6R60 communication errors U0101, U1900 - solution.

[Explorer_PL]

I hope this will help some of you guys with 4.6 / 6R60 combo. About 1-2 months ago, my truck went into a limp mode while driving on the highway. I restarted it but it was still violently bucking and kicking, almost ripping the tranny out of the truck. I went to Ford dealership to have it diagnosed and the certified tech comes back and says he can't communicate with TCM, so most likely the TCM inside the tranny is shorted or cracked from the heat. It would cost $2000 for the part plus $ 350 labor, but he said at this point, it's better to replace the whole tranny for $ 4,800. I figured, Ok, at 214k miles maybe that's it for the original tranny so I started to look around. Most of the shops quoted me 4600-4800, while Ford actually came down to about 3,900 for the whole job. But I was still hesitant since most of the time the tranny would work perfectly, and then it would buck when I tried to accelerate on the highway. Also, it would go nuts kicking and hunting for gears when trying to start up after a short drive. Usually, while cold in the morning it would work. I started my internet research. Most suggestions pointed to mechatronic assembly so I found a rebuilder and got a new one for $ 500, and replaced it.
It improved overall shifting but it still was going to fail mode. So I called them and ordered a free replacement, which they shipped and I replaced it again - did not change much.
See my other thread here:
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=436342&highlight=mechatronic

Then I came across a note from another user here who fixed the issue by fixing the 2 wires going to TB assembly on the driver side (not the TPS wires). They tend to melt from heat and fuse together creating a slight short, and since tranny is reading signals from everywhere, that was part of my problem too. I split the double wire and insulated it so they were apart from each other and immediately, most of the kicking went away, but would still go into a limp mode quite often.

The I came across this:

https://certifiedtransmission.wordp...ion-u-codes-caused-by-faulty-ignition-system/

I also pulled the codes again using forscan, and saw U0101 and U1900, exactly as in that article.

I ordered set of 8 new original Motorcraft coils, I had 8 new Motorcraft spark plugs in the garage from the past, and replaced all. It's been a week, close to 700 miles and it did not kick, jerk, buck or throw a code even once. I hope this is the end of it although you never know.
But for now, the tranny with 217k miles shifts like it did 9 years ago. As you can see on the picture in the article, the TCM harness runs on top of # 2,3 and 4 coils. If they are bad or cheap, they will generate some type of electrostatic noise that confuses the signal going down to TCM. It may be a good idea to build a bracket to route the harness further away from the coils.

I hope this will help someone, it worked for me.
And I was close to shelling out 5 grand, and the problem would still be there.

 

[2000StreetRod]

very interesting

Thanks for posting the link to a very interesting explanation of the problem and solution. The explanation provides a strong argument for the need to shield the CAN bus data lines throughout the vehicle.

I'm getting infrequent spikes in my 2003 Centennial datalogs of selected PIDs. Spikes on my 2000 Sport datalogs are either nonexistent or extremely rare. I thought I probably had a grounding problem but now I'll also consider a shielding problem.

 

[Bill MacLeod]

Well I'll be ..... Thanks for posting the resolution to your trans problems.

Could the intrusion of water into the coil and or can bus wire harness from the hood weather strip seal screw caused this issue?

Would you mind posting a pic of where the melted wires are near the t/b?

Once again, congrats on your success to a very complex issue.

 

[cbkid]

I am reading with great interest due to same problems; bucking, dropping out of gear under acceleration, throwing code U0100 previously, but not giving any codes now. Here is what I have done in this order: new Ford flash (no change), new valve body with OEM TCM (no change), different and rebuilt transmission with different valve body and OEM TCM that has the reflash (no change), different TCM (not reflashed) (no change), new coils and plugs (minor improvement), separated all plug wiring away from CAN bus (significant improvement), new ABS speed sensors (large improvement), and that is my current status. What else can I do? The problem is mostly when hot, and taking off in 1st gear or reverse, and also when shifting 2 to 3, and also when at speed, put press accelerator to the floor, it slams in/our of gear. With one more minor improvement, should be nearly back to normal. I am surprised that so may variables affect this transmission. Seem to have to be a magician to figure it out. All 6 transmission shops that I visited in Austin, Texas were unanimous in the beginning: I must replace the transmission for $5K. All were wrong.

