Jim 98 EL XR8

Have had the car for a few weeks now, and I have noticed there is a problem with the auto trans. On very cold mornings I drive the car for about 50 metres and then the trans loses all drive to the wheels, like it has gone into "neutral". After a few seconds it clunks into gear again and everything is OK.

The problem only seems to happen first thing on cold mornings. After the car is warm everything is fine. Has anyone else experienced or heard of this type of a problem? I am going to replace the oil, and if that doesn't work I will have to pay my local mechanic a visit.

Mike

Hi Jim. I didn't have too many problems with the 4-speed auto in my EA2 Ghia, but nonetheless there are "bad" ones out there. It sounds like you should get a transmission specialist to check it out for you, since these auto boxes have a few quirks (or so I was told when I got the EA's tranny done). Your problem sounds a bit strange though, I can't think of anything offhand that would cause the symptoms you've described... hmm... :-/ Anyhow, keep us up to date with it all. More valuable info for the database :-)

Jim 98 EL XR8

Thanks Mike, I'll keep you all updated on what happens. I am going to change the oil tomorrow.

Dave

G'day Jim, I had this same problem with another car of mine. Exactly the same! I live on a hill and aparently when cold and driving up a hill the tranny partially looses oil pressure. There was nothing I could do about it apart from maybe slightly overfilling the tranny.
Hope you have better luck than me.

Dave.

Jim 98 EL XR8

Dave, thanks for mentioning that as the problem with my car usually occurs as I go over a large speed hump 50 metres from my house. I never thought about the uphill thing.

The Ford is the first car I have seen that does not have a dipstick for the auto. You have to fill it from underneath through a plug, like a manual gearbox, and there is no dipstick! Maybe the oil level is just a bit low?

eb_5litre

Jim, your fluid is low. The reason it only does it when the car is cold is because the fluid hasn't expanded. When it gets warm, it expands, then runs normally. Fill er up and off you go!!!!!!

Jim 98 EL XR8

I took the car to a transmission specialist today for a service. He replaced the oil & filter, and he said that the filter was very dirty and could have been causing the problem. I will see how it goes over the next few days.

Jim 98 EL XR8

The auto has been great for the 2 days since I had it serviced. Looks like these cars need clean oil and filter in the auto to work correctly. The mechanic said that he suspected that the oil had never been changed since new as it was quite dirty. The car has 60,000 km on it. Hopefully this information will be helpful to someone else if they have the same problem.

jambo

Thought I'd have a look through some old posts.

I had this exact problem yesterday. Except it would jump out of gear every time after I was sitting idling at the lights, or wherever, for a few seconds. I tracked down a leak I had from a small seal in the bottom of the auto tranny and most of my fluid had leaked out on top of the exhaust, which would have looked pretty cool for people driving behind me. It's darn awkward to replace the little thing, but I got quoted $15 so it's not even worth buggerising around underneath the car when I don't have a hoist in my back yard. We just tightened up everyting else while we were there though.

Alas, I will miss those moments at 40km/h when it shifted into neutral, revved it's tits off, and then shifted back into gear again and laid a bit of rubber. That must have looked impressive from the side of the road in a standard EB.