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The 5R55E and the infamous 2-3 shift flare issue

Servo Pistons keep breaking!

Hey all...I am brand new to the forum and didn't exactly know where to post this but I'm posting it here!

I've got an 02 explorer 4.6L 4x4 with 118k on it....Bought the car about 2 months ago. Had a trans flush done on it....solid black fluid came out :(

A week later...she starts slipping out of first.

Take it to a trans shop...they said lets start with the TC and replace that. Did that and nothing happened.

Still had the slippage so I went ahead and had it rebuilt.

All was dandy until it started slamming into 3rd gear...od light flashing/engine light on...still running though.

Took it back and mechanic said busted servo piston on the intermediate one.

Fixed that.

Had the same problem again after he replaced it.

So he replaced it again and the same thing happened.

THEN....I was going into work one day and it died on me. had it towed back to the shop and said both the intermediate and OD pistons busted.

Why is this continuing to happen? I have it at the shop now and he thinks he knows whats going on....possibly having to rebore where the pistons are?

Thoughts? Similar problems? Before it clonked on me, the car shifted just fine after it was rebuilt except when going into third...after that it was smooth sailing.
 



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Any trans which has failed has potential for future issues, due to damage not found or fixed. I'm not condemning your trans shop, I am pointing out that future failures after a first, are very common compared to a rebuild of a properly working trans.

Contamination inside a trans from a big failure is the biggest worry. They need to take every single part out, and the VB's have 100+ tiny parts in them. I don't want to do that puzzle.

The 5R55E, and W/S/N, they are a little more fragile than the old Ford stuff, C4/C6/FMX/AOD/4R70W etc. They are descendants of the weak A4LD, closer cousins to that than the others. When they fail, usually the driver keeps driving it until it really burns up inside. That very high heat and debris do a bunch of damage to internal hard parts of the more fragile trannies. The hard parts of the old stuff generally survives most failures. The newer models like the 5R's typically have many hundreds of dollars of hard parts needing replacement. If they try to reuse one or more of those parts, to save money or whatever other reason, future issues are likely.

Even the best shops avoid a truly burned up trans, they know that it takes longer and needs much more patience and cleaning etc.

Bottom line, as I've suggested for any Ford trans, always buy every possible improvement part that is available for installation with the trans in the vehicle. Install all of those, which means the VB kit and all solenoids etc, o-ring plugs, Sonnax parts, blah blah.

The trick is to not wait until a trans fails, upgrade everything possible when you first buy the vehicle. Try very hard to perform all of that and the regular maintenance. When that is done, most cars don't have trans failures.

If you haven't done it already, do it now. Evaluate the usefulness of the current trans. Rebuild it if you decide it's viable, or else find another trans and build that one. Regards,
 






Got it back today..mechanic told me he had to rebore both cylinders where both servo pistons are and replace them...shifts like a charm now!
 






Thanks for the update. It looks like it'd be wise to check the bores for roundness in these cases.
 






what are the upgrades your talking about? I have a 98 explorer 4.0 sohc. how can i find out what tranny it has in it.it has 146k on it and have had no issues with the whole car AT ALL :) Untill now. transmission is slow to swithch back to drive from reverse. so i changed the fluid and filter and no is seems to be worse? are there threads on here about what to upgrade on it? anyhelp would be great.
 












I'm having trouble with my 2001 Explorer Sport Trac 4x4. It has 120K miles, and I bought it new. I've had the transmission fluid flushed 3 times since new. I noticed for the first time yesterday a slip when driving down the road at @40mph. It happened twice. I want to fix it now before it gets any worse, or causes another problem. I wanted to confirm a couple of things first.

1. The 01 sport trac 4wd has the 5R55E transmission, right?
2. Will a new VB and EPC (most likely) correct this issue?

If yes to question 2, can you direct me to the best place for good quality replacement parts?

Thank you!
 












Hello all. New to this forum, actually to any forum.
Recently acquired 2004 Ranger, 4.0 v6, 4x4, 5r55e trans. You guessed it 2-3 shift flare. Also had problems with transfer case shifting, lights, radio, etc.
Turns out almost every problem was related to bad grounds. After racking brain, finally checked and cleaned all grounds, fixed all but 2-3 shift. Adjusted bands, changed fluid and filter, still flaring. Then I found this thread. Seems like valve body and new EPC may be the answer. Contacted Central Valve bodies for price, waiting on reply. Just gonna cross fingers and hope this works. BTW this is a great thread!!!!
 






