Transmission problems commonality?

[Littleant]

Agree with the 2 post above. My first explorer was a 1995 4wd with the 6 cyl. Had 110,000 miles. We went on our honeymoon 2 days later to Nova Scotia. 6 months later to Colorado. 5 years later and 285,000 miles We sold it (rotted out) other then fuel pump normal service salt did it in but still ran great.

 

[massacre]

For what it’s worth, my 06 V6 Mustang transmission went out just after the warrantee ran out at 100k miles. Dealership said that trans has major problems like the Explorer.

On 2nd trans now and at almost 200k mikes it’s about ready for another.

 

[08EddieCA]

Haha it was my buddy that sold me mine, also a used car salesman. Told me that there's thousands of these things on the road still from the 90's. It was only later that I learned that ford produced more Explorers during the 90's than Toyota did the Camry. Makes sense why there are so many still around and a surplus of parts.

Regardless, I still love the damn thing, it's easy to work on and it's taught me a lot about mechanics so I never frown upon owning it. It's never left me stranded and it's got me everywhere I've wanted to go so I really can't talk that bad about it. In fact it's the reason I picked up a 97 5.0 Ex just because I like them so damn much. I'm now contemplating driving my 07 Ex for 1 or 2 more years and then sell it and keep my 97 as my hunting/camping rig. Maybe get a car that's a bit more efficient.

I had my tranny core rebuilt vs off the shelf swap. So far I've had zero problems with it. I have about 20K miles on it so far. No odd shifts or any other delayed engagements. Once I got the "new" motor fixed, funny story, I was finally able to really enjoy the EX. During the last cigar and glass of scotch I had with my dad I told him I forgave him for allowing me to buy my EX - we had a good laugh about it.

 

[Sharpie223]

So my understanding is that the v8's in any year have reliable transmissions, is any generation necessarily better than others? I can do most work on vehicles myself, but transmission issues scare me. Any difference between the 4.6 and 5.0 for reliability? Can sport tracs be assumed to have the same issues?

 

[Explorer_PL]

Gen 3 uses 5R55 for both v6 and v8, gen 4 uses 6R for v8 and 5R55S for v6.
Had both: 99 5.0 and now 4.6.
Old good 5.0 was way simpler, no VCT solenoids, phasers, just 1 chain, does not get simpler than that. The 4.6 3 valve is a different animal, needs clean and good oil all the time for timing to work well.

 

[Tech By Trade]

The first gen sport trac had only the V6 with the 5r55 series transmission. The second gen, starting in 07 had the 4.6 v8 added with the 6r series transmission. The transmission on the V8 is pretty solid. The engine suffers from the regular ford issues, cracked exhaust manifolds, stuck plugs, bad coils, and what not.