New to the F150 forum and looking for help already. Saturday I picked up my "NEW" 2004 Crewcab F150 with the 5.4 and 80,000 miles. Decent shape but the maintenance may have been a bit lacking. Test drove it and it drove fine-no shifting problems. However in the last 2 days, I have noticed that sometimes when I first start it and put it in D or R there is a long pause- maybe 3 seconds before it seems to go in gear. Then tonight I put it in D and it did not move until I gave it a bit of gas, then engaged a bit harsh. It shifts fine while moving. Only when it is cool and I first put it in a gear do I notice a problem.

I checked the fluid and it is VERY clean but low. I am planning on changing it anyway. I am trying to avoid the possibility that the PO was beginning to have problems so he had it changed and when it did not fix the problem he traded it off. Is there any chance it could be just low on fluid? Or an adjustment somewhere? I don't know anything about these tranny's. I really don't want to think about a rebuild yet. I have only owned it 48 hours and after reading about the spark plug issues I am questioning my new Ford!