Well, I know that's a deep subject, and so is this FOMOCO transmission debate . I did my homework and replaced both the intermediate and overdrive servos about three weeks ago(3-2-13) with the o-ring upgraded servos, a little over $225.00 after shipping. The fix worked for about 5 miles, straight out of my shop and down the road I drove, I thought heck yeah!!!! Then when I came to a complete stop and started off again, and my big smile,and brief moment of joy was gone. :( . The OD light started flashing and 4th gear was the highlight for the rest of the trip back to my shop. Being optimistic, I was hoping the servos would start working within a few hundred miles as the literature stated, Nope!!!! My wife drove the EX for the last two weeks with only 4 gears, and yester-night I towed the EX about 10 miles to my shop after it left my wife stranded at the library. Only the 2nd time in my 24yrs of driving a FORD has left me or my wife totally stranded. The 1st time was a 99 Taurus (rental) with like 15k on it, transmission problems with it as well. What is it with FOMOCO and there transmissions. I have went through numerous BW/T5's, but I have always blamed my aggressive driving to be the culprit. When I began thinking about what FOMOCO vehicles I have owned, and how many of those vehicles had a transmission issue, my findings where a little more than disappointing. Since I was old enough to know the difference between auto manufactures(30yrs or so) My loyalty has been to FOMOCO, because that's what my family believed in, and I don't see my POPPOP(grandfather) buying todays FORD's with reliability issues such as these. He bought FORD's because they were tuff like his Dad's(my great grandpa's) Draft Horses were. So FOMOCO tighten up!!! or I am going across town, and why don't you use some Honda engineering in your transmissions. They seem to have it down to a science, with only a little over 50yrs making automobile transmissions. 250-300k on ORIGINAL transmissions should be FOMOCO's goal. P.S. I will update what I find inside my 5R55 as soon as I get it dropped out. :)
 






Well, I know that's a deep subject, and so is this FOMOCO transmission debate . I did my homework and replaced both the intermediate and overdrive servos about three weeks ago(3-2-13) with the o-ring upgraded servos, a little over $225.00 after shipping. The fix worked for about 5 miles, straight out of my shop and down the road I drove, I thought heck yeah!!!! Then when I came to a complete stop and started off again, and my big smile,and brief moment of joy was gone. :( . The OD light started flashing and 4th gear was the highlight for the rest of the trip back to my shop. Being optimistic, I was hoping the servos would start working within a few hundred miles as the literature stated, Nope!!!! My wife drove the EX for the last two weeks with only 4 gears, and yester-night I towed the EX about 10 miles to my shop after it left my wife stranded at the library. Only the 2nd time in my 24yrs of driving a FORD has left me or my wife totally stranded. The 1st time was a 99 Taurus (rental) with like 15k on it, transmission problems with it as well. What is it with FOMOCO and there transmissions. I have went through numerous BW/T5's, but I have always blamed my aggressive driving to be the culprit. When I began thinking about what FOMOCO vehicles I have owned, and how many of those vehicles had a transmission issue, my findings where a little more than disappointing. Since I was old enough to know the difference between auto manufactures(30yrs or so) My loyalty has been to FOMOCO, because that's what my family believed in, and I don't see my POPPOP(grandfather) buying todays FORD's with reliability issues such as these. He bought FORD's because they were tuff like his Dad's(my great grandpa's) Draft Horses were. So FOMOCO tighten up!!! or I am going across town, and why don't you use some Honda engineering in your transmissions. They seem to have it down to a science, with only a little over 50yrs making automobile transmissions. 250-300k on ORIGINAL transmissions should be FOMOCO's goal. P.S. I will update what I find inside my 5R55 as soon as I get it dropped out. :)

You sound loyal, and have had the lifetime of Fords. I look forward to what you find in that 5R, I will have to get mine out this Spring too. Mine had a breakage of some part inside two years ago, I found a piece of what looked like a bearing race. My EPC was running fully open, too much of a leak to drive. Regards,
 






Has anyone had recent dealings with Wholesale Transmission Parts ?
They seem to have gone through a couple owners over the years ,
and I've read mixed reviews ..........:thumbsup::thumbdwn:

I'm thinking about one of their upgraded 5R55E valve bodies -
The price seems pretty good and a 3 yr warranty , but ..........

http://800700tran.com/prod.itml/icOid/80

Any input is appreciated .

