One of the troubles with owning the orphaned 2005-2007 Ford 500 is that there are barely any forums for this car, but it is closely related to 5th gen Taurus (same platform) and 4th gen (same engine), so I hope I can drop a question here.
The 2005 car with 6-speed AT has 146,000 miles. The transmission fluid was changed at 100,000 miles. Last week I started noticing an issue. While cruising at 30-50 mph, if I give it some gas, or the road starts going uphill, the car hesitates to downshift, there is some shacking and shudder going on, sometimes violent, always reproducible. This is supposedly a tell-tale sign that clutch is wearing out, but I thought I might ask here if this problem can be caused by something else that's inexpensive to fix.
I looked at the transmission fluid, and every time there is a black particle on the stick. I assume this is metal shavings, which can't be good. Things don't look good. Considering the cost of fixing or replacing the transmissions, I assume it's game over for this 500?
The 2005 car with 6-speed AT has 146,000 miles. The transmission fluid was changed at 100,000 miles. Last week I started noticing an issue. While cruising at 30-50 mph, if I give it some gas, or the road starts going uphill, the car hesitates to downshift, there is some shacking and shudder going on, sometimes violent, always reproducible. This is supposedly a tell-tale sign that clutch is wearing out, but I thought I might ask here if this problem can be caused by something else that's inexpensive to fix.
I looked at the transmission fluid, and every time there is a black particle on the stick. I assume this is metal shavings, which can't be good. Things don't look good. Considering the cost of fixing or replacing the transmissions, I assume it's game over for this 500?