 

[Explorer_PL]

Cbkid -

what coils did you use ?
I had a mix of old Motorcraft and accell.

Can you move the CAN harness further away or shield it somehow as 2000StreetRod suggested ? I had similar idea, to use some type of material like they give you when you go for x-rays.

Not sure if that had any effect but where the harness goes into the tranny, I had some exposed parts of the harness so I just taped it around.

Bill -

I'll take a picture next time, but when you look at the throttle body standing in front, on the passenger side you have the TP sensor with 4-5 wires, and on the driver side there is a TB motor with just 2 wires. I just used an utility knife to separate the 2 wires since they are 1 mold from the factory, and then taped them separately. Not pretty but helped a lot and reduced the amount of bucking and kicking. The new coils did the rest.

Edit:
Cbkid - your symptoms are exactly like mine. Ok when cold, going nuts in 1st or reverse when hot after driving for a while, going out of gear when stepping on the accelerator. You are close to solving it. Good luck.

 

[cbkid]

6r60 engaging/disengaging

I thought that I would post again to see if any of you smart Ford/Mercury (BMW?) owners with 6R60 have any other ideas to eliminate my trans from going in/out of gear. I will not repeat the symptoms again, as they are described in detail in a previous post. After replacing the wheel speed sensors all the way around, and separating the wiring for the throttle body, and separating the wiring for each of the coils, and a 2016 reflash of the PCM and TCM by the Ford dealer, and new ignition coils, new plugs, a rebuilt transmission, different TCM, different Mechatronics module, I THOUGHT that the problem was 95% resolved. The slipping in/out of gear nearly became non-existent. But after driving another 3000 miles or so, the problem is manifesting itself again, just as it did prior to the new trans/flash/plugs/coils/speed sensors etc. Except this time, there are never any error codes. No U0101 or ABS failure codes or anything. But when you have the first trip of the day, the transmission behaves 100% perfectly - impossible to make it slip under any condition. But after 15 minutes of driving, you had better not try to pass someone or the trans will drop in/out of gear, causing loss of traction. And you need to be careful when making a left or right turn in front of on-coming traffic because the trans may decide not to engage, just leaving you in the middle of an intersection with a revving engine. However, if you let it sit overnight, she performs flawlessly for up to 30 minutes. What could possibly be causing this?????? No error codes ever.

 

[Explorer_PL]

So something gets warm or hot and start to malfunction or leak. Did you replace the bridge connector and the 3 feed tubes as well ? Mine was still good after 200k miles, but I heard that they go bad. When that happens, the tranny fluid leaks thru on the sides and it can't built the pressure. It is rather stiff piece of rubber, but when hot, it will probably soften and not seal properly ?
Also, what coils did you use ? Buts since there is no error code, that is not probably the issue.

Gosh, that's a tough one...
Did you go back to the place where they rebuilt your tranny ?

Good luck

 

[cscarhunters]

Explorer_PL!!!
You are an unbelievable HERO! I say unbelievable instead of the F word... Solved! I pulled those two wires to the TB, out of the wire channel all the way back past the valve covers / spark plugs... and separated them. I used electrical tape on one wire then tucked both wires into some wire covering I had in my parts bin. (normally used on computer wires) I reattached the wire channel to the mounts with tie wraps and secured my now insulated two wires along the top of the plastic wire channel. Then I cleared all the codes, took it for a test drive and not a buck... Not a jerk... just drove it... AMAZING!
Your post is amazing!

I am a used car dealer and yesterday I bought this 2008 Ford Explorer without test driving it at auction. My mistake, sort of... I got the truck at a very low price, and I suspected a transmission problem... I can't explain how relieved I am... Thank you!