Thanks,
Tom
 












Ditto, the main issue seemed to be selling used parts of unknown age and condition, and describing them differently.

Parts from a 4R70W are robust and usually good with any age and mileage. 5R55E parts are more fragile and used parts must be in top condition, not high mileage or from a burned up trans.
 






Hello all. New to this forum, actually to any forum.
Recently acquired 2004 Ranger, 4.0 v6, 4x4, 5r55e trans. You guessed it 2-3 shift flare. Also had problems with transfer case shifting, lights, radio, etc.
Turns out almost every problem was related to bad grounds. After racking brain, finally checked and cleaned all grounds, fixed all but 2-3 shift. Adjusted bands, changed fluid and filter, still flaring. Then I found this thread. Seems like valve body and new EPC may be the answer. Contacted Central Valve bodies for price, waiting on reply. Just gonna cross fingers and hope this works. BTW this is a great thread!!!!

I am just like this person. just bought a 97 Ranger XLT 4.0L and I'm having this issue. Anybody have any recent dealings with Wholesale Transmission Parts? I actually live in tampa so I'm h oping to be able to go to them in person and see whats up. AAMCO wanted to drop my whole tranny and have me spend $1500. it would be awesome if this valve body replacement was the solution
 






I would buy from a company that tests the VB with the proper equipment, like Central Valve bodies. Then after replacing the valve body if the problem is still there, then you know for sure that it wasn't the valve body and it has to come out for repair.
 






I am just like this person. just bought a 97 Ranger XLT 4.0L and I'm having this issue. Anybody have any recent dealings with Wholesale Transmission Parts? I actually live in tampa so I'm h oping to be able to go to them in person and see whats up. AAMCO wanted to drop my whole tranny and have me spend $1500. it would be awesome if this valve body replacement was the solution

I think that is the place which just sold used parts, nothing actually rebuilt. Don't settle for a used V6 trans valve body, they all need help. The V8 trans is very reliable and a used part might very well be fine. A used V6 part will most likely have issues. Get a rebuilt V6 part.
 






So I had been dealing with this tranny issues for about a year and since I don't drive this truck that often or that long it wasn't high on the priority list. Now it was time to decide if my fiancee and I were going to get new vehicles or not and the truck really is very utilitarian for us but with the valve body shifting issues and piss poor brakes, I could never trade off with my fiancee for times I needed her car ( i work in real estate, don't really want to show nice homes in an 18 year old truck!) So we decided that we would spend some money to get my truck fixed up and running right. Brakes were cheap and easy, new cheap tires were a snap. Then I finally decided to hunt down a valve body. I learned of Sunbelt Valve Bodies located here in Tampa and close to my house with VERY good reviews of them and a couple of good youtube videos. After everything I have read about these valve bodies in this transmission, I was 100% sure this was what I needed. I took it there and the owner Fabian, took time out of his day to go test drive the truck and hook up his code scanner diagnostic too. We didn't drive long enough for the tranny to start doing the 2-3 shift flare but the Shift Solenoid B code was saved in there. I purchased a rebuilt valve body from him and had it installed 2 days later along with a new filter, gasket, and all of that. I took the truck out and drove it for about an hour and shift issue never showed it's head. The next day I drove it a lot and it was also fine. Then yesterday it started to do it again. Then today I took it for some extended highway driving and by the time I got off the highway, sure enough, 2-3 shift flare.

I should note that the speedometer has never worked properly on this truck since I got it and the previous owner also said that it used to waver back and forth and then it just stopped working. I have the VSS Speed sensor code and I have changed the speed sensor on the Transfer case and I have also changed the ABS sensor on the rear differential. Still no working speedometer. When Fabian had his diagnostic tester on, it was giving a reeding that the shaft was turning. Do you think my problem is as simple as a cut wire from that speed sensor? I was having a hard time tracing this speed sensor but it seems that it runs over to the O2 sensor in the exhaust which seems weird to me. Could a bad 02 sensor somehow make the speedometer sensor not working. I am so annoyed that I spend $500 to buy and have a valve body installed when it could just be a simple electrical problem but I have no idea what to do next. HELP!!! Really trying to avoid going to the dealer where they will certainly bend me over!
 



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CP - you misplaced your post at the end of a thread that's several years old, no one will see it.... Start a NEW posting with a TITLE, Good Luck Sir.
 






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