asparling
New Member
- Joined
- May 6, 2008
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Phoenix, AZ
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 95 Explorer
Greetings everyone,
Please bear with me; I'm a broke college kid with some experience working on cars, but little working on this truck. Hopefully I give you all the info you need.
I have a '95 4WD V6 Explorer, so I guess that gives me a 4R44E (or 4R55E?) tranny. The O/D light flashed on about 4 months ago, but after 2 days of not driving it while looking for a good shop, it went off and hasn't come back. There've been some odd shifting problems now and then, but they've never been recurring beyond a "thunk" when you let off the throttle around 60 mph and it shifts; this has happened for about 5 years now. Being aware of this and easing off the gas prevents this though.
Anyways, the meat of the problem: After taking it down the road a couple miles, the engine suddenly dies around 30 mph and I roll up to a stoplight. The engine starts and runs just fine, idling perfectly, and holding its own in park or neutral. As soon as I shift to drive or reverse, though, the engine dies within 2-3 seconds. No shudders, no noises or clunks, the engine just putters out and dies. Tranny fluid looks fine, doesn't smell, nothing leaks.
Could it be the Torque Converter, or some part of it? With my limited knowledge, I'm guessing that, since what else would back up into the engine upon shifting the load to the tranny and make the engine cut out? Is there a list of other probable things it could be? What info do you guys need to determine what else it could be?
So, assuming it's the TC, how difficult is it to swap one out? They only look like they cost a few hundred, but would there be extensive damage throughout the rest of the tranny? More importantly, how difficult of a job would it be for a novice shade-tree mech? I'm in a predicament of having it parked in my gf's garage, and I can't really afford to have it towed to a shop, diagnosed, and then towed back. There's no way I can afford to pay someone to fix this, but I would be much more comfortable having the codes read, and you guys could help me out so much more. Advice?
Please bear with me; I'm a broke college kid with some experience working on cars, but little working on this truck. Hopefully I give you all the info you need.
I have a '95 4WD V6 Explorer, so I guess that gives me a 4R44E (or 4R55E?) tranny. The O/D light flashed on about 4 months ago, but after 2 days of not driving it while looking for a good shop, it went off and hasn't come back. There've been some odd shifting problems now and then, but they've never been recurring beyond a "thunk" when you let off the throttle around 60 mph and it shifts; this has happened for about 5 years now. Being aware of this and easing off the gas prevents this though.
Anyways, the meat of the problem: After taking it down the road a couple miles, the engine suddenly dies around 30 mph and I roll up to a stoplight. The engine starts and runs just fine, idling perfectly, and holding its own in park or neutral. As soon as I shift to drive or reverse, though, the engine dies within 2-3 seconds. No shudders, no noises or clunks, the engine just putters out and dies. Tranny fluid looks fine, doesn't smell, nothing leaks.
Could it be the Torque Converter, or some part of it? With my limited knowledge, I'm guessing that, since what else would back up into the engine upon shifting the load to the tranny and make the engine cut out? Is there a list of other probable things it could be? What info do you guys need to determine what else it could be?
So, assuming it's the TC, how difficult is it to swap one out? They only look like they cost a few hundred, but would there be extensive damage throughout the rest of the tranny? More importantly, how difficult of a job would it be for a novice shade-tree mech? I'm in a predicament of having it parked in my gf's garage, and I can't really afford to have it towed to a shop, diagnosed, and then towed back. There's no way I can afford to pay someone to fix this, but I would be much more comfortable having the codes read, and you guys could help me out so much more. Advice?