Last year I purchased a 2003 Explorer XLT V6... It had the dreaded not shifting, OD light flashing and all that comes with it...
I lost my a$$ on that truck, simply because I had to replace the transmission... I kept the old tranny though... After replacing the transmission for obscene amounts of money, I learned that a $26.00 piston that can be bought at any transmission shop that offers parts was all it needed... I told the woman at the counter I needed a piston for... and before I could finish the sentence she brought me one... I put the piston in and sold the transmission... It only had 80K on it... It worked just fine after the piston change. (The people that bought the transmission from me let me know that it worked great) Very simple job: Remove the snap ring, pry off the cover, pull out the broken piston, then put the new piston in... cover and snap ring... but you have to pull the transmission or the exhaust to get to the piston easily. (I repaired it on the ground.) The pistons are on the passenger side of the transmission I think, the forward piston is the one that fails. I know there are a lot of people spending a lot of money on this problem or throwing away their cars because of it.

Thanks again for your wonderful post!

Chris

 

[cscarhunters]

update...
Next morning... all the issues are back. I have new hope though. I am about to dive back in. Another possible trouble area is the section of the harness that goes down the right rear of the engine to the TCM Module on the transmission. I have seen videos and complaints of broken and burnt wires there. I do see evidence of mice or chipmunks as well. So I imagine, worst case is I will have to unwrap the wire harness and follow all the connections... Could take a while, unless as I saw online the harness was resting on the exhaust manifold in a Lincoln Navigator...

Got my fingers crossed, finishing my breakfast than back out to it. The research is awesome! and I am so relieved to know it isn't actually a problem with the transmission directly...

Chris

 

[Explorer_PL]

Glad it was helpful, don't give up. It took me weeks driving with those symptoms as I just could not believe the the tranny is bad and shell out 5k just because....yes, research, and research, ....

In most cases, if it happened to you, happened to somebody else before.

Good luck

 

[J.L.U.]

Hi guys,

2006 Explorer with same codes here as well. The car starts in limp mode and after a few minutes of driving the car kicks into gear and drives fine for the rest of the drive. Issue only returns when the car has been off for two hours or so....I've replaced the following per other articles I've read:

8 ignition coils
8 spark plugs
TPS
MAF senor

No change.

Chris aka cscarhunters,

May I trouble you to post pictures of wires you're speaking of to the TB? I've also saw the video of the Navigator and I think that maybe the issue too. Any assistance is most gratefully welcomed!

Thanks guys

 

[cscarhunters]

I don't have the truck readily availiable right now, but on the right (passenger side) of the transmission I recall finding the wire that runs all the way up near the throttle body sensor, but is not the actual throttle body sensor. (Next to it) these wires were cracked under the truck, in my case, in two places. I re insulated them and my problems disappeared. I also isolated the same wires that are tied into the coil pack wiring then re insulated them separate from the coil packs. I only did the drivers side to about the middle of the firewall side of the motor.
One final thing I did that eliminated all of my misfiring. The plug for the MAF sensor was bad. I got one from a junkyard for free. (U-pick junk yard) they just told me I could have it. Cut the old one off and spliced on the new. No more misfires.

Now I need to find what is growling in the front end, (not wheel bearings, not differential bearings) and eliminate the broken exhaust manifold bolts, before I can actually sell this vehicle. Driving me nuts, to have so much wrong with a potentially nice truck. Put it on a back burner for now.

Hope this helps.
Chris

 

[J.L.U.]

Thanks Chris! I'll give it a check. I also have a growling once and a while too. When the truck runs fine it's awesome but the initial start up drives me nuts!

