I'll try to make this short. I bought my 97 4x4 4door explorer with a bad 5r55e, replaced it with one out of a junk yard w/88,000 miles. It came with a 90 day warranty if I put in a new radiator or bypassed the radiator cooler and mounted an external cooler. I mounted an external cooler and it has all new fluids. It's been about 60 days and I've noticed when i get in it in the morning the rpm's stay around 2,500 at 60mph for the first couple of miles and then it either goes into o/d or the converter locks up. To me it seems like it's in O/D just without the converter locking up. After that it's fine the rest of the day. It seems like it doesnt do this on warmer 40+ degree mornings. Other than that everything works flawlessly all the time. What could be the problem, or is this normal? I've never owned an explorer or anything else with an auto before besides a neon I had for a short time. I just want to make sure if there is somthing wrong I figure it out before the 90 days are up. Thanks Billy
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No O/D or Converter Lockup when cold?
- Thread starter bjordan
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1AJeremyD
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Welcome to the forum! What you are experiencing is relatively normal for a vehicle that hasn't warmed up. Essentially what the engine and transmission are doing is not allowing the transmission to engage in O/D so you don't stall/break anything. Allowing your truck to warm up in the morning should help cure this a little bit and help everything engage quicker.
Thats kinda what I was thinking. Some mornings I let it warm up for about 10 minutes or so and the trans still does this. I thought it may be because it's taking the trans fluid longer to warm up because it's only going through a heavy duty cooler and not through the radiator which would probably help warm it up faster. Does that make any sense?
Do I need to put a new radiator in it to hook it back in with the radiator, or maybe just flush the radiator atf reservoir? Is this problem something that needs to be corrected or is it OK? I just don't want to hurt anything. I need this to last me for a while. Thanks for all the help so far, Billy
ranger7ltr
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This is normal behavior...
The tranny has a thermostat in the valve body that keeps the fluid from fully flowing through the cooler lines until the temperature of the fluid gets to 155 f or so...As others have said the external cooler does not help this...
The tranny will not go into o/d typically for the first 5 mins of driving here in Texas but the ambient temps are not that cold here...
The tranny has a thermostat in the valve body that keeps the fluid from fully flowing through the cooler lines until the temperature of the fluid gets to 155 f or so...As others have said the external cooler does not help this...
The tranny will not go into o/d typically for the first 5 mins of driving here in Texas but the ambient temps are not that cold here...
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