Solved Solved my transmission jerking / shaking.

[Explorer_PL]

First of all - my post thread title is misleading, sorry about that.

So for the past 3-4 k miles I was experiencing a shudder / jerking / kicking in the drivetrain. My truck has 148k miles, and I replaced the sparkplugs (again) at 134k miles so I did not expect the engine to be the source of the vibrations and problems. Also, there was no ECM codes, I could rev the engine smoothly in Park, and no misses or anyhing. Also, most of the time it would drive nicely, shifts are good, and everything was OK. The shuddering would be most evident, and sometimes violent at 1800rpm / 50mph going uphill. All these made me think (on top of other posts here) that my torque converter is going south.

I went to a tranny shop (they only do trannies and drivetrains) and when I said I have 06 Explorer v8, the owner responded right away "that's the first year of the 6 spd", so I knew the guy knows his business. When I told him my symptoms he said it could be TQ, but he would take it for a drive on a hwy with a SnapOn scenner hooked up to detect any slippage on tq. Also, he said that he only had four 6rxx trannies so far since they are pretty good transmissions, and the ones he replaced were high mileage ones. So I was going to come back to him for that.

Before that I decided I am going to take a last shot at the engine. I wanted to throw the code on ECM. So everyday whenever I was approaching a hill, I would let the rpm drop down, and the speed down, and then at the bottom of the hill tried to accelerate. Finally, after few days I got the code and it was 308.

Since I was still on original coils, I ordered set of Accel yellow coils 140033-8 (found a set for $ 233 on ebay), and set of new Autolite HT1 for $ 70. Last night I replaced them all (about an hour job), and the car runs like new. I tried the uphill trick to cause the misfire, but no, the engine run smooth like a butter.

This is just to confirm what another member Tojan19 went thru, also about to replace his TQ, when finaly he got a code for a misfire, and a new coil fixed it.

PS: I was quoted $ 400 for converter plus $ 700 labor, or 4500-5500 for the entire tranny.

 

[Ornery]

Jeebus, do they not give credit for the old trans?

Great price for the plugs. Do you still have the old coils? You could unload them on Ebay for $10.00 each easily.

 

[Explorer_PL]

I still have the old plugs and coils, and I usually keep them for testing if I have any issues down the road.

Who would buy coils with almost 150 k miles

 

[71455vert]

I have the same problem but at 1700 rpm will get coils asap

 

[Ornery]

Who would buy coils with almost 150 k miles

The choice at that price point would be a 150K mile OEM, or cheap knock off. Personally, I'd go for the used one. If you can pinpoint the bad one, you can buff up six of the remaining coils and sell them as an OEM set of six, and still have one for testing. A price of $50.00 + shipping should move them pretty quickly and help defray the cost of your repair.

 

[BootyDo]

Wow man - just wanted to say "thanks"! I recently had a terrible 308 code. After immediately changing just one coil, it was night and day. Then slowly - over a month or so - the rough idle came back. Replaced just one spark plug. Problem solved and no CEL for the better part of 2 months now. But recently I'm noticing your exact same issue around 1200rpms. Going to try and replace all the coils & plugs before it's an "issue" and not an occasional annoyance.

 

[Ornery]

Well, now it's time to see if I practice what I preach. Our '99 Grand Marquis with 90K has an intermittent miss, usually after it's warmed up. No CEL, no pending code. I'm SO TEMPTED by a set of eight coils for $54.49 and free shipping. If I could pinpoint the culprit, I'd certainly replace it with a used Motorcraft. Now, I don't know. I guess I could start swapping known good coils in. Or, be done with it for less than $60.00... :scratch:

 

[Explorer_PL]

Looks like you would need those from Accell 140032-8 I believe. But the cheapest set is $ 180.

