5R55N subtle troubles or big problem?

Take a good look at your rotors. It may seem like everything is normal... but they might be building up a "rust ring" on the rotor... from the , (best description???), hub center of the rotor... outwards. Might only be noticed under heavy braking. Turning the rotors may or may not help. Depends on how much the rust impregnated/intruded the steel of the rotors.

OEM is more succeptible to this it seems. Some aftermarket rotors have a surface compound that will most likely prevent that rust ring... where the brake pad doesn't make contact with the rotor. As an alternative... you may want to check you don't have a "frozen" caliper slide. That could cause a slight angle "bind" in the caliper,,, causing pad "chatter".

So I took a look at all the rotors and passenger rear had a slight bit of gouging about 1/2 inch wide in center of rotor. Very slight but enough to see and feel with finger. So I took the caliper and pads off that one and cleaned all the parts and lubed the pad springs all the while looking for something to fall out. Didnt see anything fall but tiny grit couldda done it. Test drove it with a dozen hard brake apps and - no noise. Looks like I got lucky! We'll see.
 
Could have been soft spot in rotor... or hard spot in pad. Worst case odd scenario,,, is that you somehow picked up some road debris that just happened to wedge itself in the middle of the rotor. Doubtful but possible. My guess would be soft spot in the casting of the rotor.
 
Maybe I should have said rust spot in rotor. Many years ago,,, certain Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth had bad catings in the rotors. They caused a hell of a noise and feel when braking. Problem was a bad casting of the rotor when the cheap steel got melted down incompletely,,, and (for a lack of a better way to put it), an Oxygen bubble was formed in the casting. These "bubbles" rusted from the inside of the rotor..."outwards",,, and was only noticeable when the spot was exposed to the brake pad.

Maybe you wore through the rust spot by the time you crawled under the car... and thats why you only saw "debris with a groove". In all reality... you should probably replace the rotor, and actually do both sides.... and do both sides of pads too.
 
Ya never know... that fluid change 50k ago could be the problem if someone used the wrong tranny fluid. Might still be saveable.

Well it's definitely time to take a look at this rR55N. The shuddering is getting worse and today the SST function stopped working. So it's going up on jack stands tomorrow and I'm going to take a look at fluid and try to figure something out.
 
Back to the transmission. I'm wondering if anyone has an idea if the fact that the SST going non-func is probably related to the shuddering and clunking I was having? I'm thinking maybe valve body for that function but that's just a guess? I'm think not PCM of anything cause I dont want it to be that.
 
Mechanically, nothing different is used in the transmission for sst than for auto. It's all just different algorithms in the pcm. It doesn't like what the sensors are reading, so it is not allowing manual control. We can make wild guesses about what has failed, or you can start proper diagnosis with the transmission codes.
 
Mechanically, nothing different is used in the transmission for sst than for auto. It's all just different algorithms in the pcm. It doesn't like what the sensors are reading, so it is not allowing manual control. We can make wild guesses about what has failed, or you can start proper diagnosis with the transmission codes.
I have an Innova 3130 that I guess doesn't pull transmission codes? There are none in any case . No codes at all. Is there a way to look at transmission codes?
 
You need something that can pull all the ford codes.
 
Losing SST mode seems likely to point to the solenoid pack. Shudder is most likely from torque conveter not going into "lockup" mode properly. Could also be solenoid related.

All the solenoid pack is... is a bunch of electro-magnetic plungers that divert fluid in the trans. With age and wear and tear,,, the electro-magnets, (individual solenoids), get tired and lose functionality. Sometimes to the point they won't travel fully... allowing fluid to bypass,,, and/or causing internal pressure drops.
 
Losing SST mode seems likely to point to the solenoid pack. Shudder is most likely from torque conveter not going into "lockup" mode properly. Could also be solenoid related.

All the solenoid pack is... is a bunch of electro-magnetic plungers that divert fluid in the trans. With age and wear and tear,,, the electro-magnets, (individual solenoids), get tired and lose functionality. Sometimes to the point they won't travel fully... allowing fluid to bypass,,, and/or causing internal pressure drops.

