My F-150 is a '97, 4.2L, Auto Trans, 2wd with standard cab and full bed.

I would like to know what to expect with an overfilled tranmission. I just returned from the shop (see below). What a nightmare. I lost 2nd gear after driving 3 miles. I limped home the remaining 3 miles in 1st, at 20 mph.

Needless to say, when I got home I checked the transmission fluid level. It appears to be overfilled. The level is at the high end of the dip stick cross-hatching.

Would an overfilled transmission cause the vehicle to loose 2nd gear?

Here's the gory background.

I didn't know it at the time but I've been slowly loosing transmission fluid. This past Wednesday morning, after a 20 mile trip to work, and as I put it into reverse to back into a parking space, the transmission (or torque converter) began to make a grinding sound and the truck lurched back and forth. Later that day, during the ride home, after less than a mile drive, the grinding noise disappeard and I was left with a noticable, but somewhat minor, lurching problem. This time it occurred when I would take my foot off the acceleartor at 60 mph.

Thursday morning I checked the transmission fluid level. It was down a pint and a half. After topping it off the lurching problem remained.

Later that evening I drove the 6 miles to the shop. The lurching disappeard.

The shop drained and refilled the fluid and reported a significant buid up of metal on the plug.

Thanks.


Kevin

 

You probably did it correctly, but you didn't mention "how" you checked the fluid. You have to have the trans warm and running and then check the stick. It's not a bad idea to run the trans through all the gears as well.

If you checked with the engine off, then it would read too high on the stick, even if it does have the correct amount of fluid.

Running low on fluid in the first place might have caused it to overheat and could have fried something inside. The 'excessive' metel on the plug would indicate that something wore out in there........

Good luck!