Meeting with the Ford regional customer service rep to discuss several issues and concerns next week. I have a 2001 SuperCrew(build date sept 2000)with the 4r70w transmission and tsr 00-16 label. It clunked fairly viciously a few times and clunked often with the coast down and accelerate syndrome they all seem to have but that seems to have moderated somewhat with 18K on the truck.

Another issue is the fact that warm weather or cold roughly 50% of the time the engine RPM remains high for several miles of highway driving the first time it shifts out each day. Anywhere from 200-500 RPM high at 60MPH and then after several miles it will either drop suddenly or creep down.

The service manager at my dealer verified that this isn't a feature to speed warm-up and it is inconsistent on the hottest or coldest days anyway. No apparent relationship between weather and this condition. My concerns are twofold: First that I use this truck for heavy towing in south Louisiana where temperatures often hover around 100ºF in the summer and secondly I make several trips a year to Colorado/Utah and do a lot of high desert and mountain driving. I usually keep a truck over 150,000 miles so I am concerned both about a failure while towing or traveling and shortening normal service life of the transmission so I am stuck with a high dollar repair after it is out of warrantee.

Opinions please? No reason for concern or push for a swap and let Ford disassemble this one to find the problem?

Thanks,
Hu

 

Hi HU

I have 99SC 4.6l AT with 4R70W. 1/01 with 16500 tranny died. Was rebuilt underwarranty.

Do tow TT,etc, loaded about 800# under GCWR. Did weight everything, which is important.

Was it something i did or? Last tow was Oct 00,(4500 -8000ft elev)temp 80deg. tranny went out in town(solo) 1/01, that certainly didnt leave me with a good feeling. But glad it didnt go out while towing,

I can see the concerns you have.

Does your AT have tranny cooler?

When AT was rebuilt, no questions were asked, they just did it. Since then, after reading other bds. on this site, ive been looking at AT coolers etc. The one on my truck is appox. 5"X10"X2"thick. Stacked plate design, 9 plates, counting top & bottom. Saw one aftermarket, saying stacked plate design not very efficient, should be larger cooler. So......???

Will be installing tranny temp. guage as a starter. Then can see temps. & how hot fluid
gets, & may need bigger cooler?

Cant say i had clunking etc, like you, do have med. RPM on cold start up, that i think normal. Was hunting for gears and shifting kinda like slipping,(normal) but Schip i installed gives me firmer shifts & may increase life of internal parts.

Havent heard alot of bad about the 4R70W.

So, just beaware of the cooler & temp.guage.
Do recommended fluid changes etc.

Bottom line, get everything in writing. As you may already know, they aint gonna drop the tranny just for fun. It has to be a driving/shifting problem.

Just be sure you get everything in writing, so you have a record of what the dealer said or did.

Good luck. OT