thehamstack

Hi and please give any advice. I've got a 02 mountaineer with 77,000 miles on it. The tranny is a 5r55 I believe and it is not right in my opinion. Keep in mind the problems I describe are intermittent.

1. Sometimes when I put the shifter in gear, reverse or drive, there is a pause before the tranny engages.

2. Sometimes at a stop the tranny seems to disengage. The vehicle will not move. If you give it gas it will rev up a little and then the tranny kicks in and no problems.

3. Sometimes the tranny holds on in gear while accelerating longer than it should, like to 4-5k rpm under light acceleration.

I got a short-term warranty when I bought this thing and I already took it to the dealer and they checked the fluid level, scratched their asses, and said, "Well it seems OK right now, you should just keep driving it until the OD light flashes". I'm taking it back in Monday, but I was wondering if anybody can shed light on what is happening

00gtr1

I might be of help Im a ford tech and work on transmissions. Sounds like you deffenitally have trans problems. What engine do you have 4.0 or 4.6? These transmissions are notorious for having issiuse withe servo bores in the transmission case. these problems cause problems with 2 and 5 gears. like slipping, shuddering, and hanging in gear. and with 77k they are deffenitally shot. Your transmisson needs to be overhauled and the transmission case repaired. If you have a powertrain warranty it should be covered and any good ford dealer should be able to take care of it. hope this helps.

thehamstack

It's a 4.6 and AWD. I believe they know they need to rebuild/replace the tranny and are trying to blow me off till the powertrain warranty is over. I should have known better than buying a friggin auto! 77k miles and the tranny is shot? Unacceptable!

Any suggestions how I get my service manager to actually have his guys troubleshoot it? I think I'm going right to the GM.

00gtr1

Any good ford tranny guy would and should be able to help you because this is such a common problem and it's any easy fix. I suggest you try a different dealer. I understand 77k is unacceptable and if they do fix the transmission right you shouldn't have any problems as long as you own it.

Johnny Mullet

That is too bad. 2002-2004 models were the worst when it comes to trans failures.

thehamstack

Well I took the mounty in this morning. Got the run-around from a salesman and the service manager. Went to General manager with an itemized list of my symptoms and he just had this look on his face like "OH sh*t, this guy is gonna be trouble." They put it in for service and gave me a sable for a loaner. I can't wait to see what they come up with!

jherrer

I have a 2002 Mountaineer with almost 58k miles on it, and it has some of the same symptoms. I bought it 3,500 miles ago and it belonged to the GM's wife, i have always noticed that whenever you go from N to D it takes about 2 seconds to catch on...is this normal? I haven't really noticed the problem in reverse (R)....Does this also sound like a transmission problem? I have the premium car care warranty on it which will cover it until it hits 75k miles or until Dec/2007. Would this be an easy fix if it were a transmission problem?

Ps. I love the Mountaineer, but Acceleration sucks and I'm only getting like 12.5 mpg.


HELP!!

thehamstack

Well your problem is similar to mine, that is for sure. Probably mine is more advanced. After all my looking around I'm guessing that I need a new solenoid pack for the tranny.

The bad news is the dealer has had my mounty for 2 days now and hasn't done sh*t! They are doing the back glass recall while I'm stuck driving some crappy sable they loaned me. The GM called and said "Well we can't pin it down you need to drive it until the OD light comes on then we can figure it out." I went up there to bug the Service Manager and he said "somebody cleared the codes (hint: it was THEM before they put the thing out on the lot!) and I need to drive it a couple weeks so the code can pop up again and THEN they can get the code from the computer and know what the problem is, but unfortunately they just can't do ANYTHING yet."

What a bunch of crap! These are either the laziest techs ever or just lying their asses off! Get out the manual, and the multimeter and troubleshoot it! I'm totally fed up and going to get ahold of the GM's boss if I can and complain to him. Then I'll be going to a lawyer cuz this thing was FUBAR when they sold it to me and I'm not paying a dime for the fix.

thehamstack

Just an update.

The dealer gave me a complimentary ford 6mo/ 6k mile powertrain warranty. They never didi fix it. I still have received no codes of any kind from this thing.

I have noticed that the non-egagement issue only happens when the vehicle is cold. I think it may simply be low on fluid but I watched the stealer-I mean dealer check it. Oh well. If I ever get another day off work I intend to do the fluid and filter myself and see if anything changes.

thehamstack

After the third trip to the dealer they replaced the solenoid pack and problem seems to have evaporated. When they hooked up pressure gauges it was obvious.

I'm happy now. I didn't bring up the fact I told them to hook up pressure gauge more than a month ago to check out the solenoid. Nobody likes a backseat mechanic!