Hello all,

This morning while I was running some errands I got a transmission breakdown and had to have the car towed back home. How it happened is at first the car was working totally fine for years until I overtook a car on the highway, the transmission shuddered and I could no longer gain speed because of it, then I let it upshift back in the gear it was in before I passed the car and drove a few hundred meters before I coasted to a red light (the end of the highway), then the car drove normally until the next red light, but after that I haven't been able to drive anymore, the transmission slips so much that it barely moves the car on flat ground and somebody has to push me to move it around painfully in a parking lot.

There are no fault codes, no traces of oil leaks, but when I check the oil level, a constant stream of foamy oil drips from the level check plug.

I wondered if anybody had ever experienced this particular failure and had it repaired?

The car has 200xxx kms on the clock and I have a spare transmission that has 65000 kms. I could just replace the whole thing, but being in Quebec, Canada, everything will be a fight with rust, especially the cooler lines and separating the transmission from the engine might just as well destroy both because the dowels get badly stuck.

Thanks guys

J-P

 

What are you reading codes with?
I don't think you checked the fluid level correctly? Was the car running and the fluid up to temperature? If not and you just opened the drain plug the transmission is now way low on fluid. It is mandatory that the fluid be checked and filled properly?

How many miles on the car?
How did the fluid look that you drained out?

Are you aware of the servo bore wear issues on this transmission?

Change the fluid and filter with much care to get the level correct and then see how it operates.
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The fluid level check instructions are printed on the rear cover of the gearbox.

The correct fluid is ESSO 999 or FORD equivalent.

 

I read the codes... with a generic code reader that does powertrain and ABS. I've did a fluid change a few years ago so I know how fluid is filled and adjusted. I doubt the servo bore wear causes the symptoms the car has. As per my first post, the car has a bit more than 200000 kms. The oil overflowing from the level plug (the small one) was foamy. Today I began just ripping that old transmission from the car to install the spare one and first thing I did was draining the fluid on the broken one and it is quite dark for my liking; looks like it took a good beating since I changed the fluid last time so it sure has some wear. Maybe there is too much clutch material in the oil and it clogged the filter, causing low control pressure issues that contributed to toast it all. For now I'll focus on getting the car working again and investigate the broken transmission later. By the way, when you have to remove the wipers to remove a transmission, you are in front of extremely bad engineering!

 

Sounds like the fluid may have got overheated also. Maybe do a line and cooler flush for safety. I think the trans replacement is the wise choice since you have a nice one. Best of luck

 

A little update, the beast lives again! I've did a cheap and dirty job of swapping in my pull-a-part 75$ spare transmission in the car and just filled some oil in it and proceeded to validate good working order by doing a burnout in the garage (it's -15 Celsius outside today...). I did pretty much everything that would disturb any anxious purist like using three brands of oils, putting rtv on an used pan gasket (like there was for many years to seal the heavily pitted pan), and used the old filter as the one on the spare transmission was pierced by a punch 4 inches away from the drain plug at the pick-a-part... When I swapped the pans for my old one without a hole, I cleaned some aluminium and there was some fine particles on the magnet, but not as much as I would have expected. The old oil looked like chocolate fondue but there was no sediments, I think it was just burned. The stainless steel mesh on the low-reverse servo housing was torn on the broken trans, but that seems to be common on the 5r55 and doesn't necessary mean something is wrong. I now just need to finish topping the fluid up, as 7.5 quarts was still not enough, so I'll buy more tomorrow and get the thing out of the garage to make room for the next project (boring woodworking).

 

Awesome. Those 5r55 transmissions can take an absolute beating. My 4.0 has just passed a quarter million miles and I’ve absolutely abused my 5r55 for over 2 decades and never serviced it once. Nothing not even a bottle of atf. Hahaha I have no idea how much longer before it quits but I’ll probably go a similar route you did when it does.

 

Interesting, my experience would demonstrate just the opposite... Every 5r55, old or new are pretty bad, especially when behind the Jaguar V8, mine always felt like it is 2 seconds too late to shift. I also have two rangers that have that transmission, it makes the car move, but that's it. It is even weird that a Ford transmission is so poor as they are usually superior to other north American brands and I don't particularly like Fords. Actually I can totally understand why it has been ditched in favor of the ZF 6 speed on 2003+ models, that was a huge improvement because of that and the fact the lower front ball joints aren't upside down.

 

Must agree the new zf shifts like a dream compared to it. Maybe I got lucky in the durability department but I even shift the hell out of the J gate on it and it’s never let me down yet. How long did the replacement take?

 

The replacement took something like 8 hours but I've been interrupted a lot and I've done repairs to exhaust rust and some other stuff on the way.

I've never even used the J-gate in years because it shifted too late anyways. The spare transmission seems to be quicker already and I haven't yet reset the adaptive values of do the band adjustment procedure. In the end it might be worth giving another try at the J-gate.

One thing that's annoying me now is that the new trans does a theremin sound when I start and just before I stop. The old one never made that sound. I hope it's nothing...

 

I have had both transmissions and have driven both over 100K miles each. The 6 speed is a better and a much more expensive transmission. The advantage of the cheaper Ford 5 speed comes from the massive after market that has grown up because the 5 speed was used in common Ford's like the Mustang and Explorer. So it can be built and modified to take great amounts of power without failure. This is NOT true in stock form.

So it's a very common unit with well known problems that have all been solved a long time ago.
Here is just one outfit supplying rebuilt HD units.
5R55 Rebuilt Transmission

Both transmissions had small problems for me. The 5 speed had some rough shifting finally solved with a replacement valve body done under factory warranty on my old 2003 Lincoln LS. Ford at first would only replace the shift solenoids and if that did not fix it then the valve body.

The 6 speed ZF had the very well known fluid leak from the wiring sealing sleeve plus the failing bridge seal later on. Both of these were found after the factory warranty ran out so on my dime. But not unexpected or even very expensive.

Now that later 8 speed ZF which I currently have in my 2014 XJR is another step up for sure! Only at 60K miles and thinking about a fluid change but so far zero problems or leaks.
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