[CometGSR]

Man, what a morning!

On the way in to work, I got stranded on the side of a very busy off ramp going to my job in Downtown Detroit. For you midwest Michigan guys, I got stranded off of I-375 coming off the ramp from I-75 (right by the Greektown exit). I was lucky to get enough velocity to get on the side of the road. The Sable wasn't alone, there is a GEN1 Taurus wagon at the same spot. It has turned into a parts car, it looks like lots of stuff has been taken off.

After paying the tow truck guy $70 to go 25 miles, it ended up at the dealership. I have the BaseCare warranty so I should be covered. I also uninstalled my AMS chip on the ECU, I wouldn't want the dealer thinking I was messing around.

Anyway, here is hoping the replace the whole transmission. Otherwise, I will be stuck with another Diag fee and will have to wait again. I lost a whole day of work because of it.

 

[firespirit]

How many miles are on your sable?

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[CometGSR]

A mere 86,070 .. :blink:

 

[firespirit]

Originally posted by fordaspiregv@Sep 13 2004, 02:05 PM
A mere 86,070 .. :blink:

And your tranny went out ? Ouch.... <_< I hope the warranty pays to replace it!

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[CometGSR]

Just an update:

The car sat for awhile before the Ford Dealer had a chance to look at it. Sure enough, the car started right up and moved without any issue. He drove it into the garage. So the Ford dealer calls me up and trys to get more info from me, circumstances and what not . I told him that this problem comes up in both city and freeway driving. It is more apparent if it is warmed up.

Here are my guesses:

1) After disconnecting the ECU to remove the AMS chip, I reset something
2) This problem is intermittent and will never show up for the tech.

So, I have lost $70 for the tow and a day off dealing with this. So when I get stranded again, what types of things should I try? What should my next step be? Has anyone else had a problem that was difficult to track down?

I feel like I am being OWNED!!!1111

 

[firespirit]

Well.. do you think it's the chip doing it?

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[j0rd4n]

Originally posted by fordaspiregv@Sep 14 2004, 05:45 PM
Just an update:

The car sat for awhile before the Ford Dealer had a chance to look at it. Sure enough, the car started right up and moved without any issue. He drove it into the garage. So the Ford dealer calls me up and trys to get more info from me, circumstances and what not . I told him that this problem comes up in both city and freeway driving. It is more apparent if it is warmed up.

Here are my guesses:

1) After disconnecting the ECU to remove the AMS chip, I reset something
2) This problem is intermittent and will never show up for the tech.

So, I have lost $70 for the tow and a day off dealing with this. So when I get stranded again, what types of things should I try? What should my next step be? Has anyone else had a problem that was difficult to track down?

I feel like I am being OWNED!!!1111

doesn't seem like much can be done to prevent such events, since they say there is nothing wrong, lol. but like you said, it might be the chip. if it happens again, i would try disconnecting the chip and dis/reconnect the battery to clear the computer and see what happens

 

[CometGSR]

I started having these problems before the chip was put in. I installed the chip after a few weeks of it working fine. I figured the problem went away.... So I can tell you, in 100% certainly, that the chip is not the issue. The chip will not be going back in until this is resolved.

My buddy did some searching on TSBs on my transmission and he found some interesting results. One had to do with sudden high RPMs while shifting and the other had something about delayed shifts. We don't have access to the text of these TSBs so I don't know what they say.

Ford knows that there are issues with these transmissions. I think since I towed the car to the purchasing dealer, they should at least test the car more before offering it back to me. I don't really care how long it takes to find the problem, I just want it fixed so I have a reliable car again.

 

[joe5.0]

Dont take it in until it flashes a check engine light or transaxle failure. The stealership wont do anything unless they can replicate the problem easily or its throwing a code.

 

[CometGSR]

An update:

The Service Manager took the Sable out for a drive to see if the transmission problem started and lucky for me, it showed up in a big way.

He started to leave the parking lot and it slipped as he was trying to get on the road but it fell into gear. He decided to go drive a little bit longer and while driving on a bridge, it slipped and never fell into gear. They had to get a tow truck to come and tow it back to the shop.

So it looks like I will get the work done after all. He said it looks like a trans replacement. The Ford Warranty people are going to look at it quickly and give the green light.

I got this nice 2004 Taurus SE to drive. Its got 7,500 miles on it. Its a Vulcan and has some cool features like the trip computer and CD player. Not bad!

http://www.geometrictech.com/ebay/rental.jpg' alt='' width='1280' height='960' class='attach' />[/url]

I guess I can start liking Ford again. Still, 86,000 is a pretty short life span for a transmission. I guess the extended warranty is a good thing. I should have it back by Monday or Tuesday. The service manager commented on my car, saying it looks to be well maintained. He liked the SHO wheels, hehe. :banana:

 

[joe5.0]

It sounds like they are taking good care of ya, with the loaner & everything. Good luck with it. How often did you change your tranny fluid, and any burnt fluid smell?

And yeah 86k is not that long, but mine lasted 2,500 miles so I got ya beat by a bit.

There are people on the Acura-CL board that have gone through 2 or 3 trannies by 86k, so it aint just Ford that has problems with their auto trannies.

 

[CometGSR]

I have only driven the car 25K so it was getting close to the tranny fluid service. The had the car in the garage a month ago with the same problem, so I would assume that they would tell me that I need a transmission flush at that time.

Its nice when the warranty pays off for a change! B) As part of the BaseCare warranty, I got the rental.

Man, awfulmatic .. err, automatic transmissions have been around forever. I wonder why they have so much problems with those..

 

[CometGSR]

YEAH! I got the new Ford reman tranny installed ! Not bad for $200 in deductables! B) :banana: :chili: :rottenbanana:

 

[jason8225]

Awesome! Glad to hear they took good care of you. Not all stealerships are bad. How do you like it? Does it run good? What tranny did they put in? AX4N?

 

[crispycracker]

I am glad for you. 200 for a Ford reman... It cost me 2100.00 for a rebuilt.. It really sucked....

 

[CometGSR]

Its an AX4N. My buddy, who worked at a dealership says Ford Remans are good. Ford does do all of the recals and uses newer designs to prevent them from failing again.

It runs great! It shifted like the Taurus rental that I had and no hestiation like the old tranny. The chip worked fine too so I am back at 100%.

Now it looks like I can keep my Sable for longer. I hope to get 150K out of it, now its more likely.

 

[Tman]

nice james so you can have a new tranny for lapeer and you can't use the excuse my tranny was going out when i smoke you...buhahhahaha :lol2:

 

[CometGSR]

Yeah.. hehe. I will have to use one of my other excuses.

 

[Xmann01]

Originally posted by fordaspiregv@Sep 15 2004, 07:25 PM
I have only driven the car 25K so it was getting close to the tranny fluid service. The had the car in the garage a month ago with the same problem, so I would assume that they would tell me that I need a transmission flush at that time.

Its nice when the warranty pays off for a change! B) As part of the BaseCare warranty, I got the rental.

Man, awfulmatic .. err, automatic transmissions have been around forever. I wonder why they have so much problems with those..

They are all faulty by design. All auto transmissions will fail... its just a matter of time. Some will hold up better in the long run if they have more friction discs in the clutch packs. I think one of the main problems with the AX4N / AX4S is that they only have 4 friction dics per clutch pack. The addition of another one or two discs would likely make it a much longer lasting transmission... and more capable of higher output engines.