Kinda New Car

[Cyberbeer]

I just bought a 98 Ford Crown Vic P71 Police Interceptor. Fun car for as large as it is. Though I am having one small problem. Last night I was driving home and noticed that when I was going up a hill and slightly pressed on the gas the car would shudder when going from O/D to 3rd gear. It shifts normally up and down shifts in other gears fine. If I turn the O/D off via the column shifter it shifts down normally. The only thing I did not try was getting up to a higher speed and forcing a downshift with the accelerator pedal. Otherwise I love the car.

I plan to change out the tranny fluid with some fresh stuff, but I am curious if this problem points to something else?

 

[martin]

It's probably never been driven easy before. try driving it like you stole it and see if the same thing happens

 

[Cyberbeer]

I think its 'converter shudder'. I'm afraid to take it to a shop and have them do a complete flush. I've heard stories of A/T dying after a flush was done to them.

 

[koda6966]

I have also heard those stories and seen it happen firsthand. What happens is the grit in the auto trannies after a certain period of time becomes vital to them in order to function properly and maintain grip. Some people however, swear against this saying that any grit will do nothing but harm the tranny. It's your decision to flush or not. I've never done it to my Ranger, and as far as I know it has never been done to it. I'm at 150k right now.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I have also heard those stories and seen it happen firsthand. What happens is the grit in the auto trannies after a certain period of time becomes vital to them in order to function properly and maintain grip.

That is what I have heard too.

I would try dropping the pan, cleaning the magnet, changing the filter and topping it off and see where that gets you, if you are not any further ahead then flush it... and if that doesn't fix it or makes it worse you will need a transmission anyway so it won't really matter.

It may be old enough where there is a drain plug in the converter, then you could drain most of it out (between the TC drain and dropping the pan) yourself for step two rather than paying someone to flush it.

 

[exbass94]

Change the fluid. The only time fresh fluid kills a trans is when it's about to die anyway.So if you change it and it dies, big deal, it would have died within 10k miles anyway. Leaving old masty fluid in there certainly is not gonna help anything. New fluid does not harm perfectly working transmissions!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Change the fluid. The only time fresh fluid kills a trans is when it's about to die anyway.So if you change it and it dies, big deal, it would have died within 10k miles anyway. Leaving old masty fluid in there certainly is not gonna help anything. New fluid does not harm perfectly working transmissions!

I was mainly concerned about changing the filter first, because even when they are flushed usually the filter is never touched.

 

[Cyberbeer]

I put some Dr Trans Shudder fix into the trans and that fixed the problem. Little 2 oz red tube from NAPA.