I've had another pretty knowledgeable person guess at the solenoid pak as well. Course another pretty knowledgeable person recommended against guessing and getting a code reader that can read ALL codes in the car.
I'm going to look into a more expensive code reader but I expect it will be out of my cost range. Whereas I already have the Mercon V and filter to change and would need only the solenoid pak which I got for my other auto trans a year ago for under $100 (rebuilt) and it's been running great since then. If this doesnt work, it may be time to take the trans and engine out of the running car and get my other 2 LSes running again.
 
Forscan is cheap.

So I downloaded their windows version to my laptop. Now I need to get a ELM327 piece to connect OBD-II port to USB and I shoudl be off and running? Won't forscan want its ounce of gold?
 
Yeah??? I found a USA made, (made in Detroit) ELM327 adapter. IIRC,,, it was around $120. Hard to pay that when the program is free.
I found this on Amazon yesterday: $29.95
OHP Ford ELMconfig USB device 500kbit/s ELM327 compatible interface with MS-CAN switch for Forscan FoCCCus Mazda OBD2 diagnostics
 
New problem, same car :mad:

Took it out yesterday after 2 days with battery disconnected. Drove it about 50 miles to burn off some gas. Was getting shuddering and harsh shifting, slightly less incidence. After about 25 miles a brake application produced an ugly grabbing soung which quickly went away followed by the ABS and AdvanceTrak lights coming on. Great. Braking worked OK though. Reached destination. Turned off, went in. Came out drove a bit same thing happened. 1/2 way home both lights went off. Hoe lights were off. Checked wth reader. Got code C1233 says right front speed signal missing. Grrr. Color me tired. Guess I'll searc site before posting another thread.
 
I'd also guess hub/bearing since you have grinding. Any unusual tire wear? I have not had great luck with the Timken ones. Don't know who makes the motorcraft ones though.

I can confirm this obdII adapter works great and its only $22 (Amazon).
I also use the paid android app. When I needed more assistance, Forscan saw I had the paid android version and provided custom files for PC version for me to resolve my issue.
BAFX Products 34t5 Bluetooth OBDII Scan Tool for Android Devices

 
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After about 25 miles a brake application produced an ugly grabbing soung which quickly went away followed by the ABS and AdvanceTrak lights coming on.

Are you saying that the brakes applied themselves,,, or that the grinding occured when YOU applied the brakes.

Not guaranteed... But automatic brake application is most likely because vehicle thought a wheel was spinning. Code reader most likely would point to which wheel. My best guess would be a wheel speed sensor,,, or rust/debris in or on it.
 
Are you saying that the brakes applied themselves,,, or that the grinding occured when YOU applied the brakes.

Not guaranteed... But automatic brake application is most likely because vehicle thought a wheel was spinning. Code reader most likely would point to which wheel. My best guess would be a wheel speed sensor,,, or rust/debris in or on it.
Ummmm, yeah I admit it was me. Using my right foot, it was sorta automatic to press down the brake pedal but the sound I then heard startled me.Then I saw the amber lights and felt my wallet in my back pocket shrink, again automatically. Yeah, following joegrs search suggestions above I found some possibilities and am going to try cleaning things out before I do any serious replacing of sensors or cabling or hubs etc.
 
Take that wheel and brake rotor off. Spin the hub. You'll be able to tell if the hub is bad.
 
Not saying you're wrong Joe... but I find it hard to believe that a hub/bearing would fail that quickly... unless there was already an existing noise that jewel didn't previously notice. Ususally,,, a hub bearing will "growl' for a few thousand miles... before failing.
 
There has been a noise from right front at a specific place where I stop every morning. Difficult to describe the noise but it does require hard brake application and sound is almost certainly from right front. If I had to describe it I might say like a loose brake shoe Bumping around briefly. Sound occurs only at this one spot
 
Might want to inspect your rotors and pads. My guess is that rust has built up on the outer edge of the rotor... or towards the center near the wheel stud hub. If the rust gets built up enough,,, it will dig into the pads giving the symptom you describe... similar to a rough rotor surface.
 
Take that wheel and brake rotor off. Spin the hub. You'll be able to tell if the hub is bad.
Joe-about to take the rotor off the suspect side. If I may ask what will be the giveaway I will see or hear that will tell me if the hub on this side id the culprit? thanks
 

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