 

[Ornery]

Well, I AM going to practice what I preach after all. I'll try and catch a pending code while driving it. I'm going to pull those coils & plugs one at a time and look for carbon tracks or other anomalies. I'll ohm each coil for clues. We can live without the car being perfect for a while. Even that paltry fifty bucks will come in handy, because it needs tires bad! Once I find it, I'll replace it with a used one I have on the bench, or buy a used one on Ebay. Glad I got that sorted out!

 

[Rubasu]

Has anyone had these symptoms besides me, with the 06 4.0 with the single coil pack? This has been happening to me since 70k ish. I'm now at 135k.

 

[Ornery]

Rubasu, install some new Motorcraft plugs & wires and you should be good for another 50K.

 

[Ornery]

Oh, I am such a troubleshooting genius!

My intermittent miss went full time, so it was VERY easy to find by disconnecting each coil one at a time. Turned out to be #4, the exact cylinder that was dead in the first place. The same spark plug well that was full of coolant from the leaking intake manifold. The same coolant filled well that never got blown out thoroughly after I installed the new intake manifold, because I was in such a big damn hurry!

 

[jseabolt]

I bought a 2006 V8 limited a few weeks ago w/113K miles and I am experiencing an issue like yours but cannot determine if it's transmission or ignition related. I connected my Actron code reader to it and was hoping to see a misfire code (well instead of a transmission code) but the ECU is not storing any codes at all. The reader says Misfire monitor: OK. My guess would be if there was a misfire at any time the computer would store a code. Yes or no?

I know on my 03 Subaru if the engine misfires just once, the check engine light will kick on and my code reader will tell me which cylinder it was that misfired. GM vehicles will simply display "random misfire detected". Then it's your job to figure out which cylinder it is.

I'm starting to wonder if someone traded in this Explorer because it had a known transmission issue that some shop informed them about it and they decided to get dump it onto someone else. That's my concern.

It doesn't really feel like the transmission is slipping. It feels more like it is constantly shifting between gears and cannot make up it's mind which gear to stay in below 2K rpms under cruise through town. On the interstate at speeds of 55 mph or above and under hard acceleration it seems to runs smooth. The vehicle also seems to idles smooth.

When this happens I've tried monitoring the RPMs and it does seem to increase 100 rpms so that worries me it's the transmission. But if the transmission was slipping I'd expect the RPMs to increase more than just 100 rpms.

Also I had it in the mountains yesterday and it felt like it was shifting more erratic due to constantly changing speeds. I took it out of overdrive so as the engine would stay above 2K rpms and ran smoother.

My first attempt was to let the fuel tank run down near empty then top off with some fresh fuel and run some fuel injection cleaner through it. Not that I have ever experienced an issue with contaminated fuel or clogged injectors on any vehicle I have ever owned. But I suppose it wouldn't hurt.

I have purchased some new spark plugs and hope to install them next weekend.

Oh yeah. I'm confused about something. The shifter indicates D/3/2/1 but from what I've read this is a 6 speed transmission (6R)? So when in "D" at highway speeds I'm in 6th gear but if I pull it down into 3rd it skips 5th and 4th? Also is there a difference between shifting from "D" into "3" and pressing the overdrive button to turn it off?

I assume this thread with photos explains how to inspect the fluid level.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=239549

I'd like to see if the fluid is low or burnt looking. Probably wouldn't hurt it to install a new filter. That's the problem buying a used vehicle. I have no idea if someone replaced the filter and plugs at 100K miles or just skipped these items. I hate to replace parts in vain.

I personally do not like automatics mainly because I do not feel like they are not as reliable as stick shifts and when they do crap out they are expensive to have repaired. But with some vehicles like this Explorer you have no choice.

The transmission on my wife's '07 Buick crapped out at 79K miles. Luckily it was covered under GM's warranty. But that's ashame they can't make a transmission that won't even make it past 100K miles. Same goes for those Chyrsler minivans that the transmissions crapped out at 60K miles. Dad's 94 Voyager went through two transmissions within 130K miles. He sold it to a friend and the transmission went out a third time. That time the book value was lower than a new transmission so he sold it to a junkyard.

