Last night I was driving through the neighborhood on a patrol watch and the truck was performing fine.

No issues whatsoever until I was headed home, when I noticed that the truck didn't respond to my throttle like it usually did. Well, RPM's went back down and it "slid" into gear. I get back home and park on the driveway (which is on an incline) and the thing just made a gruesome sandpaper-grating type sound and just LOCKED UP on the driveway. Engine was running just fine. So, I tried to put her into reverse? No dice......didn't feel her kick into reverse. Neutral? Nothing either - couldn't even SLIDE down my driveway. So, I put her into reverse and gave her a little gas and the thing made a pretty bad sound (like an egg beater on a metal mixing bowl but about 50x louder) and the thing kicked back into gear after making some sandpaper-grating sounds and sliding down my driveway.

So, I took her around the block and she performed mostly ok, but I noticed that I'd be in first gear, floor it, and she wouldn't do anything - but she would continue on her current track - it was almost as if I had lost my passing gear.

Got back to the driveway, tried to park her on the driveway again? Same stuff as above. Finally got her off the driveway and parked her on the street and gave up. I went outside this morning and nothing appears to be leaking.

What in the F happened?? Obviously I need to get her in to check this issue out, but my dealer is off an interstate loop and I definitely don't want to break down. If you guys know what this could be, would it be safe for me to even attempt driving it?

 

Sounds like the park pin broke on it and may have gone through the gears. I say get it to a trany shop soon. Since you say you park it on a incline everyday do you use your parking brake aka e-brake if not you should as there is alot of stress on the parking pin to hold your truck in place and that could be the cause of your problem.

 

Do you think I could drive it to the shop? Would a park pin be a reason why it doesn't want to shift, slide into gear, etc. etc.? By the way, I do usually use the parking brake when I park - there have been some times when I forgot, but all in all I make it a point to use it.

Thank you for your help!

 

I'd have it towed in nuetral to the garage if it were me. More grinding = more money. Hopefully it's just the pin, and can be replaced and didn't cause much damage. There's no telling were it fell down in there. So it might be wedged in between something. I wouldn't drive it. Good luck with it man.

 

$3100

New Tranny

 

Damn that sucks. I hate that for you man. Maybe try parking somewhere level to keep the pressure off the park pin? If that was the problem. What did they say it was?

 

That would be Ford's price for a rebuilt, there are cheaper, viable alternatives. My rebuild cost $1800.

 

3100 is a little high. I agree you should have gotten a rebuilt for around 1800 or so I know on my old truck when the trany acted up I figured somewhere around 1800 for it. But went ahaed and traded it in for my new truck because going with a rebuild is a gambel it might last 100k or you could get one that is shot within a few 1000 miles on it.

 

no, there was no "rebuild" possible.

The only piece to the transmission that was even USEABLE for a "rebuild" woud have been the transmission casing.

Apparently my __________ (don't remember what they told me) came undone and started throwing metal all around my transmission. I got a factory refurbished motorcraft and was able to talk them down to 2650. Along with it, I got a 36mo/36K warranty on the transmission. l

The metal in the system was so bad that they had to install an inline filter.

Yeah, rebuild was not possible in my case. They even took me back and showed me what it should look like and what mine looked like - mine looked like it had been hit by an IED.

 

your torque converter probably came apart.. that slung crap into the pump, which fed it to all of the other crap

 

Yeah, I think that was it.

Either way, a Motorcraft veteran transmission specialist was taking pictures of my burned out transmission as I rounded the corner because he finally "had an actual picture of a ___________ failure" to include in his training manual or something. Apparently what happened to me isn't that common?

I think he just said "converter" so I'm sure that's it.

Thank the Lord for income tax refunds.

 

ask him for royalties for the use of the photo, in exchange of a decreased labor cost.

 

Ha - that would be the day. As it was, they helped me out quite enough, so I'm happy.

All in all I'm pleased. The truck runs great and it's comforting to know that I have a 36K warranty on that transmission.

For all who are gunshy of their "stealership," you obviously haven't been to the "stealership" that I take my truck to - my service guy is taking my wife and I to dinner - good guy. Sure he made $300 bucks commission on my transmission repair, but he didn't even have to offer.

Customer service.

 

$1815 buys a two year nationwide warranty E4OD (unlimited mileage) from a shop I'd trust with my mothers car, know the owner personally. Complete unit.

When I got mine done, the mileage was the kicker, I average 30K a year so Ford's 36/36 wasn't much of a bargain for me.

But it's good to know they treated you right, a good shop is a good thing to have in your pocket.

Make sure you run up the bar tab when he takes you out to dinner, think of it as revenue recovery

 

Oh, I plan on it most definitely - I distinctly know that a part of my potential savings went into his pocket. But, he's a nice guy, and his kids are nice and he truly is proud of his job (Medallion award winner for service). I KNOW that this service guy wouldn't EVER THINK about screwing me over.

I am not the garage mechanic type of person. I knew some guy in Galveston who ran a nice operation out of a Conoco service station. Good guys there, always fixed my problems.

Then he sold it - and with them brought a whole bunch of no talent a$$ clowns, that were money grubbing fools. The price of my oil change went up to 35 bucks, if I wanted a tire rotation it went up to 70. No one ASE certified, but they all "have plenty of experience with fixing their own cars." Looking at their own cars, I wouldn't be caught dead in them.

After I moved, I started searching for a good place. This one guy was highly recommended by someone I trusted. He dropped the ball 3 times - the breaking point being when he put some cheapo caliper that totally cheesed my entire front brake system (left, and because of that, the right). I took the car to the dealership - they fixed it for me, charged me $100 and swept it all under the warranty carpet, saying that had I brought the truck into them in the first place, I wouldn't have to be dealing with all the crap I was made to deal with.

With the price of oil changes these days, I'm lucky to find a dealership that charges $30 for oil changes and has mechanics on hand that know what problems you might be having by just LISTENING to your truck run since they only work on trucks just like mine all day and are certified to do so. I guess I'm one of the few who doesn't mind paying a little bit more. Plus, I need someone really good because automobiles are the one subject where my knowledge is lacking.

Interestingly enough, now that I am taking my truck to the dealership, I am actually having FEWER visits/problems and only go once every 5k miles. Not counting the tranny, my costs were cheaper in the last 18 months since I've been here than what they were in the 18 months previous when I was in Galveston NOT taking my vehicle to the dealership. Go figure.