Transmission Flair - How much is normal? (If any)

[Justin Wilcoxson]

I've just recently discovered that I have a minor tranny flair. ('02 ST w/62k mi)



I did change my trans fluid & filter at 45k and did the EPC adjustment.



I havn't ever noticed this flair before but just recently it seems that I get about a .25 to .5 sec "flair"

between 2-3 and sometimes 3-4. It's very minor and only detectable under fairly hard acceleration.

During that type of accel, I can hear the RPM rise slightly in between gears.

(It is totally undetectable under light acceleration though)



MY QUESTION IS: Is this the "flair" everyone is talking about OR is this normal? I'm thinking that this could have existed since new when I bought my ST.



For the STs that have had the flair and had problems: Was it more severe? Longer of a delay? Significant RPM rise? Noticeable at all levels of acceleration etc?



Thanks in adv!

Justin

 

[DAN PETERSON]

Same for me, but my 02 has 27k and does the flair every once in a while at 2500 r.p.m's.

Can an X-Cal take care of this?

 

[FlipTrac_511]

Disconnect your battery for about 20-30 minutes (to be safe) and see if it goes away. On my 04, the tranny doesn't like it when I switch from the usual "spirited" driving to a light-footed one. After doing so I'll notice a "slip" from maybe 2nd to 3rd gear. Same goes when I flash the PCM with my XCal tuner without first letting the battery sit disconnected. I don't what's causing the tranny to behave this way...maybe the "adaptive" transmission brain is just getting confused when driving style changes all of a sudden. Just try the battery thing first, it's worked for me.

 

[Scott Heckler]

I had a slight 2-3 flare that the performance tune on my xcal2 made go away.

 

[Richard L]

Any flair increases heat and wear on the transmission. Heat is the real enemy and damages the fluid, which leads to more slipping and more damage to the fluid....kind of a vicous circle.



If you increase your transmission fluid pressure, either manually or via a XCal tuner that will help. Just remember that the Ford 5R55E transmission is prone to leaking valebodies and sticking valvebodies which is what causes the flair in the first place. If you start to notice the shift flair your can increase the fluid pressure and reduce or eliminate the symptoms, but you have not fixed the problem. I will likely come back over time. If you don't plan on owning the vehicle when the problem returns, then you may get lucky. If you plan on keeping the vehicle for a while, you should probably get the valvebody replaced as soon as you start to notice the symptoms, hopefully while it's still under warranty.



...Rich