Strange Transmission Problems, Any Help Would Be A Godsend

[glenmorebuckman]

I have a 2002 Explorer xls 4x4 with a 5r55w Tranny that has developed some strange issues. First thing I noticed is that it developed a low whine when I have my foot on the gas pedal.If I take my foot off the pedal it goes away. A couple of months later we were going down the road and when accelerating and the tranny would upshift it sounded like the engine would speed up and when the tranny shifted it shifted real hard. It continued to do this until I stopped and put it in park and shut the engine off while I went into the store. I came back out and it was fine after that. It was a couple of days before it did it again and it will continue to do it until I shut it off and restart. It never messes up again until it's shut off again and restarted and then it may be a couple of days. There has never been any type of warning light go off such as the overdrive light. I have noticed the engine revs up around 500 rpm when it shifts hard. I replaced the solenoid pack and put in a new filter. The fluid was pretty dark and the magnet in the pan was pretty thick with real fine graphite looking stuff. I found a few small chunks of metal in the pan the size of a sesame seed. After replacing the pack and filter it seemed the problem went away for about 5 days but returned today. I always thought when a tranny starts to go bad it was a continuous problem not an intermittent one. Has anybody ever seen a problem that would go away when the engine was shut off and restarted? If I take it to a shop for diagnosis I won't have the money for a rebuilt tranny but otherwise would if I install it myself, just really unsure if that's the problem. Metal in the pan sounds bad and the magnet was twice it's actual size due to the fine residue so that sounds bad too. Just really unsure what to do and am looking for any advice anyone can offer.

 

[JK080]

With the amount of metal debris you found in the pan it is a sure sign of a internal failure of some kind, it really doesn't matter at this point what is failing and its going to require the rebuilding or replacing the transmission to fix the vehicle.

The noise you described is a indication of problems with the torque converter, the converter can create debris like you found in the pan and most of the time when the converter is making metal it will damage the pump and contaminate the transmission with metal.

 

[glenmorebuckman]

Thank you James for your reply. It's really great when others are willing to offer help. I sort of had the same idea as what you describe. I've already been looking into a rebuilt transmission, so I guess I'll take the plunge. Have you ever seen symptoms be so intermittent and go away by shutting it off?

 

[JK080]

Sure when the computer sees a problem with the transmission it can change the way it operates the transmission based on what failure it has detected, sometimes the shifts will be harsh or it will defalt to only one gear or prevent other gears from being applied, cycling the key resets the computer and it will operate the transmission like normal until it sees a problem again.

It would be helpful to have the vehicle scanned with a capable scanner that can retrieve transmission codes and data, this will help in understanding what type of failure the transmission has. Just because there is no warning lights does not always mean there is no codes or problems.