EthanP71

Hey guys, I've been having the notorious 2-3 auto trans slip recently.

A little background: I bought the car New Year's Eve a few months ago with 84,000 miles. It came with a little 30 day/2000 mile warranty. Around about the beginning of March, I noticed that when I started driving the car in the mornings, the first shift from second to third would have a tiny bit of slippage. Sometimes the second 2-3 shift would too, but after that everything was fine.

Fast forward to today with 88,300 miles and it had the typical small 2-3 slippage on the first shift of morning. The thing that concerned me is that it slipped the 2-3 shift a couple times when it was all up to temperature.

I assume that its a steep slope from here once the trans is slipping already.

Here's what I'm thinking as far as options:

1. Take it to the trans shop now. Miraculously, it only needs that Intermediate Servo and its all good. Anyone know about how much that would cost to just fix the intermediate servo? Anybody have any experience just replacing the Intermediate Servo?

2. Find a used transmission. probably the least expensive option, but this seems like a huge gamble to me though because the next transmission could very well have the same if not more problems.

3. Spend the big bucks and use this negative experience as a reason to upgrade to a built transmission. I'm not planning on drag racing the car, but I would like to do the occasional track day and autocross (I've been too afraid of the fragile oem trans breaking to do so yet). Are built transmissions like the Performance Automatic unit well suited for track days or just straight line stuff? Anyone have any experience with them?

Any advice would be appreciated. I've had to rebuilt the transmissions in both my 2000 Crown Vic and 2003 Crown Vic and that was no fun and very expensive.

EthanP71

Everyone else's transmissions have been peachy?

808muscle

Have you verified that your full of fluid? This transmission does lose fluid when it gets hot. It gets vented out via the bell housing. I would confirm that before spending any money.

pc_647f

It's been my experience that any shop (dealer or dedicated trans shop) is gonna want to rebuild it. As you prolly already know, that's expensive. Almost as much as a built unit from a reputable shop, especially if you pull the old one out and install the new one yourself.

Are you getting any codes? O/D light flashing?

EthanP71

That's what I figured about the shops. No codes or anything. Actually, after it slipped uncharacteristically the other day, it hasn't been slipping at all, even on the first 2-3 shift of the morning.

The thing about the built trans that worries me is, what if it has a problem? Then I can't just take it to any shop. I have to get parts from the manufacturer which means longer waits and more money. Still a tempting option though.

I'll read up on how to check the ATF. Thanks for the suggestions guys.

stealth_GT

Do you have information on it's last transmission service/flush??

I'd look into that first before pulling your hair out.

If it shifts intermitently, I'd consider the fluid before anything else.. if it slips all the time, then I'd be worried.

Unless you have a high performance torque converter, then by all means.. slip away! lol

SpartaPerformance

You may want to have it checked out before a small problem turns into a big one.

Litefoot

Fluid & filter change before anything else... If you take it to a Transmission shop and request a filter they must pull the pan, then they can inspect the bands, look for metal shavings etc before they put it back together. Best of luck with it.

Nuke

+1 on a fluid change and pan visual. I might even consider taking a leap of faith and put synthetic (Amsoil would be my preference) in and hope for the best.

BTW, what is an "automatic transmission"? (Just yankin'...)

SD 197

I unfortantely had the 2nd-3rd rough shift. Or as the dealer called it, a "shift spur".

If it didn't rough shift, it would slip slightly. It would also have an occasional delay when shifting from drive to park, or reverse or vise versa.

After the dealer inspected it, they found metal in the drain pan. After going thru the numbers (replacement vs repair), my 3rd party extended warranty decided to cover a remanufactured transmission from Ford.

The dealer charged my warranty company $3800 for the tranny replacement. My deduct was $50 (thank God), and it comes with a 3 year unlimited mile warranty directly from Ford. Ford doesn't have new trannys for the 5-speeed slushbox, only remanufactured ones.

That being said, my service adviser didn't think my tranny would have failed, at least not for a long time. But since I was under warranty, it was a good idea to replace it.