Hey guys,

On the way back from the snow this weekend, after using 4-wheels drive the majority of the time, I'm heading down the mountain back to reality and my truck starts to bog. I pull off the freeway turn the truck off and on. The overdrive starts to flash and I realize the truck stuck in second gear as I start to drive again.

Obviously I realized something was not right and the service engine light came on as well. I ended up letting the truck cruise down the hill in neutral before the freeway flattened out. I had the truck towed on a flatbed 80 miles back home from that point.

I just upgraded all my fluids several months ago including a Mag Hytec tranny and diff covers. I know the tranny cover won't help that much but at least a little in regards to heat.

My 2002 F150 King Ranch 5.4L only has 28k on it. There is no way anything should be happening to the tranny at this point. I'm assuming it overheated because I may have been in 4HI for too long at around 30-40 mph....then the computer defaulted to a safe mode...etc etc. I'm not sure.

I'll take it in the next week to a dealer or mechanic but wanted to run it by you first. Hopefully this isn't something serious.

Any thoughts or prior experiences??

 

You have an internal trans problem if the O/D light was on. There is a code set that has to be retrieved and diagnosed. I don't expect it to be a cheap repair.

 

The flashing OD light means that there was a fault detected by the electrical system. That means that it can be overheating, slipping excessively or have a wiring, solenoid or sensor issue. Overheating and slipping codes will clear when the the vehicle is restarted and it will come out of 'limp home'. If it doesn't reset then there is a problem with one of the other things. Maybe it got water or mud in a connector and that is causing trouble. Maybe something got damaged or disconnected. Or, maybe there was just a coincidental failure of a solenoid or sensor.

Thing is that getting the code read isn't sometimes the easiest thing. It can't be done with the 'bargain' scanners since most of them don't have the ability to read transmission codes. Any dealer can do it and the majority of transmission shops can as well. The SCT tuning devices can read them too. so if you know someone that has one of those that would be the easiest route.

This may be a cheap and easy fix. Or. it might go the other way. Hard to tell without knowing the code.

Darrin

 

I'll hope for the cheap and easy fix. Would be a shame to have to do major work with only 28k on the truck. Thanks for the responses. I'll let you know what happens.

 

So, took the truck in on Sat. The dealer ended up not having a tech there even though they told me they would. Go figure. I hate dealerships. Anyway, I asked them to just pull the codes and I would take a look at them if they didn't mind.

Went back into the garage with them, a bunch of error codes pulled and they guys who were working on sat didn't really know what they meant. I asked them to pull fuse 15A per some forums I had read right before going to the dealership and sure enough it was blown. Popped in a new fuse and everything was perfect!

At first I couldn't believe I went through all that trouble for a damn fuse but I'm happy it wasn't anything major.

So, my question now is... Why would that fuse go out? Is that anything I should be worried about (happening again maybe?) and what exactly does fuse 15A control?

 

My 03 4.6 had same problem and after going through 2 previous owners and a total of 6 shops (2 of them dealerships) and believe it or not changed the blown 15 amp location 23 transmission control sensor in the main control box under the hood and the truck instantly came back to life and what a truck it is turning out to be. That is the sensor that decides what gear it should be in. Previous owner for some reason drove it into 3 feet of water causing electrical to short out blowing that fuse.