I have a 1997 Ford Expedition with 97,000 miles on it. The first startup of the day, the transmission will have a delay in shifting from 3rd to 4th gear. The engine will keep increasing RPM and If you let off the accerator, it will go ahead and shift and will shift normaly from that point on until the engine is cold again. During the first startup of the morning, if you let the engine warm up, it will shift without a problem. The problem is centered around tempature. Does anyone have any suggestion?

 

Welcome ! That sounds like normal function. It doesn't engage OD until it begins to warm up.

 

They'll act a little strange when the engine's cold. So long as it's not barking tires or trying to knock your teeth out with shifts, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Well it is my wife's vehicle and she is not very happy. It started about 8,000 miles ago. I changed the fluid and fliter and I did not see anything wrong. During normal take off (first complete shift through all gears) the RPM can get around 5000 before if shifts from 2nd to 3rd. The RPM will jump higher for a second, then the trans. will shift. I did not know if there is a sensor that reads temp. that has any thing to do with the shifting.

 

Thers a product that you can find at some NAPA stores called Seafoam Trans Med. Pour a can in and drive it normally. I a couple of weeks you'll be back to pretty much normal. It will remove the varnish from the shift componites.

 

I will try the Sea foam from NAPA aand see if that works. Thanks for all the help.

 

Get her a remote start kit installed. Have her start the car from the front porch and go back inside to fix her cup of coffee. By the time she gets in the car, it's warmed up and MAMA is happy. --problem solved.

Seriously, I WISH my wife would pay attention to stuff like that! The only problem there EVER is with her car is if it won't start --- then we have an incident. BUT if it will start, then everything MUST be OK.

Sidewinder

 

This is what my 4r70w has been exhibiting on moderate to heav acceleration for awhile. I just haven't had an opportunity to change the fluid and filter.

Will roll over 100,000 by next week!

Jeff

 

Cubpilot,

When you changed oil and filter, did you drain the T/C? If not, you changed only about a third of the fluid. Old fluid can make for a weird shifting tranny.

If you did not do a full (12-1/2 quart) change, I'd use the Seafoam mentioned above, run with it for a couple hundred miles, then drain and change the fluid again. Make sure you use MERCON V.

Hope this helps!

 

I stumbled into this site >>

http://www.mn12performance.com/mn12-...w_rebuild.html

while searching for how to disassemble the 4R70W tranny. It has some pretty good photos of different year valve bodies.

Jeff

 

Thanks for all the help. I think I am going to drop the pan and change the filter/fluid this weekend and see if that helps at all. It has been serviced on time and the fluid appears to be clean. I hooked the truck up to a computer, just to see if I could get any codes. No codes were found. I will keep everyone posted if I find out what the problem is.

 

If it were mine I would not add the SeaFoam product to the tranny.I would drain the converter,pan,new filter,and blow out all excess fluid from the lines and tranny cooler,if so equippted with a cooler.I would re-fill with a name brand MerconV fluid.

 

FYI:

Just purchased 3 containers of Motorcraft Mercon V ATF in the 5 quart container. On the label, it state "Mercon V Also Meets Dextron III"?

I thought that Mercon V and Dextron III are different? @#$?%?

Jeff

 

They are... sort of. As I understand it, Mercon V is semi-synthetic or 100% synthetic. Other than that, it's the additive package used in the base stock that is different than Dextron.

Some of those quickie-lube places just add dextron stuff and some extra additives. Personally I'd only put real Mercon V in there.

I had similar shifting problems. Pulled the tranny pan, drained pan, converter, etc. Added a B&M drain pan, B&M cooler, Jerry mod "shift kit", cleaned out the entire valve body. Shifts great ever since.

Most of the time all you need is fresh Mercon V and filter to solve your problems. Old fluid makes for lousy shifts.