nemothablak
New Member
- Joined
- September 12, 2010
- Messages
- 8
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- oxford, alabama
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2002 xls
a lot of people wonder about lucas transmission fluid. i'll go into detail about my experience, feel free to posts some comments, i'm curious if anyone else have experienced this. Here's my story:
my tranny started having a small issue last month when the odometer hit 157XXX miles. While accelerating, around 42mph the tranny ALWAYS jerked a little, and after that, no problem. It didnt bother me in the beginning, but after a while it started pissing me off. i got the fluid checked by a local shop, and they said it was at a good level. a lot of mechanics recommended putting some Lucas in the transmission; even the guys at the transmission shops and ford dealership recommended it, and that's exactly what i did.
i added half a quart of lucas in it, and for 3 days the car was running and shifting smoothly (no jerking at 42mph). after that third day, it all started going to hell. Whenever i cranked it up in the morning, the worst whinning/scratching noise would come from the transmission, but only for about 3 minutes before the car warmed up. I drove it everyday for about a week and a half, until that noise started pissing me off, and not to mention the jerking at 42mph came back, and the whinning/scratching noise got worse, and lasted longer than 3 minutes. I knew something was up when one morning, the tranny started slipping on my way to school, and i couldnt drive faster that 30mph without the rpm guage needle shooting over 4, and 5 (like a constant acceleration), and the o/d light started blinking.
So, i took the car to a few local shops to get a complete flush, but they wouldnt do it, like they were scared to even touch it. one guy at the shops actually had the balls to say that ALL explorers are "pieces of *****", i almost kicked him in the nuts lol. i looked at his car on my way out and felt sorry for him, he was driving a damn prius lol....
So, i did the flush myself: drained the tranny through the plug first, dropped the pan, let the tranny drain for another 30 mins, cleaned the magnet, cleaned the pan, cleaned the gasket mating surface, put in new filter, guided the gasket and pan carefully back on transmission, and put in 5qts of transmission fluid (thats how much fluid the people at the ford dealership told me was in the pan).
Cranked the car up, first thing i heard was the sweet 4.0 sound, no noise at all coming from the tranny. i let it warm up for 10 more mins. I turned the car on and off a few times within half an hour, no sounds. I put that thing in drive, and first thing i did was to get on the interstate. i drove it at high speeds, and also at low speeds to see if the tranny would slip or make noises... NOTHING!!!!! the problem was gone. that was two weeks ago. the odometer now reads 161XXX, because i drive a lot of highway miles lol. no problem with it at all.
But, yesterday the transmission started slipping on the interstate when i tried to accelerate up a hill. luckily i hadnt gone far. i turned the car around, and drove it home (rpm needle was on 3 the whole way home at 65mph). I cranked it up about 5hours ago, and now the whinning/scrathing noise is back lol. i've driven it twice today, and i noticed that it wasnt as bad as the first time the tranny slipped. for example, the first time the tranny slipped after i added lucas, the rpm needle would go up and keep going up, it wouldnt kick back as it's supposed to, but the car speed would stay under 30mph; Now, i can go as fast as 50mph until the rpm needle stays at 3. From 0, the needle would go up as i accelerate, kick back (as its supposed to), goes up again, kicks back again, and then it stays up lol.
My plan is to flush it again tomorrow by myself (since the shops wouldnt touch a tranny that's already slipping with that much mileage), and take it for a drive again. the way i see it, it'll probably take one more flush after tomorrow to get all that lucas fluid completely out of the transmission. i will upload the results.
so far, i WOULD NOT recommend lucas transmission fluid for the 2002 explorer 2wd transmission.
has anyone else had this problem, if so, what happened?
my tranny started having a small issue last month when the odometer hit 157XXX miles. While accelerating, around 42mph the tranny ALWAYS jerked a little, and after that, no problem. It didnt bother me in the beginning, but after a while it started pissing me off. i got the fluid checked by a local shop, and they said it was at a good level. a lot of mechanics recommended putting some Lucas in the transmission; even the guys at the transmission shops and ford dealership recommended it, and that's exactly what i did.
i added half a quart of lucas in it, and for 3 days the car was running and shifting smoothly (no jerking at 42mph). after that third day, it all started going to hell. Whenever i cranked it up in the morning, the worst whinning/scratching noise would come from the transmission, but only for about 3 minutes before the car warmed up. I drove it everyday for about a week and a half, until that noise started pissing me off, and not to mention the jerking at 42mph came back, and the whinning/scratching noise got worse, and lasted longer than 3 minutes. I knew something was up when one morning, the tranny started slipping on my way to school, and i couldnt drive faster that 30mph without the rpm guage needle shooting over 4, and 5 (like a constant acceleration), and the o/d light started blinking.
So, i took the car to a few local shops to get a complete flush, but they wouldnt do it, like they were scared to even touch it. one guy at the shops actually had the balls to say that ALL explorers are "pieces of *****", i almost kicked him in the nuts lol. i looked at his car on my way out and felt sorry for him, he was driving a damn prius lol....
So, i did the flush myself: drained the tranny through the plug first, dropped the pan, let the tranny drain for another 30 mins, cleaned the magnet, cleaned the pan, cleaned the gasket mating surface, put in new filter, guided the gasket and pan carefully back on transmission, and put in 5qts of transmission fluid (thats how much fluid the people at the ford dealership told me was in the pan).
Cranked the car up, first thing i heard was the sweet 4.0 sound, no noise at all coming from the tranny. i let it warm up for 10 more mins. I turned the car on and off a few times within half an hour, no sounds. I put that thing in drive, and first thing i did was to get on the interstate. i drove it at high speeds, and also at low speeds to see if the tranny would slip or make noises... NOTHING!!!!! the problem was gone. that was two weeks ago. the odometer now reads 161XXX, because i drive a lot of highway miles lol. no problem with it at all.
But, yesterday the transmission started slipping on the interstate when i tried to accelerate up a hill. luckily i hadnt gone far. i turned the car around, and drove it home (rpm needle was on 3 the whole way home at 65mph). I cranked it up about 5hours ago, and now the whinning/scrathing noise is back lol. i've driven it twice today, and i noticed that it wasnt as bad as the first time the tranny slipped. for example, the first time the tranny slipped after i added lucas, the rpm needle would go up and keep going up, it wouldnt kick back as it's supposed to, but the car speed would stay under 30mph; Now, i can go as fast as 50mph until the rpm needle stays at 3. From 0, the needle would go up as i accelerate, kick back (as its supposed to), goes up again, kicks back again, and then it stays up lol.
My plan is to flush it again tomorrow by myself (since the shops wouldnt touch a tranny that's already slipping with that much mileage), and take it for a drive again. the way i see it, it'll probably take one more flush after tomorrow to get all that lucas fluid completely out of the transmission. i will upload the results.
so far, i WOULD NOT recommend lucas transmission fluid for the 2002 explorer 2wd transmission.
has anyone else had this problem, if so, what happened?