Problem Solved
Well, the issue kept getting worse. Soon when the transmission downshifted it would shudder. As well almost everytime it got hot, the problem would get worse.
I took the truck into a local transmission shop that is well respected and he had a look. This is what I was told;
The tranny fluid spitting out is a result of the fluid aerating in the transmission and coming out the overflow. The pulled the pan and there were lots of metal bits in the pan.
The shuddering is a result of the transmission fluid pressure dropping due to the filter getting plugged and dropping fluid levels.
Basically what had happened was that my overdrive planetary gear cluster had started to self destruct. It was walking back and forth in the case and doing a fair amount of damage. He called me in to show me what was happening.
I ended up having a complete rebuild done, including converter, and the truck runs great now. The shop owner did tell me that this is fairly commonplace with newer Explorers and it is so common that Ford is out of stock on the rebuild pieces and he had to source the parts out of the U.S.. The cause id trailer towing in O/D and also heavy loads with a lot of throttle in O/D.
I am pretty good about that kind of stuff, but I bought my truck after it was retired at National Car Rentals so I think its actually kind of cool and shows the basic design is pretty robust in that it made it 100,000 miles before I had any issues.
Eric
