Transmission "Shuddering"

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dmm5157

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Was experiencing the shuddering when around 35-50 mph. Swapped out my transmission fluid (didn't change the filter) and it completely went away. It's been around 10,000 miles since I did that, still no issues. My truck was around 155,000 miles when I did the swap.

Worth mentioning that before I swapped the transmission fluid the shuddering would go away completely if I switched off OVERDRIVE (button on the shifting knob).
 
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1955moose

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Wow, I would have never believed old trans fluid could cause these issues. But three of you had amazing results. Good to hear, just a fluid swap out could fix your issue, but glad it did. Thanks for the update.


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dmm5157

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Wow, I would have never believed old trans fluid could cause these issues. But three of you had amazing results. Good to hear, just a fluid swap out could fix your issue, but glad it did. Thanks for the update.


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Do you have the Overdrive button on your shifting knob? If so, you can do a quick test on the shuddering by clicking the button to turn off O/D. I think they added that with the 2007 model year (new transmission).

It's worth a shot to swap the trans fluid anyways, it's cheap and easy to do.
 

1955moose

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Grasshopper fixed his problem with the fluid/ filter change. Read post 13. It still amazes me that it works. For those of you with the 3rd gen vehicles, be sure to change fluid on schedule or even a little early.


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dmm5157

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Grasshopper fixed his problem with the fluid/ filter change. Read post 13. It still amazes me that it works. For those of you with the 3rd gen vehicles, be sure to change fluid on schedule or even a little early.


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Oops, forgot who posted original thread.

Yeah, it is pretty amazing to be honest. I figured tranny was done, but last year picked up on it when a few people said change the fluid and see what happens. Sure enough, like magic.

It costs about $20 and takes minutes to do now that I have the pump. I'm just going to change fluid out once a year, or if shuddering starts coming back. Again, did the first change a year ago and it's still doing very well.
 

1955moose

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I've been around cars and trucks for 45 years. First I've ever heard of fluid making shifting and noise better. I've seen countless times where we changed fluid, and it made everything worse. Back then a fluid/ filter change was about $75.00 parts and labor, but customers came in with burnt fluid, and 70k plus on service. 30k was the norm. These new multi gear transmissions are amazing. I sure wouldn't want to rebuild one. 3 speed and 4 speed over drives were tough enough!


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Thick

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Was experiencing the shuddering when around 35-50 mph. Swapped out my transmission fluid (didn't change the filter) and it completely went away. It's been around 10,000 miles since I did that, still no issues. My truck was around 155,000 miles when I did the swap.

Worth mentioning that before I swapped the transmission fluid the shuddering would go away completely if I switched off OVERDRIVE (button on the shifting knob).
I just had a safety inspection performed on a new (to me) 2009 Expedition EB 4x2. It drives fine now at just miles short of 130k miles... he told me to avoid doing any flush or transmission maintenance unless there were previous records of prior maintenance. He explained it will just loosen up the varnish in the transmission and cause failure...

After reading this thread... I may go back on his recommendation. Power flush or just drain, filter, and fill?

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dmm5157

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I just had a safety inspection performed on a new (to me) 2009 Expedition EB 4x2. It drives fine now at just miles short of 130k miles... he told me to avoid doing any flush or transmission maintenance unless there were previous records of prior maintenance. He explained it will just loosen up the varnish in the transmission and cause failure...

After reading this thread... I may go back on his recommendation. Power flush or just drain, filter, and fill?

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I just drained and refilled, not flush. And in my case, I didn't change the filter. Long story short, I dropped the pan but auto parts store gave me the wrong filter. Easier to drain and replace fluid with a 2 way fluid pump through the fill hole than to drop the pan.
 
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