Shaking, Shuddering, Juddering in Reverse only. 2004 Explorer XLT 5R55S

[Juckerz]

I've been searching for a day and cant find anyone with my exact symptoms. Any help would be err,,, helpful.

2004 Explorer XLT 2wd with 5R55S transmission, 125k miles,,, Florida car I've had from new,,, never given me any trouble other than regular maintenance and a couple of wheel bearings. Trans fluid changed with Mercon V every 15k or so,, (not a complete flush,, but a 2 day drain and replace maybe 5 quarts). Fluid drained was never dark or weird smelling,,, prolly on my 4th OEM trans filter,,,, never found any weird stuff in the pan or filter. I actually own two of these XLT's,, this is the one that's never given me much grief.

A few days ago the car starting juddering while in reverse at low speed only,,, not shaking out my fillings,,,, but pretty juddery, an adjective I just invented.. The shift from park to reverse is slightly hard,,, harder than usual,, but not 'bad'. Drives through all forward gears just fine,, no weird lights or anything with overdrive. No engine codes.

Did another fluid/filter change yesterday but no improvement.

Please tell me it's the solenoid pack. I love this car,,, but it's not worth spending on major tranny work I can't do myself.

LOL,, don't make me beg,,, some smartass here can help me out.

 

[JK080]

"Juddering" in reverse at low speed only is a unusual description of a transmission problem, maybe it something else like the brakes grabbing or something like that. Might want to get it by a transmission shop and have them look at it.

If it is a transmission problem unfortunately I doubt it will be the solenoid block, best you can hope for would be a problem in the valve body. Problem is it may very difficult to locate what's going on in the valve body to cause this, the best way to check would be to replace it but that can be expensive for just a guess if you dont have one laying around to test with. I had one that slipped in reverse after a rebuild and after going through the valve body again and really looking hard I never saw anything that was suspect, we replaced the valve body and the problem went away, still not knowing what it was.

Other issues that will cause this would be a problem with low/reverse band, either its the band itself or the linkage that works the band, either way this can only be repaired by disassembling the transmission completely. If you have the pan off again remove the reverse servo and you might be able to conform if the band has failed or the linkage has issues so you will know for a fact it will have to come out to be repaired before wasting time and money on the valve body.

 

[Juckerz]

"Juddering" in reverse at low speed only is a unusual description of a transmission problem, maybe it something else like the brakes grabbing or something like that. Might want to get it by a transmission shop and have them look at it.

If it is a transmission problem unfortunately I doubt it will be the solenoid block, best you can hope for would be a problem in the valve body. Problem is it may very difficult to locate what's going on in the valve body to cause this, the best way to check would be to replace it but that can be expensive for just a guess if you dont have one laying around to test with. I had one that slipped in reverse after a rebuild and after going through the valve body again and really looking hard I never saw anything that was suspect, we replaced the valve body and the problem went away, still not knowing what it was.

Other issues that will cause this would be a problem with low/reverse band, either its the band itself or the linkage that works the band, either way this can only be repaired by disassembling the transmission completely. If you have the pan off again remove the reverse servo and you might be able to conform if the band has failed or the linkage has issues so you will know for a fact it will have to come out to be repaired before wasting time and money on the valve body.

Thanks for the reply... I appreciate it. I'm pretty sure it's the transmission as it coincided with the arrival of a somewhat hard shift into reverse. I had a feeling it wasn't going to be an easy/cheap fix. I do have another 2004 XLT that runs fine, so a valve body swap can be done (just watched a video on that job),,,, again,, thanks for the advice. Ugh,,, never though I'd long for the days when I had a Renault 5.