Unique But Successful Trans. Fix

01continental

01continental

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My wife has an '05 Sport V8 (49k miles) and I have an '06 (48k miles). A couple of months ago she was having an intermittent trans. problem. It would take a couple of seconds before the car would go into gear then it would "grab" going into gear. there was also a slight shutter with a little gas up hill. I took the car to my longtime indy mech and had the trans flushed. The car started to do the same thing almost immed. I took the car back and had the filter changed and it has been OK since. I started having the same problem with my '06 so I, naturally, had the filter changed and the problem remained. I took it back and had it flushed and it is now BETTER than ever. So it seems that you may have to get the trans flushed and a new filter at different times in ANY order to fix slow engaging, slight shuttering when giving slight gas up hill and sloppy shifts in man. mode. My '06 has NEVER had such a well working trans. I didn't realize how much until both items were done. One of the ASE Master Techs said he just read an article in a mechanic's trade magazine that says the trans needs to be re-flashed if these services did not work. The article actually said to re-flash before any flush or filter change but our cars did OK with the separate flush and filter change. He did say he wished that he saw the article BEFORE our services were done. Sorry for being so long winded but I think it is more than a coincidence that it happened to BOTH our cars this way. The mech. is supposed to email the article and I will post it then.
 
Nice outcome for both your ls. An sct tune from torrie will als really change your transmission, in a good way.
 
That's good!

My car would jerk into drive or reverse sometimes when shifting into those gears and also would hesistate to shift from 2nd to 3rd when taking off from the light.

When I had the exhaust out recently to weld up the manifold, I gutted the cats until I can get them replaced and surprisingly all my tranny issues dissappeared. I'm not recommending this, but the drivers side cat was so melted thet you couldn't see light through most of the honey comb. I bet the exhaust restriction was insane.....I actually picked up 1.6 average mpg. :D
 
thanks for posting this!! my car has been doing those exact same things so im glad to see a fix, gonna get an appointment set up asap!!!!!
 
How difficult is it to clean the cats out? I found a small exhaust leak where I still have factory piping. Between the cats and the resonators
 
hite337 said:
any check engine lights? I've heard some people saying they had CEL's and some said they didnt
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I have a CEL, but it says there is a large EVAP leak somewhere....nothing about the cats when I last checked it; maybe now though lol.

diskfunktional said:
How difficult is it to clean the cats out? I found a small exhaust leak where I still have factory piping. Between the cats and the resonators
Click to expand...


EASY! I pulled the pipes off and used a long pry bar and hammer and wacked the hony comb enough to break it up and then turned the pipe and dumped out the guts. There are three cloth looking retaining rings in there that I had to use a hook to grab on to pull out, but that's it.

NOT INTENDING TO HI-JACK. :p
 
My transmission service is due soon. We will see if it fixes my quirks.
 
Well, I hope the trans flush and filter change lasts longer for you than it did for me.

My trans has been acting strange for about a year now. Shifts fine one day and then herky-jerky the next. When it is acting up, its almost as if it is waiting too long to engage the next gear so that when it does, it's a pretty harsh engagement. But it will always shift perfectly if it is at full throttle.

Last fall I took it to a friends trans shop where he flushed it by dropping the pan and connecting his machine to the filter ports, and then installed a new filter.
It shifted perfectly for about 3 days and then started acting up again and has been the same since.

I suppose I could take it to the dealer for a re-flashing, but it just doesn't seem like that would cure the problem as it seems more serious than that.

Replacing the solenoid pack seems to be a popular thing to do around here and I was going to try that nest.

Has anyone had to have their servo bores honed and re-sleeved?
According to a couple of my mechanic friends, this is a common issue with the 5R55x family of transmissions.
 
Not sure about the servo-bores. But I do know that my transmission was acting almost exactly how you described. Once a tranny re-flash was done its been absolute perfect since. It shifts just as smoothly in low RPMs as it does full throttle. To me thats when the LS shifts the best...at WOT
 
What I did with the '05 Sport V8 and '06 was flush 1 time and filter with new fluid another time, 2 separate services done on 2 separate visits. That means the fluid was replaced 2 times. It doesn't matter in what order have it done. The '05 had the flush first and the '06 was filter first. It did not solve the problem with just 1 fluid change or 1 flush. It ONLY fixed the problem with BOTH cars was to do the flush one time and go back and new filter after the flush. It did not matter in which order the fluid changes were done. It just had to be done on two separate visits. My wife borrowed my '06 today and she noticed a BIG change. I have driven her '05 and there was a big difference in her's as well.
I don't know why or how it worked but it did work for my wife and I.
 
