Trans problems and evo tuners

[mwood1986]

Is it possible for the canned tunes in an evo to trash a transmission?
I got the incorrect gear ratio in gear 1 and 2 code and also the p1000 code which I don't think matters much. It won't shift into any other gear but 3rd and reverse after tearin around in snow drifts the other day nothin happened till the day after though which is weird.
I had torn around a little in snow before and never had issues but it was before I had the tuner.

That's why I was wondering if these programmers can possibly fry a transmission cause I don't tear around often and a truck isn't a truck unless you get it dirty now and then.
Oh yea the only thing I modified on the tuner was the tire size and advanced the timing since I ran lvl2 I never touched the shift firmness control.

Dropped the pan and found a glob of tiny shavings on the magnet and burnt smelling fluid and I know for a fact it wasn't burnt nor dark a week earlier.

I have an 04 newer body style F150
with the 5.4 and the 4r75e transmission, 33" tires and only 43,000miles on it.
I hear these transmissions are supposed to be indestructable. I ran it on lvl2 since lvl3 caused a loss in performance for my truck.
I noticed it shifted pretty hard but never thought much of it since the evo warrants the stock tunes. I dropped the pan and the fluid

Thanks in advance for the info

[88Racing]

I don't know what you are fishing for here but to my knowledge edge tuners have not fried a tranny yet.
Some possible causes to tranny failure.
1. Internal mechanical failure. A. Valve body.
B. Clutch packs.
C. Pumps.
2. Oversized tires without regearing.
You start to ask a lot out of your drive line with the extra added mass of wheels/tires and starting and stopping. Even with regearing it still adds demand to the drive line.
3. Used vehicle=Not knowing if the tranny has been overused and abused.

Just a general observation, however there seem to be some of these trucks(04-06) that seem to be having failures at low mileages. I have been seeing more 06's than other years and 3/4's of all of them have never had a programmer.
So I don't know what more to tell you other than its probably not the programmer.

[bustintheirazz]

Well, Im not really fond of the "indestructible ford tranny". I have an 05 F-150. The original transmission lasted 70k miles then crapped out, did a Ford Replacement Transmission. The replacement lasted 12k miles. I am running the Gryphon set on moderate tuning, no towing, was in snow when this happened. Not sure whats at fault. Maybe just a bad tranny, i wasnt harder than normal on the transmission and even if I was, 12k miles?

[88Racing]

There are just a whole lot of variables when it comes to these electronically controlled transmissions of what fails on them.
Here's one:http://forum.gopowerhungry.com/2004-...-issues-4.html
Read the last page for his fix to the problem.
That's why I made it a sticky.

If anything I'd recomend doing a valve body upgrade. That's what I'm thinking about doing in February before my tranny decides to take a dump!

[mwood1986]

Yea going to take it to a tranny shop and pray it's a sensor of some sort the guy told me the truck starting out in 3rd gear is it's limp home feature so we'll see what the tests bring up at the shop come Tuesday.
Oh and the previous owner babied the truck it was all street driven it still has almost all the under-body paint basically I just so happened to get a truck that has a bad tranny I'm assuming and of course this past year I've owned it it's had to have rear axle seals and a new front brake caliper installed it's almost stupid. I'm a Ford man but 3grand in one year would really get old fast.
I spoke to the previous one owner and he got rid of it during the last gas price spike it had 32inch tires that were 13" wide when I got the truck 305/50R20s hell the guy put heavy duty studs and a power steering cooler in it when he put the big tires on.

[88Racing]

Originally Posted by mwood1986

Yea going to take it to a tranny shop and pray it's a sensor of some sort the guy told me the truck starting out in 3rd gear is it's limp home feature so we'll see what the tests bring up at the shop come Tuesday.
Oh and the previous owner babied the truck it was all street driven it still has almost all the under-body paint basically I just so happened to get a truck that has a bad tranny I'm assuming and of course this past year I've owned it it's had to have rear axle seals and a new front brake caliper installed it's almost stupid. I'm a Ford man but 3grand in one year would really get old fast.
I spoke to the previous one owner and he got rid of it during the last gas price spike it had 32inch tires that were 13" wide when I got the truck 305/50R20s hell the guy put heavy duty studs and a power steering cooler in it when he put the big tires on.

