CrownLover

Hi I have a 1996 Crown Vic with 150k on it. I absolutely love the car. I bought it 2 years ago with 110k and have enjoied the past 40 k. Awesome cars.
(I love it enough to rebuild the air ride suspension )

I have an intermittant issue with the trannie, though. Every once in a while going down the road at highway speeds (65 around here) it acts like it is poping out of gear. doesn't matter if I'm in OD or Drive.

Its drive me nuts.

Local trans shop wants to put in a new trans. They tell me mine is shot. But this seems like a little extreme of a repair (and a $2200 price tag has me curious) for an intermittant problem.

I had the local dealership look at it and they cleaned the EGR tube and that seemed to fix it for a while. the dealer thinks the transmission needs a flush, which i tend to agree since the milage and the prev owner said they didn't do a thing to the trans.

The car has a fresh tune up on it, and we changed the trans filter and some of the trans oil (but not all.)

Any ideas would be helpful.

floater3

The EGR would affect the running of the engine but unless I'm wrong, it would have nothing to do with your trans popping out of gear. Instead of what you call 'popping out of gear' it may actually be slipping. Did your problems start right after you changed the filter and fluid? If so, I'd check to make sure you used the right filter and/or fluid and to make sure the level is correct.

CrownLover

When we changed the fluid, The old fluid looked fine. we didn't see any debris in the old fluid or any excessive amount of metal on the magnets in the trans pan.

Ive checked the fluid and it is fine.

The car has done this since i bought it.

the hickup is like this: driving down the road the engine suddenly races less than a sec or so and then the car lurches. then its back to normal for a few days or weeks.

Ive had cars with bad transmissions before. most recently was an 89 stang with that useless 4-banger in it. that trans like the other car i had never slipped as i recall once it was in gear, only when shifting. But that was only one of two bad trans ive delt with. Im not an expert, just a hobiest. Thats why Im asking for help.

87_Crown_Vic

ever changed a fuel filter on it yet? my girlfriends 1989 Crown Vic io thought was transmission but was actually fuel filter. i changed the sock in the tank and the fuel filter along the frame and it cured the issue. it was being starved of fuel and would rev but lose power. fuel filters cause funky things to happen. i would also take a shot at cleaning the IAC

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my 1986 Grand Marquis LS... Rose...

CrownLover

Fuel Filter? I would have never thought of that. No I haven't changed that.

That might do the trick. I'll change it this weekend and let ya know.

(Nice 87 btw. I was looking for one like that for a while. settled on a 4-dr. )

stevenj

I had something similar on my 95 and it turned out to be the neutral safety switch on the side of the trans. On mine I would be driving along and it would do what you are describing, or like it would just down shift real hard then back into overdrive. put the new switch in and all was normal.