AWD/Tranny problem.....maybe a sensor?

[milkman873]

Im gonna list 2 problems that may have a connection....hopefully they do and I can kill 2 birds with 1 stone....
First problem is the day I put on 4 new tires.....when I put my XLT under load, it seems to bog down a bit, vibrate, clunk, free itself of whatever and and go on its way. The "clunk" sounds all to familiar....like the "clunk" that occurs when the AWD kicks in when the tires are slippin in the snow. So, as a test, I put the old tires back on which were bald in the back and 50% in the front. Sure enough, it went away. Someone told me speed sensors in the tranny...but I researched sensors and I guess there are more than just one type.
Second problem is the tranny not responding well to the position of my foot on the throttle...typically on the highway, pushing the pedal down and inch would kick my old ladies Sport outta overdrive giving me some extra RPM's to make a pass...in my XLT, I have to quickly drop off the gas and put it back down again to get it out of overdrive..otherwise I have to mash the pedal and that causes it to hit a passing gear which is more than Im lookin for.....and besides that, she seems to kick into higher gears or even overdrive a bit to quick and just bogs down the truck...so I do my usual foot off/foot on trick to kick her down a peg. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

 

[TPLYNCH]

Make sure all of the new tires are the same size and at the same tire pressure. It's possible one of them is out of round/not correct size. You may even want to measure the tread circumference to make sure they are all the same.

You may need to adjust the throttle cable. There is a thread on how to do this. You may also need to replace the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS). Run some searches using the search link in the header above your post and you should find the information

 

[milkman873]

Thanks. I had the tires measured and they are all equal and the pressure is normal. Is it possible that what I mentioned about speed sensors in the tranny could be faulty? I'll look into the cable and the TPS, thanks!

 

[TPLYNCH]

If the sensors were bad, it would happen all the time, not just with the "new" tires. You can try disconnecting the battery for ~30 minutes to reset the computer and see it there is any difference.

 

[smiley1]

Second problem is the tranny not responding well to the position of my foot on the throttle...typically on the highway, pushing the pedal down and inch would kick my old ladies Sport outta overdrive giving me some extra RPM's to make a pass...in my XLT, I have to quickly drop off the gas and put it back down again to get it out of overdrive..otherwise I have to mash the pedal and that causes it to hit a passing gear which is more than Im lookin for.....and besides that, she seems to kick into higher gears or even overdrive a bit to quick and just bogs down the truck...so I do my usual foot off/foot on trick to kick her down a peg. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

A new program/flasher will solve most of this. I have had the same exact complaints as you. I still want to tweak my shifting points a bit. Part of the problem is the 4 speed as opposed to a 5 speed in the sport. That extra gear would be great in a 5.0.

 

[CDW6212R]

The 5R55E(V6) has basically the same first gear as the AODE(4R70W(V8)), around 2.84:1.
The 5R55W(V8 4.6) has a 3.22:1 first gear, which helps the 2002+ Explorers a bunch.
DonW