Thanks again! I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[RSM]

I hope this will help some of you guys with 4.6 / 6R60 combo. About 1-2 months ago, my truck went into a limp mode while driving on the highway. I restarted it but it was still violently bucking and kicking, almost ripping the tranny out of the truck. I went to Ford dealership to have it diagnosed and the certified tech comes back and says he can't communicate with TCM, so most likely the TCM inside the tranny is shorted or cracked from the heat. It would cost $2000 for the part plus $ 350 labor, but he said at this point, it's better to replace the whole tranny for $ 4,800. I figured, Ok, at 214k miles maybe that's it for the original tranny so I started to look around. Most of the shops quoted me 4600-4800, while Ford actually came down to about 3,900 for the whole job. But I was still hesitant since most of the time the tranny would work perfectly, and then it would buck when I tried to accelerate on the highway. Also, it would go nuts kicking and hunting for gears when trying to start up after a short drive. Usually, while cold in the morning it would work. I started my internet research. Most suggestions pointed to mechatronic assembly so I found a rebuilder and got a new one for $ 500, and replaced it.
It improved overall shifting but it still was going to fail mode. So I called them and ordered a free replacement, which they shipped and I replaced it again - did not change much.
See my other thread here:
My 6R60 mechatronic replacement - saga continues, pictures..

Then I came across a note from another user here who fixed the issue by fixing the 2 wires going to TB assembly on the driver side (not the TPS wires). They tend to melt from heat and fuse together creating a slight short, and since tranny is reading signals from everywhere, that was part of my problem too. I split the double wire and insulated it so they were apart from each other and immediately, most of the kicking went away, but would still go into a limp mode quite often.

The I came across this:

https://certifiedtransmission.wordp...ion-u-codes-caused-by-faulty-ignition-system/

I also pulled the codes again using forscan, and saw U0101 and U1900, exactly as in that article.

I ordered set of 8 new original Motorcraft coils, I had 8 new Motorcraft spark plugs in the garage from the past, and replaced all. It's been a week, close to 700 miles and it did not kick, jerk, buck or throw a code even once. I hope this is the end of it although you never know.
But for now, the tranny with 217k miles shifts like it did 9 years ago. As you can see on the picture in the article, the TCM harness runs on top of # 2,3 and 4 coils. If they are bad or cheap, they will generate some type of electrostatic noise that confuses the signal going down to TCM. It may be a good idea to build a bracket to route the harness further away from the coils.

I hope this will help someone, it worked for me.
And I was close to shelling out 5 grand, and the problem would still be there.

Have exact same problem with TRAC LGT and WRENCH LGT coming on with p0101 and u1900 codes. Truck bucks like a bronco and it goes into safe-mode and WRENCH comes on
This 6r60 trans and 4.6 l combo is problematic because of the wiring -run. Best Ford mechanic on YouTube describes and fixes problem here...

This technician is amazing...should subscribe.

 

[94Eddie]

I agree. FordTechMakuloco is a fantastic resource for Ford and Mercury owners.

 

[RSM]

I don't have the truck readily availiable right now, but on the right (passenger side) of the transmission I recall finding the wire that runs all the way up near the throttle body sensor, but is not the actual throttle body sensor. (Next to it) these wires were cracked under the truck, in my case, in two places. I re insulated them and my problems disappeared. I also isolated the same wires that are tied into the coil pack wiring then re insulated them separate from the coil packs. I only did the drivers side to about the middle of the firewall side of the motor.
One final thing I did that eliminated all of my misfiring. The plug for the MAF sensor was bad. I got one from a junkyard for free. (U-pick junk yard) they just told me I could have it. Cut the old one off and spliced on the new. No more misfires.

Now I need to find what is growling in the front end, (not wheel bearings, not differential bearings) and eliminate the broken exhaust manifold bolts, before I can actually sell this vehicle. Driving me nuts, to have so much wrong with a potentially nice truck. Put it on a back burner for now.

Hope this helps.
Chris

YGTBFKM....am having all the concerns listed here...bucking,hesitation,wrench + tracs lgt,codes u1900 and p0101. Last summer was doing some work on air filter etc...pulled-off the af housing but forgot to unplug the maf sensor connector, stupid. Anyway it was kind of loose when i plugged it back in but i just used i tiny cable-tie to tighten it and it seemed all was well. After researching these problems showed that the MAF should be cleaned/replaced...i did. No lasting help though. I thought a dozen times that the connector could/should be changed but before YOUR post, i never gave it SERIOUS consideration. IF that is what is doing this... i will freak-out. Anyway,going to change it ASAP and promise to let all know IF that solved this huge problem.Wow