Transmission Issues After Wheel Alignment??

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jotam3

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Mar 27, 2022
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Tampa, FL
How’s it going all. I have a 2018 Navigator that I bought used a few thousand miles ago. I bought it with 70k miles and it’s now approaching 74k. Drove the truck for a few thousand miles and it drove perfect. I brought it to get an alignment at a national chain place. The tech said once it was aligned, when he turned the car on the car would instantly turn the steering wheel about 10° counterclockwise (but the wheels remained straight). He said it was caused by the electronic steering system. So he connected their computer to it to try to correct it, but he wasn’t able to. They suggested I bring it to the dealer to get the steering corrected as their computer wasn’t recalibrating it.

So I left the shop, driving straight meant the steering wheel was turned a little to the left. However, as soon as I left the shop, I instantly felt the transmission shifting completely differently. Very rough shifting from first to second, and occasionally slipping from 2nd to 3rd or 3rd to 4th. I brought it back to them a few days later and they assured me it was impossible it was anything they did as the alignment isn’t at all related to the transmission (I agree with that statement obviously, but I’m at a loss as the truck arrived to the shop perfect and left with a bad-shifting transmission). But, they went ahead and scanned it for me and checked, and confirmed they found nothing electrical related to this issue. However, when I picked up the truck this time, they had somehow corrected the steering wheel’s angle, straight was now straight, so they did something.

Next I brought it to the dealership and asked them to run diagnostics on it, they say nothing comes up for them and they believe it’s a transmission failure. I asked them to reflash the 21B10 recall back to factory under the 21N03/21N08 service call, they seemed skeptical and said it wasn’t related (they thought I was nuts, but I’ve read a few people post about their transmission shifting different after the 21B10), but I convinced them to do it anyway. They said they did it, but that it caused no difference. Their opinion is that it’s a transmission issue, they wanted to charge me $2,000 to remove the transmission pan and inspect for metal shavings. I held off.

So, I ended up doing it myself, I removed the transmission pan and then the filter. Fluid looks great, no metal shavings or any other particles. Everything looks very clean. I replaced all seals, gaskets, and filter and filled her up with fresh fluid. No change at all, same exact shifting issues.

I’ve plugged her up to an Autel OBD2 computer and scanned all the modules on it and all coming up clear, no codes.

I’m at a loss now and don’t know what to try next. Anyone have any ideas or hear of anything similar to this?
 
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