dean71
LVC Member
hey everyone, I want to apologize in advance for this lengthy post.
I have a 2001 3.0 LS with 143000 miles. about 10,000 miles ago, it developed a slip when downshifting to pass at highway speeds. I could let off the gas and it would shift and then it would pull fine. This would happen maybe once or twice a month. I had hooked my scanner up several times and never had a pending code. I read the COPs could be a problem, and I swapped a couple out with no difference. I also cleaned the MAF and throttle body. This continued, but didn't get any worse until recently.
Driving back from town one day, it decided it didn't want to shift to 3rd under normal acceleration. it would slip and duplicate the rev limiter like what it would do in park when giving it gas. Again, letting off the gas would allow it to shift to third. Once in third, it would pull hard and shift to 4th and 5th. Before we got back to the house, the "E" was displayed. I hooked up my scanner and pulled the P0795. I decided to park the car and order a new solenoid pack and some valve body replacement springs. I disconnected the battery cable as I have read the PCM needs to relearn the adaptive shift strategy when replacing transmission parts. I pulled the pan and didn't notice any metal shavings. The fluid wasn't burnt. I replaced several springs in the valve body and noticed the 4-3 spring from Sonax was a bit longer than the stock. I couldn't find any info of anyone having a problem with this, so I used it and continued with the assembly. I installed the valve body, new solenoid pack and replaced the fluid with MerconV. Hooked the battery back up and ran the car to temp and rechecked the fluid. everything seemed fine.
The road test proved everything wasn't fine. not only wasn't it shifting into 3rd, it wasn't shifting into 4th anymore. I decided to try to let the PCM adapt for a few more short drives, but nothing improved. the only way I could get it into third, was to manually select third and I still had to wait for it to shift after letting off the gas. The loss of 4th had me stumped though. back to reading.....
I decided that maybe I had misdiagnosed the loss of 3rd and it may have been a worn servo bore on the intermediate band. that would explain loss of 3rd, but not overdrive. I never had a single slip in 4th and 5th is just overdriven 4th. I decided to pull it all back apart and replace the longer 4-3 spring with the stock. I inspected the valve body gaskets very closely and didn't find a single flaw. I also thought I may have had a bad solenoid pack and replaced that again as well. The next road test was the same result. No 3rd, 4th or 5th.
I'm a diesel mechanic by trade but I don't mess with automatic transmissions very often. I do trust that I assembled everything correctly. So, what do you think my next move should be? I'm thinking about replacing the entire valve body and separator plate with the bonded gaskets and then take it to the dealer to have the PCM re-flashed if that doesn't fix it. I heard the re-flash could take care of the problem, but normally, the transmission would at least shift. I talked to the local Ford dealer and was told they could replace the trans for 3690.00 or rebuild mine for 2500.00+++.I really don't have the time to rebuild this trans and it would be my first one. I'm already tired of throwing parts at it and want to get this thing fixed without shelling out at least 2500.00. Has anyone had this problem? I have read of people losing 4th, 5th and reverse, but not 3rd and then 4th after replacing the solenoid pack and some springs.. Help!
I have a 2001 3.0 LS with 143000 miles. about 10,000 miles ago, it developed a slip when downshifting to pass at highway speeds. I could let off the gas and it would shift and then it would pull fine. This would happen maybe once or twice a month. I had hooked my scanner up several times and never had a pending code. I read the COPs could be a problem, and I swapped a couple out with no difference. I also cleaned the MAF and throttle body. This continued, but didn't get any worse until recently.
Driving back from town one day, it decided it didn't want to shift to 3rd under normal acceleration. it would slip and duplicate the rev limiter like what it would do in park when giving it gas. Again, letting off the gas would allow it to shift to third. Once in third, it would pull hard and shift to 4th and 5th. Before we got back to the house, the "E" was displayed. I hooked up my scanner and pulled the P0795. I decided to park the car and order a new solenoid pack and some valve body replacement springs. I disconnected the battery cable as I have read the PCM needs to relearn the adaptive shift strategy when replacing transmission parts. I pulled the pan and didn't notice any metal shavings. The fluid wasn't burnt. I replaced several springs in the valve body and noticed the 4-3 spring from Sonax was a bit longer than the stock. I couldn't find any info of anyone having a problem with this, so I used it and continued with the assembly. I installed the valve body, new solenoid pack and replaced the fluid with MerconV. Hooked the battery back up and ran the car to temp and rechecked the fluid. everything seemed fine.
The road test proved everything wasn't fine. not only wasn't it shifting into 3rd, it wasn't shifting into 4th anymore. I decided to try to let the PCM adapt for a few more short drives, but nothing improved. the only way I could get it into third, was to manually select third and I still had to wait for it to shift after letting off the gas. The loss of 4th had me stumped though. back to reading.....
I decided that maybe I had misdiagnosed the loss of 3rd and it may have been a worn servo bore on the intermediate band. that would explain loss of 3rd, but not overdrive. I never had a single slip in 4th and 5th is just overdriven 4th. I decided to pull it all back apart and replace the longer 4-3 spring with the stock. I inspected the valve body gaskets very closely and didn't find a single flaw. I also thought I may have had a bad solenoid pack and replaced that again as well. The next road test was the same result. No 3rd, 4th or 5th.
I'm a diesel mechanic by trade but I don't mess with automatic transmissions very often. I do trust that I assembled everything correctly. So, what do you think my next move should be? I'm thinking about replacing the entire valve body and separator plate with the bonded gaskets and then take it to the dealer to have the PCM re-flashed if that doesn't fix it. I heard the re-flash could take care of the problem, but normally, the transmission would at least shift. I talked to the local Ford dealer and was told they could replace the trans for 3690.00 or rebuild mine for 2500.00+++.I really don't have the time to rebuild this trans and it would be my first one. I'm already tired of throwing parts at it and want to get this thing fixed without shelling out at least 2500.00. Has anyone had this problem? I have read of people losing 4th, 5th and reverse, but not 3rd and then 4th after replacing the solenoid pack and some springs.. Help!
