Chad Fielder
Member
I’ve had my 2001 Sport Trac since new back in November of 2000. I had no problems whatsoever through this past winter. However I've had some problems with my transmission this year and was hoping to get some input/opinions on what situation I may be in.
Back in the spring I had the 90k mile service done at the Ford dealership that has done about everything to my Sport Trac (oil changes, recalls, minor maintenance stuff). They’ve generally been very good about their service for me and friends so I have no direct gripe with the dealership. But I forgot to tell them not to flush the transmission this time as I had heard it wasn’t recommended for higher mileage vehicles (or at all in some opinions). Once I realized I forgot this it was too late so what was done was done.
A few days later the overdrive off light started blinking. It wouldn't do it often but when it would start it wouldn't go off unless I stopped and restarted. It did this for several months as I didn't have time to deal with it and the transmission wasn't giving me any noticeable trouble. I figured it was a dirty/bad sensor or something. I did notice when in town if I manually turned over drive off the light wouldn’t come on. So I did this to avoid seeing (and having to deal with) the problem.
Well, one day as I was about to pull into the driveway the whole vehicle started shaking like it was trying to slip into park. So I took it back to the Ford dealership. They decided it was the control valve assembly but couldn't guarantee that was the only problem until they got into the transmission. They wanted to sell me a new in the box transmission from Ford with a 3 year warranty but the price difference between a control valve assembly and the parts/labor of replacing it and a new transmission was $1100 vs $3400. So I picked the cheaper option in the hopes that would get the job done long enough for me to get to next year at least.
At first that seemed to do the job and I had no problems for about 2 months. But just a couple days ago the old problem seemed to return. No noticeable slipping at first but the light started blinking again. Then after pulling over and turning the engine off and on again it didn't seem to down shift right when it should have gone into overdrive. I stopped again and started off without problems. It hasn’t had the problem since it showed up a couple days ago with a decent amount of around town driving (and manually turning off over drive again). But I have an appointment next week to have it looked at again anyway.
At this point I wish I had just sucked it up and got the whole thing replaced months ago but at the time I had just bought a new laptop and was in one of those months with more bills than usual.
So the question is am I screwed into having to get the whole transmission replaced or could this be the same control valve problem or some related problem? If it will require a replacement/rebuild would I generally be better off having the Ford dealership work on it or some transmission shop? I’ve heard some real horror stories about some of the local transmission shops (weeks to get the car back, gaskets not properly sealed and the shop denying they didn’t do it right, generally sloppy work, arbitration hearings about problems etc etc) so I hesitate to go there unless I get some ridiculous quote from the dealership this time.
Thanks for any input that can be provided.
Back in the spring I had the 90k mile service done at the Ford dealership that has done about everything to my Sport Trac (oil changes, recalls, minor maintenance stuff). They’ve generally been very good about their service for me and friends so I have no direct gripe with the dealership. But I forgot to tell them not to flush the transmission this time as I had heard it wasn’t recommended for higher mileage vehicles (or at all in some opinions). Once I realized I forgot this it was too late so what was done was done.
A few days later the overdrive off light started blinking. It wouldn't do it often but when it would start it wouldn't go off unless I stopped and restarted. It did this for several months as I didn't have time to deal with it and the transmission wasn't giving me any noticeable trouble. I figured it was a dirty/bad sensor or something. I did notice when in town if I manually turned over drive off the light wouldn’t come on. So I did this to avoid seeing (and having to deal with) the problem.
Well, one day as I was about to pull into the driveway the whole vehicle started shaking like it was trying to slip into park. So I took it back to the Ford dealership. They decided it was the control valve assembly but couldn't guarantee that was the only problem until they got into the transmission. They wanted to sell me a new in the box transmission from Ford with a 3 year warranty but the price difference between a control valve assembly and the parts/labor of replacing it and a new transmission was $1100 vs $3400. So I picked the cheaper option in the hopes that would get the job done long enough for me to get to next year at least.
At first that seemed to do the job and I had no problems for about 2 months. But just a couple days ago the old problem seemed to return. No noticeable slipping at first but the light started blinking again. Then after pulling over and turning the engine off and on again it didn't seem to down shift right when it should have gone into overdrive. I stopped again and started off without problems. It hasn’t had the problem since it showed up a couple days ago with a decent amount of around town driving (and manually turning off over drive again). But I have an appointment next week to have it looked at again anyway.
At this point I wish I had just sucked it up and got the whole thing replaced months ago but at the time I had just bought a new laptop and was in one of those months with more bills than usual.
So the question is am I screwed into having to get the whole transmission replaced or could this be the same control valve problem or some related problem? If it will require a replacement/rebuild would I generally be better off having the Ford dealership work on it or some transmission shop? I’ve heard some real horror stories about some of the local transmission shops (weeks to get the car back, gaskets not properly sealed and the shop denying they didn’t do it right, generally sloppy work, arbitration hearings about problems etc etc) so I hesitate to go there unless I get some ridiculous quote from the dealership this time.
Thanks for any input that can be provided.