I'll begin prepping my Explorer for it by soaking all the nuts and bolts in WD40. While I'm at it I'm going to drop the pan and look around .
