Oh Sh&^%.......

[Keola P]

I have a major concern I'd like to bring up with you guys. I just figured out that I may be experiencing the notorious 2-3 flair. Has been happening now for the past couple of weeks. When shifting from 2nd to 3rd at approximately 2300-2400 rpm, there's a mild 1/4 second flair that occurs between shifts. Any lower or higher in the rpm range while shifting between those two gears...no flair...shifts like a champ.



I bought her from a used car dealer (no warranty anymore) back in June with a little over 23,000 miles and I barely put 4,000 miles on her since. She was babied from the get go although I do drive her a little hard once in a while. I've done a bunch of upgrades so far...RP in the engine, K&N intake, modified throttle body, exhaust, EE rear sway bar, rancho's, and I've been running a "tweaked" premium fuel performance tune from torrie for the last few months. Other than this possible trans problem (fingers crossed) and squeeking rear sway bar poly bushings, she runs like a dream. Questions.....



So ST Guru's, any suggestions? Is this even possible with such low mileage? Am I jumping the gun? Are the 05 trannys just as problematic as the earlier model ones? I know most will probably say take it in to a trans shop to get it looked at asap right? Why couldn't this happen before fricken Christmas when I had the cash? :wacko:



Based on what I read in the archives, could be a valve body, gasket, fluid, or solenoid problem. I'm going to start off by changing the trans fluid, filter, and do the EPC solenoid adjustment. Trans fluid and filter to my knowledge has never been changed. Any recommendations as far as what type of trans fluid to use? Should I stick with mercon or perhaps go the RP/synthetic route? Lucas oil? Can anyone recommend a good place to get a deep transmission pan?



Thanks in advance Guys and Happy New Year......I hope

 

[Rodger Tellefson]

There's some interesting reading by doing a site search on "2 3 Flair" matching all these words, Title & message, and All Posts.

 

[ray moyer]

change out the fluid and filter

use RP its awesome in the tranny



hope that fixes it buddy, i personally havent had any tranny problems just the cut off switch activating in not so great times... :wacko:

 

[EddieS'04]

Imediatly get it to a good trans shop. Could mean the difference of $500-$700 valve body repair and solenoids and upgrade valvebody gasket.

Wait to late a whole transmision. Search the board, its true.

 

[Todd Z]

Minor edit...



As for the tranny....

I would do a service on it using only Ford fluid, Do the epc adjustment and re flash in the tune from torry....



I noticed some times the ST needs a re flash to keep the tuning fresh....



Todd Z

 

[Jeffrey Travis]

After I bought my '03 in '05 I was still able to buy the extended 3yr or 75K extended warranty for about $1200



I would look into it before letting any dealership know there may be an issue with their product (aka Your ST).

 

[Keola P]

oops...sorry Todd Z



Emotion got the best of me on that one



Thanks for the tips guys. I think I'm gonna change out the trans fluid with RP ATF. If Ford cant even make a trustworthy transmission, why should I trust their trans fluid?



Hopefully changing out the fluid, filter, epc adjust, and reflash will solve the problem. The flair doesn't happen very often...drove for about 25 minutes today so far and no flair so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[FlipTrac_511]

HawaiianST, my transmission is starting to do the same thing...again. But I've also been running a 91 octane performance tune on about five tanks now. Last time I had this problem my tranmission was replaced with a rebuilt one by the dealership, fortunately under warranty. This was at about 28K miles and I think I was running a 91 octane performance tune too.



After that I stopped using custom tunes for a while until I decided to start using an 87 octane performance tune for the next two years. No problems at all until someone borrowed my truck and put 91 octane in her...and she felt great (even under 87 octane tune)! With gas prices so low I decided to keep filling up with 91 octane and flashed with the 91 tune again just in case. It's been fine until recently.



I just flashed back to stock and disconnected the batt for a few minutes. Hopefully things don't get worse! Maybe the transmission doesn't like this particular tune?



FYI, after my trans was replaced, I dropped the pan and did the EPC adjustment and replaced the filter. Then at about 58K I had the trans flushed by the dealer. I'm almost at 60K miles.



Goodluck and Happy New Year to all!

 

[EddieS'04]

HST, I wouldnt worry about using ford fluids. They dont make them anyway. They pick a company that makes something to thier spec. Then they contract with them to bottle it under motorcraft. Next year they may use a different company. They put that kind of thing out on bid.

If you go RP be shure to do the complete flush and fill. Not just a pan dump.



For me I never went the extra $$ for any of my street performace automatics. Made shure I had a good aftermarket cooler. Even the weak AOD with a shift kit and 2600RPM stall converter in my 5.0L T-bird survived over 100K with stock fluid. Still shifting strong when I sold it.