I'm starting to wonder if people are treating their trannies to gently?
That's a very common thing I have been hearing about trannies that fail is that the previous owner babied them.

I drive mine like I stole it alot of the times.

[Power Hungry]

Just remember, the strategy relearns to a particular set of driving characteristics. The softer you drive it, the softer it shifts. Soft shift strategies will cause excessive slippage during shifts and accelerate clutch wear.

For what it's worth, the 4R70/75 is not the bulletproof trans people say it is. It is a good trans, but a large number of the TSB and FSA notices deal with shifting issues, particularly '06 and '07. Ford has always had a hard time with transmissions, from the E4OD up to the 5R100. It seems like the ONLY vehicle that ever worked right was the 4R100 behind the Gen 2 Lightnings. Boy, how I'd love to put one of those in my Expy!

To answer your question, given the number of units on the street (numbering in the 10's of thousands just with Evolutions), historically we haven't seen any significant increase in transmission failure on vehicles running a programmer versus those running without. What may happen is that any performance increase will exploit a weakness and may accelerate a failure, but it's a fair bet that the transmission was going to suffer the failure anyway but possibly at a later point.

Like Lars, I drive our Expy it like I stole it (much to Corey's irritation). We've got close to 70K now and it runs and shifts like a top.

I hope this is helpful

[JWBFX4]

These trannys are definitely not bullet proof, seems like you hear of a lot more failing at low mileage as opposed to higher mileage.

Hope its a simple fix

[mwood1986]

All bad news found out that somehow my reverse gear fused the clutches or somethin like that anyhow so the reason why 3rd and reverse only work is due to the fact I guess reverse uses 3rd gear clutches.
The guy said they use resin impregnated paper for the friction plates and he uses kevlar instead when he rebuilds them.
So I only need clutches but if someones gonna crack it open I'm just getting a complete rebuild.
I'm thinkin what happened is it was a below freezing day and the morons at my friends trailer park plowed my truck in on all sides, I let it warm up I guess it just prolly wasn't warmed up enough and probably starved something of transmission fluid when I had to give it a little gas to get out in the morning.
Just another thing big vehicle manufacturers prolly do on purpose so their vehicles just make it past the warranty period.
He actually told me a story about talking to a GM plant manager and he basically said the same thing they just want to make it past the warranty cause they want to make money. More vehicles breaking down equals more money for the corporations makes sense to me!
I'm still a ford man and I'm going to have him put drag racing clutches in it I think he said they're a blued steel that are infused with teflon or somethin.

Either way for a basic heavy duty rebuild it's $1800 for everything (belts clutches new valve which I guess is magnesium or somethin, seals and your normal stuff also) but I'm thinkin I'm going to have him put a few more bucks into it and I might just get the $250 extended warranty for 36mo 36,000 instead of the normal 12mo 12,000 mile.

He also mentioned with big companies like level 10 transmissions and jasper you're just paying for a name and a warranty anyhow, he said he can build anything they can but for way cheaper and if I want the extra warranty I can buy it of course ha.
I just kinda freaked cause it's a load of crap for a tranny to go out so soon but I guess it's life!

One of these days I'll get to put some money into the motor and get my evo turned into a gryphon with custom tunes lol

[88Racing]

Give these guys a call:Transmission Parts Ford AODE/4R70W Monster Rebuild Kits - Monster Transmission & Performance | 800-708-0087 | Fast FREE Shipping!
Monster trannies are one of the better names out there.
Like I said call them. They don't list the 4R75W but they can get you the parts.