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Beginning of the 2-3 shift

04XLTv8Nky

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City, State
Lexington, KY
Year, Model & Trim Level
2004 Explorer XLT V8 4x4
About a month ago I bought a 2004 Explorer XLT 4x4 V8 with about 86K miles. I have put about 2000 miles on it since I bought it. About a week ago it started doing the dreaded 2-3 shift delay that has been mentioned on here. I have noticed when it is cold, it shifts fine. After it warms up is when the delay happens, and even then it is only about 75% of the time. Now, should I have the trans fluid flushed? Drop the pan, change the filter and refill with new fluid? Should I use royal purple? Change servo? Modulator?? Should I just baby it while saving money for a rebuild/replacement? Fluid/filter change is something I can do but I have never rebuilt a trans so that would be over my head.

Looking for advice...
 



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At that mileage I wouldn't recommend a flush. I'd start with draining, dropping the pan, replacing the filter, and refilling with Mercon V. Should take about 5 quarts or so. It's really not an expensive job as the filter is only $20 or so. That will give you the chance to take a real look at the fluid and the magnet in the pan, and it might just take care of the problem.
 






I had a small delay in my rebuilt transmission so I dropped the pan, changed the filter, and fluid. I noticed a difference in performance right away. I would suggest doing the drop pan.
 






I bought a filter and 5 qts of Mercon today. This Saturday it is supposed to be 50 degrees here (since it has been like 2 lately) so that is the plan. Hopefully I can figure out the filler hole location and the quantity of fluid to replace.
 


















At that mileage I wouldn't recommend a flush. I'd start with draining, dropping the pan, replacing the filter, and refilling with Mercon V. Should take about 5 quarts or so. It's really not an expensive job as the filter is only $20 or so. That will give you the chance to take a real look at the fluid and the magnet in the pan, and it might just take care of the problem.

I had a small delay in my rebuilt transmission so I dropped the pan, changed the filter, and fluid. I noticed a difference in performance right away. I would suggest doing the drop pan.

I did the same - have 135K on mine.

I also disconnected the transmission cooler line going into the radiator, and blocked hole in radiator (for transmission cooler). Started truck after replacing filter, gasket and adding 3 quarts of Merc V - as truck ran I added fluid as it pumped out. Did about 7 quarts until the nasty fluid came out nice and pink. I had my son starting/stopping engine so I could catch up on adding fluid as I did not want it to pump more than what I could add.

The weird shifting (slight flair/slips at low speed) are gone.

I also resistant checked all solenoids to ensure they were within tolerance while the pan was dropped.
 












When the pan is dropped, the solenoids are on the side of the valve body. Remove the connector and take an OHM meter, connect one lead to one terminal on the solenoid and the other lead on the other terminal of the solenoid.

I think I did a search to get the resistance values - but I'll look somewhere to see if I can get a tolerance range.
 






LOL! I found it and attached.

What you want to check is in the first table - you will want to be close to the low resistance number (cold). I would think if you are within 10 - 15% of these numbers (assuming cold values) you would be fine.

To add - Google "5r55e valve body solenoid" or something like that to get a picture and location of what solenoid is what. It is super easy...
 

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Did the procedure, short test drive did fine. Will know more tomorrow.
 






Drove it for about 100 miles today. It is still doing the same thing, although it is a little diminished. The fluid that came out was not real dark, or smelled real burnt. The magnet inside the pan had a small amount of gray sludge, but not much at all. Put the new filter on, refilled with about 5 qts, process went off without a hitch.

I don't understand. I will try to describe EXACTLY what it is doing. I have the 4.6 V8, so it has quite a bit of power. To get it rolling, I push the pedal maybe 10% and this skoots it down the road quite nicely. The 1-2 shift is normal, but the 2-3 shift is weird. Forward momentum is temporarily suspended and for the next two "mississippis" it sounds and feels like a small shudder almost like something is slipping and trying to get a grip. The rest of the shifts are fine and normal. The other strange part is if I am getting on it with at least 50% pedal, she shifts normal in all gears. (But I get to speed limits very quickly, lol.)
 






I did the same - have 135K on mine.

I also disconnected the transmission cooler line going into the radiator, and blocked hole in radiator (for transmission cooler). Started truck after replacing filter, gasket and adding 3 quarts of Merc V - as truck ran I added fluid as it pumped out. Did about 7 quarts until the nasty fluid came out nice and pink. I had my son starting/stopping engine so I could catch up on adding fluid as I did not want it to pump more than what I could add.
I've been thinking about doing the same on my 04 Ex, but I was reading there is a thermostatic control valve that doesn't send the fluid to the cooler until it reaches a certain temperature. Did you run it for a while before it started pumping fluid out the cooler line?
 






