Taurus Transmission Question

[scawtiedog]

I think I'm posting this in the right place....I have a question about my wife's '97 Taurus. She's been complaining it's having trouble shifting (it's an auto) when going up the hill by our place, so I tested it out and noticed the same thing. It seems like it has trouble getting from 1st to 2nd, it pops into neutral, revs the rpm's up high, and then finally finds 2nd gear and then goes on fine from there. Also, I've only found it to do this when the car's cold. Once it has a chance to warm up, I can't get it to happen. Anyone with ideas????

 

[Stephen]

Have you had the car since new, any idea how regularly the transmission has been serviced?

 

[scawtiedog]

Just bought the car last November, have had it routinely serviced ever since then (it's due for another service now). No idea how well it was serviced before that.

 

[Stephen]

Ever flushed the transmission since you had it?

 

[scawtiedog]

Hmm....don't think so. I was wondering if it would just be something simple like that or if it was something a lot worse. Think it's that? Or could there be something wrong with it?

 

[FordLover]

Originally posted by scawtiedog
Hmm....don't think so. I was wondering if it would just be something simple like that or if it was something a lot worse. Think it's that? Or could there be something wrong with it?

You could try a tranny flush, but it sounds like it needs a transmission specialist. Every so often an automatic has an electrical (external) problem that's easy to fix, most often it's something internal that = expensive.
How many miles it got? Tranny fluid should be changed along with the filter maximum every 40K miles, every 30K is better.
-Martin

 

[scawtiedog]

Dang, that's not what I wanted to hear. Guess we're just going to have to take it in. Hope it's not too expensive! It's got about 85k on it right now, we've put maybe 10k on it since we've had it. Wish we had all the paperwork from the previous owner to know what's been done to it. For all I know they may have never done anything to it. Although it has been serviced (yeah, by a dealership ) recently, so they should have caught it if anything looked wrong (and they're reputable, we know the owner ).

 

[Michigander]

have you checked the fluid level? 95% of warranty returns are from low fluid and burning the clutch packs. Is the fluid a clean red or dark red?

 

[scawtiedog]

Sorry guys, I haven't had time to look at anythnig yet, hopefully I'll get to it this weekend. I'll post an update as soon as I get a chance. Thanks for all the help.