Help with 5R55E

[Glacier991]

You could have a blown out valve body gasket.... these are famous for that.

 

[BrooklynBay]

The other dealer was going to give you an EPC for $100? That doesn't seem like a bad deal if it's a mistake. You should have mentioned to the second dealer that the first one would have given you a discount, and you might buy it from them. They might have offered you a discount.

 

[gatzdon]

I promise, I will upload the pics tonight.

I think I saw where the paper gasket came from and it looked like the valve body. I took a picture of the location.

The first dealer was giving me a discount because I told them I'm with the county division of transportation. The closest dealer with the correct solenoid in stock was in the next county. When I mentioned the discount from the first dealer, the reply was "Well we're not in your county, are we?". It sucks, but it's not like I had much leverage at that point in time.

The fluid is starting to look more red again and smells like trans fluid now. After 2 days of driving, no flashing OD light. I will check for any codes again tonight just to be sure.

I did try flooring the pedal once and while I could still hear "Noise" from the transmission, it was no where near as pronounced as before. As my wife was with me, I told here to never do what I just did again. As long as I never pushed the throttle more than 75%, I did not hear anything unusual from the transmission. Over the next couple weeks, I plan on changing the trans filter at least two more times to get the fluid back to normal.

I'm caught up on all maintenance items on this vehicle (at everything that I could think of), and while I was ambitious, I got caught up on all the maintenance items on my F-150 too even if they weren't due yet. The only thing left that I want to do is flush the cooling systems on both.

Quick question for anyone still reading this, do your fuel filters corrode so fast too? I change mine about once per year and the dang thing corrodes up so fast that the spring inside the fuel line siezes to the fuel filter. 2 years ago I damaged the fuel line trying to get them apart and had to replace it. On my F-150, I slide the tool into the connector and the fuel line slides right off. With the explorer, I have to carefully think about how I'm going to levarage force to get it off. I was wondering if there was something that everyone puts in the connector before putting the fuel filter back in to prevent this problem.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Did you try using a little oil?

 

[gatzdon]

OK, when I go to post to this thread, there is no "Manage Attachments" button in order to upload pics.

Any suggestions, or am I just missing it?

 

[gatzdon]

OK, I'm using photobucket to share the photos. I apologize that this followup has taken so long, but here goes.

This first picture is a far shot of the underside of the transmission with the pan and filter off.

http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z106/gatzdon/?action=view&current=ValveBody.jpg

Next here is a picture of the 4 solenoids (there are 2 solenoids on the opposite end of the valve body).

http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z106/gatzdon/?action=view&current=SolenoidsFarShot.jpg

Here's a close up of the 4 solenoids.

http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z106/gatzdon/?action=view&current=SolenoidsCloseup.jpg

All I did was loosen up the bolts holding the bracket in place. I did remove the one bolt on the end, but they may have not been necessary. All that was needed was enough clearance to slide the solenoid out. It came out very easy, no prying was needed. Here's a shot with the solenoid removed.

http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z106/gatzdon/?action=view&current=SolenoidRemoved.jpg

The new solenoid slid right in. I tightened up the bolts and put the connector back on. Very simple job. I would put the time at about 30-45 minutes for a novice to do the same.

While inspecting the valve body and pan, I found this little piece of what looks like gasket material.

http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z106/gatzdon/?action=view&current=PossibleGasketMaterial.jpg

My best guess is that it came from here as I can see what looks like a break in the continuity of gasket material partially sticking out.
http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/...ew&current=PossibleSourceofGasketMaterial.jpg

I thought about the suggestion of adjusting the bands, but when I took a look at the studs for doing so, I though better of doing it right now. They were so rusted up that I didn't think that I would get an accurate adjustment.

http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z106/gatzdon/?action=view&current=StudsforAdjustingBands.jpg

I did spray (more like hose) them down with WD-40. I will spray them again when I go to change the filter and fluid again. The fluid looks and smells like trans fluid again. I did risk flooring the pedal one more time and now I only hear the sound from the transmission briefly with maximum torque. Since I never floor the pedal anyways, I'm going to just keep an eye on it and make a point of driving this explorer about once a week.

