Hey folks,

This might seem like a stupid question, but car stuff still baffles me.

I got a '98 F150 at an auto auction and on the way home it started to lunge and surge which alarmed me....then it started overheating. I got it towed to my auto shop....I needed to have the engine rebuilt...so I did. The day I picked it up and drove it around a bit....it still lunged in the same manner...I had the transmission fluid and filter changed, but problem seemed to continue.
It seemed to be idleing very high...even when in park...then would hessitate upon giving it gas...it would do this after every stop. Last, at a stop light....it just quit going forward all together.....it let me reverse it into a parking lot...and I had it towed home...I'm curious as to whether it's just a shot transmission...or some other kind of transmission issue? Thanks for any advice.

 

Wow this does not sound good. How many miles on it? Does the fluid smell burnt? Probably not if you just changed it. Could be just the converter did it get drained?

 

Howdy and welcome.

Sounds like a dead tranny. Whats the door jam sticker have for a code?

E is the E4OD and is about 2000+ for a rebuild. U is the 4R70w and is a little less.

Adrianspeeder

 

Thanks for the response....The car had just over 300,000 miles on it (didn't know that at the auction) which helps justify the rebuilt engine thing...I'm just hoping that I don't need to buy a new transmission. The transmission fluid is fine...now...I don't think, however, that they had ever had it changed...the plug was still in the pan when I changed it. I didn't drain the converter....mostly because...I don't quite know anything about that....like I said before...I can be kind of a lunkhead when it comes to cars.

 

Don't worry about it.Every body got to learn sometime. I been crawling around em since I was a kid { now 45] and theres still a lot to learn. Like Adrian said check the door jam see what Tran code is and start shopping.

 

Did the lunging seem as though the transmission was not quite in gear or like it was in gear but just slipping. It could be an electrical issue.

 

It seemed as if it was in gear....but maybe it should be described more as a surge...almost as if it were loosing power...then surging fast again. I should note that when I got the vehicle at auction and checked it out it was low on transmission fluid....I didn't realize at the time that I should only have used Mercon V....and stupidly put in (I don't even know now) some other kind of trans fluid....it was only 1 quart...could that have caused all of this? I since changed out the fluid in the transmission, but didn't drain the torque converter....would that have made a difference? Any imput would be appreciated...cause due to lack of funds...and not being able to find a compatible, cheap trans...My poor truck is still crippled.

 

My truck would act like it was slipping out of gear and then try to jam really hard into gear, worse if I was pulling or going up hill. I thought that my transmission was finally shot. I tinkered on it and found that the switch on the side that reads what position the cable is in was loose. I tightened it and cleaned the connections on it and after running about fifty miles worth of hard shifting it finally started shifting almost like new. Do you get any codes when it does this?

 

man, 300,000 is a risky purchase, hopefully you got a smokin deal on it.

 

my mom has the same truck.. assuming single cab 4.2L and it has 120k on it now... nothing but problems. Thus why I went diesel

Jeff

 

Still need to know E or U on the trans code.

Adrianspeeder