Slight tranny slip and shudder when putting into gear when cold

[JExpedition07]

5W-30 is fine for the 5.4L. Change your plugs, they are past due at this point. Watch the videos on it by FordTechMakuloco and also look up the tsb. With higher mileage on the original set they are prone to breakage without the proper steps.

 

[1955moose]

30 k is a bit over kill with SP or lv tranny fluid. Ford says go out to 150k. 30 k is more for 4 speeds like mine with regular Mercon. But in my book I'm like you, over kill on fluids is good. Nobody but you will have to spring for a new trans, if it fails. I still have to push myself to go beyond the 3k oil changes I used to do. I run full synthetic, and still change every 5-6k. It just feels right to me. I know I could easily double those numbers, but why chance it. I've never had a four wheeled vehicle short of my 36 hp VW bug, that didn't go 180k before starting to smoke, or have problems. And that was with Castrol 20/50 oil.


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[lbv150]

Huh, well that's not confusing then, lol. I too was very much under the impression that even the dealer would have put LV in there instead of SP because SP had been phased out. At this point I'm not going to do a system flush; if 6 quarts of fresh LV made very little difference I have no reason to believe that doing a full flush with SP would all of a sudden fix the issue when SP and LV are apparently so similar as to be cross compatible (if even only for a while).
I ordered a tube of the shudder guard. I put that stuff in a Yukon once that had a slip and it went another year without slipping again before I sold it, so it certainly works. I did a search for "expedition" under the Amazon reviews and it pulled a bunch of reviews for how well it worked on the 2nd gen Expeditions, but only one 3rd gen was mentioned. That does give me hope however.
The problem isn't currently bad enough that I'm willing to spend much money on it... I just let it run for 30 seconds when it's overnight cold before putting it in gear and it's fine. The slips are minor and relative to when I first felt it a week ago, have not gotten worse; in fact they may be a bit better since putting in the LV. Fingers crossed.

I will certainly follow up after I put in the friction modifier.

Thanks all.

30 seconds warm up??? I'll never buy one of your used vehicles LOL. We don't drive anything thing until it reaches operating temperature. On our '16 Expy that means the engine oil temp reading "normal" not "low".

 

[David Smit]

As long as you go easy on it while it's still cold there's no reason to let it sit burning gas for 10 min before driving away. Who has time for that anyway? Certainly easier with modern remote starters, but before that, whew... what a pain!

 

[David Smit]

I've come to the realization that the shudder is not because of the transmission but rather the engine itself. If I throttle up a bit right after stating cold it's a bit jumpy. This is greatly exacerbated when load is added to the engine. I'm starting to think it's the CVT solenoids; I bet they've never been replaced in 165k miles, so it's worth doing regardless.
I'll have to replace them in the next month and will update again when I do.

 

[JExpedition07]

Likely a misfire when cold. Have boots and plugs been replaced?

 

[David Smit]

JExpedition07, yes, the very first thing I did was the plugs and the coils with boots. Thanks sir.

 

[David Smit]

Moose, I added friction modifier and if the first test drive is any indication, it made the slip go away. Drove it for 15 min without feeling it.

Unfortunately while adding it, I found out why my tranny was low to begin with; there's a leak in one of the seals on the back of the tranny. Looks like it's coming from between the tranny and the xfer case. I'll have to see what that one's going to cost me!

 

[David Smit]

Well, with any luck it's the bulkhead sleeve connector rather than a seal. it's leaking exactly under where that sleeve is and it's an 09. Still have to drop the pan, but at least it's something I can do myself. Stay tuned...

 

[1955moose]

Glad it worked. Keep the fluid level up till you fix the leak.

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