Transmission Issue...

[Chris03]

WHOA... hold the phone. After about a month of searching, I believe I found my exact problem. Thanks to mikeyswood, his thread (from 02-01-12) nailed it: http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/showthread.php?t=80761. This thread should be a "sticky"!
All for under $1000 (plus your labor)!
Now to see what the dealer will want for it, and to do it correctly.
Otherwise I will be doing this myself.

May be jumping the gun here based on another post by jrand in another thread. However, I still need to talk to the dealer. Stay tuned....

 

[Chris03]

So, I finally talked to the dealer, who finally talked to his "A-tech", who said that it could be a solenoid or a slipping clutch band. What do you folks think of that response? The service rep recommended that I at least bring it in for a pin-point test, and a re-flash (probably around $250), in which, they will check the fluid and line pressures, and re-flash the PCM and TCM (which is a TSB). Not having a complete understanding of how these 5R55's work yet, I thought this might be a good choice, being my car is and early build '03 with only 60k (V8). Thoughts??

Another development, based on some info from jrand in another thread, I started driving it like a madman instead of a grandma, and the episode happened again. I was in the throttle, probably about 4000 rpm car shifted into 4th for a little, then back into 3rd, with the same lack of throttle response. Any thoughts on that??

 

[jrand]

if it was mine i would take it to the dealer or put a for sale sign on it...

$250 seems like a lot for a diagnosis.. i would prefer lincoln over ford since there is no ford equivalent to an ls... but at 2x the hourly rate (in my local at least) i would let ford have a shot at it...

if youve cleared kam and reset a few times and are reasonably sure all easy maintenance is completea but are still getting the problem to re-occur then you can rest assured that there is an overarching issue that needs to be rectified... most likely a part failure. anybody can only guess without looking at it. dealer is your best bet. good luck

 

[Chris03]

Follow-up (because I hate when no one does that).
So, the car spent two days at the dealer. First day they diagnosed a P0605 ROM error, and took a transmission fluid sample. Service rep said you may need a new PCM and / or a trans. A-tech said the transmission fluid smelled burnt and had particulate in it. Also could not duplicate issue on test drive. WTF. Second day I told them to just re-flash the PCM. BTW because my car is an early production 03 and apparently there is no TCM so everything is controlled by the PCM. After the re-flash there were no codes present. They then asked if I wanted them to drop the pan. At that point, I said NFW. So I picked the car up, drove it for a couple of days without incident and put it through the drive cycle again for good measure. Picked up 6 quarts of Mercon V and a filter. Put the car on a lift (lucky enough to have access to one) and it appeared that the pan was never dropped. Cooler lines up front were a little wet but not dripping and tight. It appears that the previous owner had a flush done but I assumed not the filter. Dropped the pan, fluid not burnt, no particulate, and a small amount of “fuzz” on the magnet. Douched pan out, put new filter in, and put about 5.5 quarts in to the proper fill level. Shifts better and still no incident of the 5-4-5 problem. At the speeds that I drive on back roads, depending on load, it still sometimes hunts between 4 and 5, but, not slamming.
And yes, $250. (bend over) So, who do you trust? My ScanGauge did not pull any codes as well as an SCT and some others I’ve hooked up. So what good are they if the CEL is not flashing? And this code should have tripped the light. Unless you have the $20k ford scanner how does the average ‘Joe’ diagnose this ****?? Very disappointing when you have the ability and skills to make the repairs.
I love the car, but, it’s got it’s hand in my pocket so far.
Is it fixed? Jury is still out on that…. I’ll post again in a month or so….

 

[jrand]

Follow-up (because I hate when no one does that).
So, the car spent two days at the dealer. First day they diagnosed a P0605 ROM error, and took a transmission fluid sample. Service rep said you may need a new PCM and / or a trans. A-tech said the transmission fluid smelled burnt and had particulate in it. Also could not duplicate issue on test drive. WTF. Second day I told them to just re-flash the PCM. BTW because my car is an early production 03 and apparently there is no TCM so everything is controlled by the PCM. After the re-flash there were no codes present. They then asked if I wanted them to drop the pan. At that point, I said NFW. So I picked the car up, drove it for a couple of days without incident and put it through the drive cycle again for good measure. Picked up 6 quarts of Mercon V and a filter. Put the car on a lift (lucky enough to have access to one) and it appeared that the pan was never dropped. Cooler lines up front were a little wet but not dripping and tight. It appears that the previous owner had a flush done but I assumed not the filter. Dropped the pan, fluid not burnt, no particulate, and a small amount of “fuzz” on the magnet. Douched pan out, put new filter in, and put about 5.5 quarts in to the proper fill level. Shifts better and still no incident of the 5-4-5 problem. At the speeds that I drive on back roads, depending on load, it still sometimes hunts between 4 and 5, but, not slamming.
And yes, $250. (bend over) So, who do you trust? My ScanGauge did not pull any codes as well as an SCT and some others I’ve hooked up. So what good are they if the CEL is not flashing? And this code should have tripped the light. Unless you have the $20k ford scanner how does the average ‘Joe’ diagnose this ****?? Very disappointing when you have the ability and skills to make the repairs.
I love the car, but, it’s got it’s hand in my pocket so far.
Is it fixed? Jury is still out on that…. I’ll post again in a month or so….

yeah, now you know at least. im pretty sure that lincoln was trying to run the jag business model on this one: sell car that is impossible to self-diagnose, have just enough electronic bugs in the system that it will behave poorly once or twice a yr and freak out the avg user, result is that it ends up being a service dept cash-cow...

in your description, it sounds like you nearly have it sorted out. i occasionally get 4-5 hunting but it doesnt happen with the cruise control on.. accel pedal sensor diagnosis proved fruitless for me, i strongly feel it is ok after limited research into it. im pretty confident with my car that the little bit of 4-5 hunting that it does is a result of my lead foot and just the general design of the overdrive gear, which is a pretty significant change from 1 through 4. as a habit from driving a few of the other cars ive driven in the past i often just apply my foot to the accelerator at the same rate throughout my entire drive... in an ls you almost have to let off the pedal some when you get into 5.. i typically use my foot until it hits 5th and immediately switch it over to cruise