As for the gasket material, I think I'll wait on that too, unless anyone here thinks that putting it off has the potential to cause physical damage. This transmission has almost 170,000 miles on it and this is the closest to a major repair. I'm assuming it's a matter of time before something else requires attention and I can just redo the valve body when that happens. Let me know what you guys think of that strategy.

 

[gatzdon]

I clicked on edit in my original post hoping to update the title to make this thread more search friendly, but it doesn't allow the title to be updated.

Should I leave it as is, or PM a moderator to ask them to update the title?

 

[mackintire]

I replaced my valvebody. Theres a replacement upgraded valve that addresses a TBS.

Also I suggest you replace the 3 secondary shift solnoids and the single primary shift solnoid.

The valve us lke $9 the vavlebody I think is $23. The primary solnoid cost a bit more but if you are anywhere near or over 100k replace it. Also there is a rather simple proceedure to adjust the bands on that transmission. Fords internal documents say that for optimum life they should be adjusted ever 30k!

Shopping around I collected all the parts including filter and gasket for about $260. Just so you know the dealer charged me near $500 in install everything including the bands adjustment.


Anyhow its a simple as plugging in a special tool into the diagnostic port using a wrench on the three adjustment bolts on the drivers side of the tranny and turning untill the tool gets a green light, then back off 1/4 turn. The whole adjustment process is less that 20 minutes. If I would known about that I would have had it done at 65k when I thought my bands were starting to get worn.

Oh well atleast I can pass the info along to someone else.

 

[gatzdon]

....Anyhow its a simple as plugging in a special tool into the diagnostic port using a wrench on the three adjustment bolts on the drivers side of the tranny and turning untill the tool gets a green light, then back off 1/4 turn. ....

Just so you know, there is a sticky thread in this forum that tells you how to adjust your bands without the expensive tool from Ford, using a simple torquewrench.

The concern I have with mine is that if I don't what until some of that rust is freed up, is that I won't get an accurate adjustment if the stud itself provides any resistance, or worse, I back off the stud, but can't get the nut to spin freely.

Had I been aware of this adjustment, I would have done it every time I change the trans filter and kept the studs greased to prevent rust.

I plan on doing the adjustment with the next trans filter change in a week or three. I plan on having both those studs all polished up and will leave them lubricated to prevent them from rusting over again.

 

[BrooklynBay]

There are 2 band adjustment threads on this forum. The first one without pictures was posted in the Technician Corner section, and the one with pictures is in the transmission section. I have links in my signature for those 2 threads as well as other useful threads.

 

[gatzdon]

I have a quick question, which forum here would be best to start at thread to get feedback on what to do and not to do in order to bring all maintenance on my vehicles up to date?

When I was younger, I would buy a $50 ford truck/van junker and use it to fix the previous junker I was driving (or vice versa, use the previous junker to fix the new one). Then after getting one of the two back on the road, I would strip the non-functioning one of all the working parts, then sell the rest for scrap metal. The con here is that maintenance was an afterthought for me. No one part had to last more than 15,000 miles as I would have spares to just replace it.

Flash forward and now I have two Ford Vehicles that were bought brand new (2000 Explorer with 167,000 and 1995 F-150 with 210,000). Before, I never had a vehicle with this many miles. All I was accustomed to doing was changing the oil frequently and the coolant/trans fluid periodically. My concern now since the engines in both are running just fine is that generic tune-ups and oil/coolant/trans fluid changes are not enough to get another 100,000 + miles out of these two.

So, I was wondering which forum here is best for starting a thread solely for soliciting advice on making sure all maintenance on my vehicles is up to date and more importantly, what else can I be inspecting to nip potential problems in the bud?

Thanks in advance

 

[BrooklynBay]

The under the hood section might be a good place to start.