5R55E Quick Revs

[Varsity]

2000 Ford Explorer 2WD
5R55E
123k miles

Hey all, I noticed today coming home from work that when accelerating from a dead stop, like a stop light, my truck would rev a bit around 20MPH. Like, once you hit 20ish, it revs for maybe a half second, maybe ~500 RPM at the very most, then returns to normal. I'm guessing this is the start of something going south with the trans. All of my searching always brings me to the valve body separator plate, and also some solenoids. I was just confirming that this sounds correct? Most of the threads involve some major trans issues, ones I don't have yet. Aside from what's above, there's no hard or poor shifting or anything so I am trying to catch it as early as possible. Tomorrow I will stop by the dealer and pick up the separator plate/solenoid bracket/trans gasket if I can get em all there. I'm not really sure where to get the EPC or TCC solenoids or if they're even really necessary? I know they should be changed, and I'd like to change em, but I'm not sure where to get em from. Plus, I'm considering swapping to 4WD eventually, so i'd rather not throw a bunch of money into this particular transmission until I know what's going on. However, I am WELL aware that sometimes you need to throw parts at it and take care of stuff while you're in there, so if that's what needs to be done, it will be. Any advice on how to proceed/where to order parts from is incredibly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[JK080]

I would pull the pan and inspect for and debris, with the pan off you can inspect the two bands to make sure they are intact. Then I would remove the valve body to check the gaskets, if all looks good you can air check the servos to make sure the bands will apply. Based on you description of the problem you could have a pressure loss due to the gaskets or servos or you could have something more like broken bands and missing gears. Let us know what you find.

 

[Varsity]

Thanks for the reply! I've got a new separator plate w/ bonded gaskets and a new EPC Solenoid on the way, along with some new trans fluid/pan gasket and filter. Gonna work on it on Saturday and hope that helps. I really don't want to get too far into the trans. But I hope this can eventually help someone along the way, so I'll definitely update with anything I find.

 

[Varsity]

So, to officially close this thread, I'll update with my findings. Yesterday i pulled the pan and found nothing unusual in the fluid. No debris, particles or anything besides fluid. The fluid also looked good too. Pulled off the valve body to see the infamous gasket, and voila, the picture below shows the carnage. It looks worse than any of the pictures I've seen here. Replaced with the bonded one from Ford and threw in an EPC solenoid as well. Drove it down the block, seemed fine until I started the trek back home. A few blocks in, the revving started to happen again. It still happened, but only for half the duration as before, and with more force than before, if that makes any sense, like shorter and harder rather than the previous long and soft flare up. And once I almost made it home, the O/D off started flashing. Shut it off, no more code. Drove it around town and no light. Still flared, but no light. Got a code PO773. So this morning, we hooked up an NGS tester and tested the solenoids, which all clicked on/off as they should. Also adjusted the intermediate band just for fun. It snugged up and tighten as it should. Drove it around the block and everything seemed great. Went to take it for a longer drive, and barely made it down the block before the revving started again.

I've officially called it quits on this transmission. I have no more time or patience to keep working on it, and I'm starting to annoy people with my borrowing of their cars. I'm limited to only working on it during the weekend. I'm gonna try and find a junkyard replacement this week and maybe swap it out soon. I know that's not the smartest idea, but maybe it'll buy me some time.

Thank you so much to JK080 and all the responses I've seen or read. I wish I could've been more help or had happier results.

 

[JK080]

Maybe some new servos before you throw in the towel?

 

[Varsity]

Updating because I hate posts with no endings. About two weeks ago, I found a replacement trans from a salvage yard, with about 98k supposedly and a 90 day warranty. Put it in last Saturday and have been driving it all week. While I'm not thrilled about having to use a junkyard trans with that amount of miles, I can't argue because it works 100% better than mine did, even things I didn't know about. The shifts are more pronounced and quicker, the column shifter is much smoother through the gears, no light thunk or anything when shifting to D or R and the list goes on. It sounds much worse on here, but there were even little things that I never even knew about that seem better on this trans. I pulled the EPC solenoid and valve gasket from the old trans, and am saving em if/when I need em.

Doing the little bit I have so far has given me a slightly better understanding of the transmission and if I ever need to dig in to this one, I think I have a better idea of what I'm doing instead of going in blindly like before. May have one or two more things to try next time before having to call it quits. If this wasn't my DD and needed so much, I'd definitely love to pull it apart and investigate more and try more things. Thanks for the help!