98 Taurus Tranny Troubles - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

taco_90 · 07-31-2006, 18:09

Hi Guys. I just wanted to post this so it may help out another. I own a 98 Taurus with the 3.0 12 valve and an AX4N trannsaxle. Recently it threw a torque converter solenoid failure code and my wife told me it was slow on the shift (it's her car). After driving it I noticed the tranny was also slipping a bit. The first thing I did was to flush the tranny and change the filter. This is so easy to do that I just might flush it every time I change the fluid! We just came back from a week's vacation and did about 18 hrs of highway driving. I noticed the tranny slip twice on our first day of driving but never noticed it again. It looks like a fluid change is all it wanted. My guess is that there was not only contaminates in the oil that plugged up the solenoid valves but the oil itself had lost it's friction ability. Being we bought the car used we don't know the service history on it and I suspect this was the first time the tranny was ever serviced. If you have a similar car then a tranny flush may just save you a grand or two at the garage. Don't wait until you get a trouble code! If you've never flushed a tranny before then I'll give you a quick run through of how to do it.
First remove your tranny pan and change the filter. Thoroughly clean out the pan before you re-install it. The pan gasket on mine was also re-usable which is kind of nice. You will have dumped out about 6-7 litres of fluid. The other 4-5 litres are in your torque converter. Refill the tranny with new fluid. Now remove the return line from the left (drivers) side of the cooler which is located in front of the rad and easily accessed from the front of the car. Hook a piece of hose to the cooler end and run it into an empty jug while plugging the removed end on the car using a bolt or similar plug. Start the engine and place the tranny into drive. Pump about 2 litres into the jug (about 20 seconds) and shut the car off. Refill the tranny and repeat this until the fluid is coming out clean. Reconnect the tranny line and fill the tranny as you normally would. I used about 16 litres of fluid in total and although Mercon V is not cheap it is alot cheaper than replacing the transaxle! Good luck and I hope this helps someone.
Taco.

**tbird100636** · 08-01-2006, 09:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by taco_90

Hi Guys. I just wanted to post this so it may help out another. I own a 98 Taurus with the 3.0 12 valve and an AX4N trannsaxle. Recently it threw a torque converter solenoid failure code and my wife told me it was slow on the shift (it's her car). After driving it I noticed the tranny was also slipping a bit. The first thing I did was to flush the tranny and change the filter. This is so easy to do that I just might flush it every time I change the fluid! We just came back from a week's vacation and did about 18 hrs of highway driving. I noticed the tranny slip twice on our first day of driving but never noticed it again. It looks like a fluid change is all it wanted. My guess is that there was not only contaminates in the oil that plugged up the solenoid valves but the oil itself had lost it's friction ability. Being we bought the car used we don't know the service history on it and I suspect this was the first time the tranny was ever serviced. If you have a similar car then a tranny flush may just save you a grand or two at the garage. Don't wait until you get a trouble code! If you've never flushed a tranny before then I'll give you a quick run through of how to do it.
First remove your tranny pan and change the filter. Thoroughly clean out the pan before you re-install it. The pan gasket on mine was also re-usable which is kind of nice. You will have dumped out about 6-7 litres of fluid. The other 4-5 litres are in your torque converter. Refill the tranny with new fluid. Now remove the return line from the left (drivers) side of the cooler which is located in front of the rad and easily accessed from the front of the car. Hook a piece of hose to the cooler end and run it into an empty jug while plugging the removed end on the car using a bolt or similar plug. Start the engine and place the tranny into drive. Pump about 2 litres into the jug (about 20 seconds) and shut the car off. Refill the tranny and repeat this until the fluid is coming out clean. Reconnect the tranny line and fill the tranny as you normally would. I used about 16 litres of fluid in total and although Mercon V is not cheap it is alot cheaper than replacing the transaxle! Good luck and I hope this helps someone.
Taco.

Thats good. Considering how dark that fluid is after 30,000 mi. this is a worthwhile investment. The Ford procedure which is the same except replacing the filter uses a case (12 qt.) of Mercon V. The old fluid and filter replacement is about 6-7 Quarts.