Nope - did not let it warm up. Started truck and it started pumping in a few seconds.

Make sure you plug the hole coming out of the radiator where you remove the line. I had some pump out from there and made a bit of a mess. Found a plug to temp seal the hole and after that all went as planned.
 






Update: When I left for work this morning, it was cold and shifted fine. It did not start the weird 2-3 shift until it warmed up after a few miles.
 






Nope - did not let it warm up. Started truck and it started pumping in a few seconds.

Make sure you plug the hole coming out of the radiator where you remove the line. I had some pump out from there and made a bit of a mess. Found a plug to temp seal the hole and after that all went as planned.
My apologies to the OP for hijacking this thread. I haven't looked at the cooler lines yet. How do you flush the ATF in the cooler? Rather than removing the line going into the cooler, can the line exiting the cooler be removed and then divert the return to a bucket? What did you use for a plug? How big was the plug?
 






My apologies to the OP for hijacking this thread. I haven't looked at the cooler lines yet. How do you flush the ATF in the cooler? Rather than removing the line going into the cooler, can the line exiting the cooler be removed and then divert the return to a bucket? What did you use for a plug? How big was the plug?

By all means, yes - you could remove the bottom line find a fitting (either 3/8 or 5/16 - think it was 3/8) and pop some tubing on it - or you could remove the lower plastic shroud and put a large catch pan and just let it come out. You might get some flow from the line going to the transmission but am unsure.

I did not do this, just did not feel like crawling back under and messing with it at the time, but wound up having enough come out of the top hole while it was running where I emptied it! LOL! Had to crawl under their anyways to clean the mess up.

I think I had a 3/8's course thread fitting plug I had laying around, but just cannot remember the size to be 100%.
 






I had the same 2-3 shift flare plus sometimes delayed reverse engagement beginning at 70K miles. Like the OP, mine shufted just like new when cold. Get it completely warmed up, then the 2-3 flare would jerk the truck. Had the Stealership do a flush and seemed better for 6 months. A month ago the 2-3 flare came back only worse. Had a mechanic friend of mine drop the pan and change the filter (it's like 20 deg F here with wind blowing and I have no garage). He said the $275 Ford trans flush (the one I got) does not include a filter change - you need to pay $400 for that. The filter is felt, eventually gets plugged up and then things go wrong really fast.

Here's hopping it stays running right.
 






Update: When I left for work this morning, it was cold and shifted fine. It did not start the weird 2-3 shift until it warmed up after a few miles.

I had the same 2-3 shift flare plus sometimes delayed reverse engagement beginning at 70K miles. Like the OP, mine shufted just like new when cold. Get it completely warmed up, then the 2-3 flare would jerk the truck. Had the Stealership do a flush and seemed better for 6 months. A month ago the 2-3 flare came back only worse. Had a mechanic friend of mine drop the pan and change the filter (it's like 20 deg F here with wind blowing and I have no garage). He said the $275 Ford trans flush (the one I got) does not include a filter change - you need to pay $400 for that. The filter is felt, eventually gets plugged up and then things go wrong really fast.

Here's hopping it stays running right.

Whelp - mine started the 2-3 flare, with no jerking when it went into 3rd. By the time I got home the OD light was flashing and I stopped at the mailbox to get the mail and it would barely move forward. I turned off the motor, restarted and it moved fine up the driveway, but I pulled it in the garage and sucked out the transmission fluid from the dipstick - it still looked/smelled fine from the flush.

I can only assume something in the valve body has taken a dump (136k) and I pulled the trigger on a rebuilt valve body from Shift Rite Transmissions with the TransGo Shift Correction Kit (#SK44-55E) installed. I will tear the old valve body apart to see what went wrong.

Once I am done with that, I will adjust the bands and cross my fingers.
 



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As suspected, the valve body (VB) gasket blew out - pretty bad LOL!

I went for a rebuilt valve body and will tear this down to inspect to see what it looks like; screens and passageways, but do not expect anything too bad. I guess by changing the fluid might have caused whatever is was holding the gasket together to cut loose.

New VB is in and it is all buttoned up - below is a pic of the VB with gasket showing the blowout (silver areas)

Still need to adjust the bands and fill with Merc V, but that is on the list for tonight.
 

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