We did get lucky with my wife's '03 Nissan 350Z. The transmission started slipping on that thing and come to find out the fluid and filter requires changing every 30K and the guy said the fluid appeared to have never been changed and the car had 90K miles on it. He replaced the filter and fluid and it stopped slipping.

The C4 on my 68 Fairlane, as far as I know is the original 44 year old transmission. It shifts so smooth sometimes I don't even know what gear it's in.

 

[Explorer_PL]

I had GMs, Chrysler's cars, and they would throw P300 code if there was any misfire. My Explorer would drive for hundreds of miles with jerking, skipping, and missing, and it would not flash the CEL. The Fords ECM is so un-sensitive. In my case, when I had major misfires (about 3 times so far), it was always a sparkplug or coils. I am at 151k miles.

 

[jseabolt]

I had GMs, Chrysler's cars, and they would throw P300 code if there was any misfire. My Explorer would drive for hundreds of miles with jerking, skipping, and missing, and it would not flash the CEL. The Fords ECM is so un-sensitive. In my case, when I had major misfires (about 3 times so far), it was always a sparkplug or coils. I am at 151k miles.

I'm going to start with new plugs and see what happens. After that what would be my next objective? Buy a new coil and start with cylinder 1 then rotate that one to each cylinder until I find the cylinder that is misfiring?

Or just connect my code reader periodically and check to see if the ECU eventually stores a code? Will it tell me which cylinder is misfiring once it stores a code or just a generic "random misfire" code like my father's 98 Chevy van did when the distributor cap and rotor button wore out?

So far I have never seen the check engine light kick on. The computer was storing a code related to the ABS but the ABS light was not on.

 

[Ornery]

If plugs are due, go ahead and replace them. (Wish it were that easy.) If you have a constant miss, it's easy to find the cylinder. Disconnect a coil, and listen for the RPM to fall off a bit. If you disconnect one, and the RPM doesn't change, that's it.

 

[jseabolt]

If plugs are due, go ahead and replace them. (Wish it were that easy.) If you have a constant miss, it's easy to find the cylinder. Disconnect a coil, and listen for the RPM to fall off a bit. If you disconnect one, and the RPM doesn't change, that's it.

It's definitely random. As I've mentioned before it feels like the transmission is constantly shifting from one gear to another and cannot make up it's mind which gear it wants to stay in below 2K rpms. But have never felt it misfire at idle.

Wonder why the engine would be more prone to misfiring under cruise than under WOT or above 2K rpms? Looks like RPMs wouldn't make any difference.
On the other hand, maybe at high RPMs, because the engine is turning faster, the misfire happens so fast I just don't feel it.

On a 4 banger you can definitely feel a misfire under just about any condition. Maybe with a V8 misfires are harder to detect having twice as many cylinders.

I love my Explorer but sure hope I haven't traded in a good running Mustang GT for someone else's problems.

 

[Ornery]

Under load is when it's missing. That could occur in any gear at any RPM. Under higher compression, it's harder for the spark to jump the spark plug gap. Might as well do the plugs, that's step one and basically a normal maintenance expense.

Good Luck!

 

[jseabolt]

Under load is when it's missing. That could occur in any gear at any RPM. Under higher compression, it's harder for the spark to jump the spark plug gap. Might as well do the plugs, that's step one and basically a normal maintenance expense.

Good Luck!

HMMM, seems just the opposite with my truck. The computer's mileage computer says I'm getting 22 mpg on the interstate and 14 around town which was better than with my 96 5.0 liter (13/19 mpg) which I think is pretty good. Not as good as my Mustang GT which had a 4.7 liter engine (18/26 mpg).

 

[Explorer_PL]

Jseabolt -

Did you have it stroked or it's just a typo : 4.7 Mustang

Thanks (this is a serious question, not a ballbuster)