Friends,

I have an 09' Screw Fx4 with 10,010 miles on it. Yesterday I had the need to put it in 4-hi thanks to some snow mother nature dumped on us with here in the mid-south. After pulling up into a parking spot I tried to place the truck in park but the shifter had a lot of resistance. Eventually it went into park but then didn't want to come out and go back in to drive. I shut the truck off, fired it back up and it was as if no problem existed. Today I'm driving home from work in two wheel drive and notice that after 10min or so of driving, the engine is up to temp, but the tranny is showing cold or at least really close to the "C". (45 degrees outside) My instinct tells me maybe the fluid is low and then I find out there isn't a dip stick for the transmission? I don't see any leaks either. Its under warranty and I know I can take it in but I would like some input on my situation if you please. Whats the deal? Are these two problems related or coincidence?

Thanks in advance!

 

I can't comment to much on the shifter sticking because I have never experienced that. You might try to shift to neutral first then to park. The 6 speed transmission does have a dipstick, it is just not accessable from the engine compartment. It is on the passenger side of the transmission. You have to remove a nut that looks like a lug nut from the side of the tranny case just above the pan, then you can pull the yellow plastic dipstick out to check the fluid level. The dipstick is only about 4 inches long and you have to be underneth the truck to check it. I would recommend wearing long sleeves and some gloves as the exhaust is right there as well.

I have noticed that my transmission temp gauge warms up much quicker than the engine temp, but if I stop for a few minutes like fill up with fuel then drive off the tranny temp has cooled down some and takes a mile or so to warm back up to normal. I don't know if the tranny actually cools down that fast or it is just the gauge reading that way.

 

f4ipilot:

This morning I left for work and the trans temp warmed up just like normal. Its even about 15 degrees colder outside this a.m. than when I noticed the problem yesterday. I guess I will take it in anyway. I'm sure they will tell me nothing is wrong or they can't duplicate the problem.

 

There may be a TSB out that may fix the issue. I had a problem last year that sometimes when I came to a complete stop at a stopl ight my tranny temp gauge would drop to cold like you shut the key off then would pick back up again after I started driving. They told me there was a TSB for it but it didn't affect many vehicles. It could be a similar issue.

 

I have an '09 FX4 with 5500 miles, and the tranny had the same hard 1-2 and 2-1 shifting -- sometimes a hard bang. I also had the issue with the tranny temp gauge dropping to zero, or not reading temp. Had set up a appointment for a reflash, but on a recent snowmobile trip, my battery went dead-5 mths old. Got it to a local dealer-battery was defective with bad cells -- now ever since the battery was disconnected for the replacement, the hard shifting is gone, and the tranny temp is now responding normally. The tranny shifts are so smooth, and I am amazed at how it drives now after 500 miles since the disconnect. Never went for the reflash--cold or warmed up--shifting is great--love the tranny now. Don't know if this is a solution for all, but thought it may help. My truck was a locate, and if it was test drove a lot, maybe the computer was learning all different styles of driving..

 

There are updates to the transmission programming and if I remember correctly, part of the updates was for the temp not reading correctly.