I knew not to discuss my problems too much in the "new member" forum, I just wanted to say why I joined. Thanks for moving this to the appropriate spot. I have spent hours on this site and just joined yesterday. You guys are serious!
A little more background on me:
My wife and I currently own (paid for) our 04 Explorer. We bought it at a Carmax in Schaumburg IL in early 06. We've since moved to Asheville, NC. It currently has just under 95000 miles. We really love the truck and would like to keep it as long as possible. It's great in the snow here and really a pleasure to drive. With that said, I also have an 05 Honda CRV. It's AWD just like the explorer, but fwd until other wheels are needed. That car is seamless. I never know when power is sent to other wheels, it just goes. It'll go over/through anything the explorer will without as much as a hiccup. So, I guess we have 2 great cars, but my wife drives the explorer and doesn't ever want to give it up. So, that's where I come in. My job is to keep this thing on the road how ever I can. I'm pretty mechanical I just don't have access to a lift/shop as many of you do. So, Here we go...
I drove the Ex today so I could have a better idea of how to (in words) describe my issues... Probably from day one, I noticed that the truck wanted to upshift when ever possible -meaning- If I slow down to go around a corner, then roll on the throttle to accelerate out of it, it'll always downshift on me and it's an abrupt power transfer. I have to be SUUUUUPER smooth and then it'll stay in gear, but we've just gotten used to the car wanting to downshift all the time. It doesn't slip out of gear, it just doesn't stay in the gear it's in and smoothly accelerate away. So, not a HUGE issue, but kind of an annoying one.
I've read for hours about the transmission and I think my problems aren't as bad as some, but still the car needs some attention... sometimes I get clunks when it shifts from gear to gear. Again, being smooth helps, but I'm not a ham-foot to begin with. Sometimes I have a long flare between gears, but it's intermittent. I'm sure I'm in line for the servo bore fix, and possibly the flare fix, but again, I'm not sure where to start. The best way for me to describe driving the truck is to explain it this way: Imagine that instead of a drive shaft, there is a chain that goes from the engine to the rear axle. This chain has some slop in it (loose) and so when I give it some gas, there's a lag between my foot and the truck accelerating. If I'm a ham and drive abruptly, this is super apparent. If I'm smooth, it's less apparent, but still noticeable.
Sorry for the long winded post, but I'm serious about making this truck last a really long time. I plan on being here a while and learning a lot. Thanks!
Dan
