5r55e Slight shift flare when warm

[Rose2300]

well I think i have the 2-3 shift flare after the truck is warmed up. does this need to be addressed immediately? i can tell the rpms rise but its very minute, probably around 100-200 rpms. from what i have heard this is actually normal or am I mistaken??

 

[Gotta_gofast]

Its a normal issue, but its not "normal". A few hundred bucks and about 6 hours labor will have that baby shifting firm and solid.

 

[Rose2300]

so what kind of repairs does it need?

 

[Gotta_gofast]

Could be a few issues. How many miles? Generally the shift flare is caused by either a worn EPC solenoid, blown separator plate gasket, or bands out of adjustment (or a combo). If maintenance has been neglected dirty fluid will cause poor shifting also.

 

[Rose2300]

it has 68k miles on it, and the trans fluid is clean

 

[Rose2300]

could it be a blown valvebody gasket?

 

[Gotta_gofast]

Yep, as previously mentioned its common for a separator plate gasket to blow out (either between the separator plate and the trans case or the separator plate and valve body). My 2005 transmission had a separator plate with gasket bonded from the factory, I wonder if your 2003 came from the factory with or without the bonded gaskets. Budget a few hundred for a shift kit, sonnax boost valve, aux cooler/filter, good fluid, borg warner EPC, and your trans filter/gaskets. These parts (takes about 6 hours for a first timer) will address most all of the weaknesses in the 5R55E trans.

 

[Rose2300]

don't these come with auxillary coolers??

Anyways if this was fixed how likely would it be for it to happen again? I'm wondering because I've heard a lot of bad things about these transmissions not lasting very long. I'm almost considering selling it and I've only had it for 2 weeks.

 

[Gotta_gofast]

Yep, but I tow and I also plan on supercharging the truck here very soon so I wanted the extra cooling capacity.

The 5R55E is mechanically stronger than the M5OD-R1HD manual, but it suffers from a few shitty parts Ford never addressed. An EPC solenoid has 100K on it. The filter/fluid has never been changed and a small piece of band gets lodged in the armature. The EPC solenoid gets stuck and cannot increase line pressure. The transmission slips so the owner takes it to a tranny shop. The tech diagnoses it as a complete failure and charges $2000+ for a complete rebuild... all it took was $200 in parts to fix. Moral of the story is this trans gets a bad rep because of a few simple parts.

I had a slight 1-2 flare before I tore into my trans. It has been sound and solid ever since. Turn the line pressure up 25% on my programmer and it'll chirp the 1-2 shift.

 

[shane96ranger]

don't these come with auxillary coolers??

Anyways if this was fixed how likely would it be for it to happen again? I'm wondering because I've heard a lot of bad things about these transmissions not lasting very long. I'm almost considering selling it and I've only had it for 2 weeks.

If it has an auxiliary cooler, it still goes through the radiator. It's also not a very good one. As GGF said, it's good to buy a really good one. If you have a reputable shop do every update on the valve body, it will last a long time. My buddy buys them from some place up in New Jersey for about $250-$300 that does all of the updates. You have to send them back your core.

 

[shane96ranger]

How close are you to SLC? My buddy does work for people in ID and WY all the time.

 

[Rose2300]

Im in boise.
So if i had a shop do all of these updates, roughly how much would it cost?

 

[exbass94]

A local Ford dealer quoted me about $500.

 

[Rose2300]

thats alot of dough right now haha.
The flare isn't bad at all right now, it only flares aboout 100 rpm so could I drive it like this for a while without breaking anything else or is this something I need to address immediately?

 

[Gotta_gofast]

You can do it yourself for half of that cost. Your trans isn't going to just quit on you, but every time it flares the bands are wearing that much quicker.