Help with my dad's Lincoln Continental

[Cory Richards]

My dad has a 2000 Lincoln Continental with about 60,000 miles. Today we were driving to Lynchburg and while we were driving up a pretty steep incline there was a hard shift and the 'Check Transmission' message came up next to his gauges. The message stays there until you press the reset button. After he pressed reset, there was some hard shifting but it went away after a couple minutes. He told me that this has happened at least once before on a steep incline.



Anybody have any idea what this could be before he takes it to the dealer?

 

[Ben Poche]

how is the fluid level and has the trany been flushed

 

[Johnny O]

Ford front-drive transaxles aren't known for long lives, especially if the fluid hasn't been changed. I used to have a '91 Continental which my dad bought new, tranny flushes religiously every 30k and it still blew up at about 125k. I would get the tranny filter changed AND a flush and see how it is.