Transmission Issues

[MichiTracR]

Hi Everyone. One new concern that has came up for me, and I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this:
When driving between 40-60MPH and trying to accelerate gently, my transmission will begin to jerk repeatedly until I either let off the trottle or push harder. I don't really remember this being the case before, so I'm getting kinda worried.
I have almost 75,000 miles and already had one transmission reflash about two years ago for the clunking on decereration. Not sure if this issue is known and maybe another software fix is out there, or if the previous klunking may have damaged things long ago and now they are getting worse.

Thanks!

 

[kingman109]

I would have your fuel filter checked out. I experienced similar problems and under load it wasnt working right.......changed out the fuel filter and it was fine after that.

 

[MichiTracR]

Thanks for the reply.
I did change the fuel filter about 10,000 miles ago, so hopefully that isn't bad already.
One thing I did try is simply hitting the OD button to toggle OD OFF then back ON. It actually has taken care of the problem - at least for now - it has only been a day, but we'll see. Maybe the TCU just needed a change.
It will be interesting to see if this issue becomes more common as more Explorers/Sport Tracs get higher miles on them and if Ford will have to make another calibration to band-aid this POS trans.

 

[Ticobird]

Transmission Shudder

A few times, thankfully just a few, I experienced a similar problem at 40-60 mph. The vehicle could barely maintain its speed and would hardly accelerate all the while shuddering. It felt like the transmission was trying to use two gears at the same time. I know that's not possible but the only way I could solve the problem was to bring the Explorer Sport Trac to a halt, shut it off and then restart my trip. Since it happened only a few times I never looked into the problem to solve it. I could not reproduce the problem and no code was recorded so I just pressed on.

Having said that, in hindsight I would strongly recommend a transmission fluid change every 20,000 miles. The maintenance schedule calls for a fluid and filter change at 100,000 miles but that is not a good idea IMO. I don't think it is necessary to flush the lines - just drain and refill with new fluid.

I've posted elsewhere in this forum my recent transmission rebuild experiences if you are curious.

 

[GSU4x4]

I believe I'm starting to have that issue (65k miles), except my "jerking" motion is around parking lot speed till ~20mph. I feels like it doesnt want to shift into second. I'm going to be changing my fuel filter soon since I just picked up a new one. And I haven't changed my transmission fluid yet either, prob will be doing that soon too.

 

[tjsegnere]

Transmission Issue - Not the trans!

I had this exact symptom in my '08 4.6L Trac... turned out to be a coil pack on the #4 cylinder... so it was miss-firing... I swore it was the trans but that fixed it... I was also shocked a miss like that didn't set off any lights in the dash...

Got it fixed when I paid to have the plugs replaced too... just over 700$ for all one plug broke so there was labor to fish it out... The coil pack itslef was over 100$ per cylinder... so Hope you only have one bad like I did.

Hope that helps.
TJ