Hey everyone, hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.

I have a 2004 F150 Lariat with 83K miles in great shape or so I thought. Out driving this weekend the transmission shifts into OD and goes into neutral, no noise, nothing. I can cancel OD and it shifts through the gears just fine. In reading the posts so far I see that it can be a broken OD solenoid snap ring, broken OD band or time for a new transmission. Sorry but is this the best Ford can do? A new transmission at 83K? I have had the truck two years and love driving it but between the crappy plug replacement situation, which may cost up to a grand to replace the plugs and now this problem with the transmission, I will not be owning a Ford much longer.

Sorry to vent here but I expect a little better than this from our auto manufacturers.

 

did you ever do the trans filter and fluid? im not pointing fingers just asking out of curiosity. these transes are hit and miss. that is for sure.

find a good transmission guy, pay him to pull the trans and see what is broken. any transmission guy with experience will be able to tell you what is broken and what it needs. it might be the solenoid, or something not too terrible, in the worst case, the planetaries will be shot and youll have all sorts of transmission gunk everywhere.

 

Sorry about your luck. :o

I know it doesn't mean anything to you but for every transmission that fails there are many thousands out there that don't. And the plug issue is a non issue for most, with plug changes costing nowhere near your estimated cost. Members are easily doing their own plug changes.

 

Yes it was done a year ago, fluid checked yesterday and it is still pink and up to the correct level. Thanks

 

Stealth, you are correct about thousands of transmissions not failing and the plug issue is outside most owners capabilities honestly. Thanks for responding.

 

Just returned from the dealership and the transmission is toast! $3558.87 for a new trans, which does include a 3yr, unlimited miles warranty. The warranty is the only bright spot in this whole situation.

I went ahead and had them do the plugs also Stealth, $553.12 plus $55.00 for any broken plug out of the 8. They now recommend doing the plugs at 60k miles just because of the lousy design with the heads/plugs and the problems it causes long term with these motors.

All in all some $4400.00 dollars in repairs 4 weeks before Christmas! My Christmas budget just got a whole lot thinner.

 

Wow, that's a lot for the tranny. Also I guess plug changes are cheaper down here. At least you won't be walking.

 

ida asked to see the tranny to make sure it was complete toast but thats just me. if this dealer has been good to you then they werent lying.

 

That's not gonna be a new tranny - it's a factory authorized reman.

That's about twice what a plug change SHOULD run. I can see 55 bucks for extractions, but the base price should be around $300. They are charging way over book labor unless labor is $175 an hour where you are.