TSB / Fuel pressure / plugs or band?

[Tenz85]

Hi. Nice to meet everyone. I just bought a 2006 Explorer Limited about 2 weeks ago. I've started to notice some minor issues and symptoms of a problem.

1. There's the slip in first gear with breaking - TSB related I believe. (No big problem).
2. Recently noticed the motor was shaking the whole car while at idle or at stop lights. Wasn't sure if this was a valve not firing properly because of fuel pressure, bad plugs, or just some water in the gas tank.
3. Then there's transmission slip shifting between 2nd and 3rd gears. I noticed it when I really hammer the throttle and get about 2500 rpms. It will hunt for the 3rd gear and if I easy up on the throttle it will stick in 2nd gear at a high rpm. (very common on the high way or up hills which causes me safety concerns)
4. Lastly, when in 4x4 if I hammer the throttle and get about 2500rpm the speedo tach drops about 10-20 and then it will buck. ( I think this is just the 4x4 slack between the front and rear wheels)

My main concern is the transmission slip between 2nd and 3rd. I think it's either a bad power band, all the cyclinders not firing because of some reason or another, or while accelerating the 4x4 kicks in because of a loss of traction so there is play between the front and rear wheels but I'm a little skeptical about the 4x4 issue because I can hear the transmission not shifting into 3rd gear right away.

All the help is very much appreciated.

 

[Explorer_PL]

How many miles, engine v6 or v8 ?

 

[Tenz85]

V8 with 109,000 km or just over 60k miles

 

[feetwet]

Sounds like you should work with the dealer to resolve this issues quickly if you have that option.

#2 could be a misfire, hook it up to an OBDII scanner and see if there is any misfires noted, if so .. probably a plug or coil.

Don't try to change the plugs yourself on the V8 until you read the posts on this board about the required Lisle tool to extract broken plugs... and look for the Ford special procedures to do so.

Should probably change the fuel filter while you are at it.

 

[Tenz85]

I've been doing more test drives and have determined the computer needs to re-learn the drive sequence everytime I restart the car.. I called the ford dealership, but they said it had already received the TBS based on the vin match.. Could the TBS update have been erased if the battery died?
Also, I contacted the warranty company and they seem pretty good, so I'm sure I'll get this resolved with the dealership for my deductible fee of $150.. not bad..

 

[Tenz85]

The differential fluid was black instead so I had that changed, and also had the trans fluid flushed at the same time. After that service, my shifting was super smooth.. for awhile..

The shifting from about anywhere between 40km-110km/h can be jerky if I try to accelerate quick, especially when going up hills.

When driving at those speeds, the trans will begin to shift to the next gear but won't latch/connect to the next gear up, so the engine revs and theres no go to the wheels.

Usually, I'll notice it hasn't caught because If I let off the throttle it'll catch the next gear.

I plan on taking it in for another tsb re-flash, so hopefully that'll fix it.