Not to sound stupid but what is the Re-Flashing of the tranny you are all talking about I have never heard of it.
 
BCA said:
My trans has been acting strange for about a year now. Shifts fine one day and then herky-jerky the next. When it is acting up, its almost as if it is waiting too long to engage the next gear so that when it does, it's a pretty harsh engagement. But it will always shift perfectly if it is at full throttle.

I suppose I could take it to the dealer for a re-flashing, but it just doesn't seem like that would cure the problem as it seems more serious than that.

Replacing the solenoid pack seems to be a popular thing to do around here and I was going to try that nest.
Click to expand...

diskfunktional said:
Not sure about the servo-bores. But I do know that my transmission was acting almost exactly how you described. Once a tranny re-flash was done its been absolute perfect since. It shifts just as smoothly in low RPMs as it does full throttle. To me thats when the LS shifts the best...at WOT
Click to expand...

x2..my '06 developed this hesitant/abrupt shift problem. I took it to my trans shop expecting to service the solenoid pack at least. Shop owner drove the car and told me I could fix it free by resetting the adaptive learning fuctions of the transmission. He said that it would relearn shift points, lenth of time between gears, elec throttle control while shifting...quite a few more things.

One night with the negative battery cable unplugged and my LS drives better than the day I bought it. This should definately be early on the list of possible tranny fixes.
 
Ivan_D said:
x2..my '06 developed this hesitant/abrupt shift problem. I took it to my trans shop expecting to service the solenoid pack at least. Shop owner drove the car and told me I could fix it free by resetting the adaptive learning fuctions of the transmission. He said that it would relearn shift points, lenth of time between gears, elec throttle control while shifting...quite a few more things.

One night with the negative battery cable unplugged and my LS drives better than the day I bought it. This should definately be early on the list of possible tranny fixes.
Click to expand...

Well, I've heard of that before but never thought it would apply to my situation because it is so all over the place with when it acts up and that it is such a drastic change from anything that I would consider "normal" programing.

I'll give it a shot, can't hurt.
 
Donny said:
Not to sound stupid but what is the Re-Flashing of the tranny you are all talking about I have never heard of it.
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In reality, it's updating the transmission control tables in the FLASH memory of the PCM. From time to time Ford comes out with new transmission calibrations to address transmission issues that they have seen. It's similar to getting the latest Microsoft updates for your PC.
The FLASH update process also clears out all the adaptive learning values in the PCM's RAM.
 
joegr said:
In reality, it's updating the transmission control tables in the FLASH memory of the PCM. From time to time Ford comes out with new transmission calibrations to address transmission issues that they have seen. It's similar to getting the latest Microsoft updates for your PC.
The FLASH update process also clears out all the adaptive learning values in the PCM's RAM.
Click to expand...

Cool thanks.
How much could I expect a shop to charge me for this?
 
Anything that deals with the pcm has to be done by a fomoco dealer.
 
Donny said:
Cool thanks.
How much could I expect a shop to charge me for this?
Click to expand...

It should fall under the standard diagnostic charge at a Ford or Lincoln dealer. The standard diagnostic charge varies from just under $100 to a little over $200, depending on the area. If you call the dealer you plan to use, they will be able to tell you.
 
Ivan_D said:
One night with the negative battery cable unplugged and my LS drives better than the day I bought it. This should definately be early on the list of possible tranny fixes.
Click to expand...

think I read that in the manual somewhere, there is a procedure you can take once re-connecting the battery to instantly train the trans shift behavior. basically just start the car and go up and down with the shifter, waiting for each change to engage, while on brakes.
 
Alax, you mentioned that a tune would change it in a good way. I'm having symptoms leading me to believe I need the solenoid packs changed. Should I go for a tune or get these swapped out first and wait for aftermarket add ons (cai, exhaust, etc.) to get a tune? Who's this torrie guy you guys talk about? We have a diesel guru called Hallas in Michigan, would torrie be his equivalent?
 
jmtiseo said:
Alax, you mentioned that a tune would change it in a good way. I'm having symptoms leading me to believe I need the solenoid packs changed. Should I go for a tune or get these swapped out first and wait for aftermarket add ons (cai, exhaust, etc.) to get a tune? Who's this torrie guy you guys talk about? We have a diesel guru called Hallas in Michigan, would torrie be his equivalent?
Click to expand...

Torrie is a great tuner. He seems to know the LS very well. I got a tune from him over 100K ago, and have been very happy. I had him jack up line pressure and change the transmission logic some, as well as change shift points. No problems with the trans or tune yet 125K miles.
 
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