2002 F150 Tranny issue

Feb 07, 2007 5 Replies

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doub1eedge 19 years ago

I've got an F140 4x4 (Off road package, extended cab) with 105K miles. I live in Minnesota where it's been quite cold of late. As expected, the tranny takes a while longer to warm up and thus to shift into overdrive.

Recently, this effect has been more pronounced than I'm used to.

I just had a tranny flush done and after getting it back I've noticed that not only does the tranny take a long while to decide to shift into overdrive, but it also seems to want to pull back out of overdrive when I take my foot off the gas while still rolling along at

60+ MPH on the highway.

A ford dealer head mechanic told me that most likely this is the beginning of a serious failure of the transmission and without dropping it and inspecting it, there is no way to tell what might be failing.

At this point my strategy is to let it ride and see if this behavior goes away when it warms up, driving it carefully until that point.

I'm wondering if anyone might be able to give any feedback regarding a) the symptom I'm describing above - i.e. that of dropping out of overdrive at high speeds and b) the ramifications of my strategy of waiting for it to warm up and see if the symptom goes away.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

-Craig

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Steve Barker 19 years ago

How's the water temp? The trans won't go into OD until the water has reached a certain temp. Perhaps a weak t-stat is slowing warmup.

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doub1eedge 19 years ago

A very interesting point. NOONE at FORD has even suggested looking at this.

I've not seen anything unusual by the looks of the temp gauge but then I've not been paying especially close attention to it either.

I will watch the temp gauge tomorrow while driving. It's supposed to remain cold for sometime so I should have a more time for testing.

Thanks for the Hint! I'll post back with more info.

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Mike H 19 years ago

...

I was going to suggest the same thing. Most automatic transmissions these days actually have a different shifting strategy when the engine is cold so they use coolant and sometimes transmission fluid temperature sensors to determine what to have the transmission do. Almost all makers limit overdrive in vehicles until they are warmed up. I believe they do this specifically to speed the warm-up of the engine.

Isn't winter in MN fun? Now if we could just have an additional 24" of snow, I might be satisfied.

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Whitelightning 19 years ago

The people in Oswego NY would be glad to send you some, they had 5 feet in 24 hours fall, and its still coming down,

Whitelightning

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doub1eedge 19 years ago

Hi all,

I've been gone for a bit so I'm just getting caught up with things.

As it turns out - its much warmer here now and the tranny is acting fine.

For now, I'm NOT having FORD do any diagnostics like they want to, since thats big bucks and might not even show anything.

I AM however go to swap in a new thermostat. What can I lose there?

Thanks all for the input! I'll post back with problems.

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