I have an 03 F150 4.6 2wd. 1st thing in the morning, for the past 2 days, my truck will go into reverse pulling out of the driveway, but when I shift to Drive, it does not go in. The first time I waited a minute and revved it and it went into D in a few seconds, I thought I may have missed D and went into Neutral so I thought nothing of it. Today I did the same....reverse and then D and it would not go in. I shifted down to 1st and it went in fine. After that I have shifted it probably 10 times back and forth, even let the truck sit off and restarted and it did not do it again. Only seems to happen after sitting all night. I live in FL and it has been VERY hot lately.....can't think of any other variables. I have an appointment at Ford in 2 days......any thoughts??
Also I checked the trans fluid level and it was halfway in crosshatch area, but it seemed to have a lot of little bubbles, don't know if that is significant?

 

You checked the fluid level with it on a level surface in park or neutral and with the engine running didn't you?

Also, you need to look for the lowest dry spot on the stick and the bottom of that is the level. A lot of people mess that up and think there is more fluid in there than there is. You can have fluid on the stick above the actual level, but the actual level will cover the stick all the way around and not have any dry spots below it.

Darrin

 

I let the truck sit overnight, and no problem with the shift today? I remember this happening to a taurus years back and a tranny fluid change seemed to solve the issue.......any thoughts?

 

I have the same problem. it's only happened a few times and the delay is only around 5 seconds but it would be nice to catch any problems early cause these 4r's are what ~$5000?

 

i had a dakota that did that same thing. only when it sat for a few hours on any kind of incline. after 2 mins of driving it would shift fine. i did a fluid change and that didnt help. i just lived with it. i always suspected torque converter. it was a dodge so.. tranny problems were inevitable.

 

My exploder did this this exact same thing. It was low on fluid. I checked it and it looked full. Took it to have the tranny serviced and they said it was way low. Tailshaft seal had a slow leak or something like that. Check your fluid levels again as already mentioned and then add as required.