# Any Ford tranny techs out there



## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Our 06 started flashing the tow/haul light so I took it to a friends shop. He scanned it and found solenoid "A" failure and a couple other solenoid issues so we replaced all 7, then he finds an issue with the wiring harness that goes to the solenoids so he replaced that as well. He says its done come pick it up and I get about a mile down the road a the tow/haul light starts to flash again so back we go. Going through his tests he thinks its a wiring issue ("maybe corrosion") from the harness to the place where it plugs into the firewall. Truck has 80k, fluid was very clean and it shifts fine. Also right before the tow/haul light started flashing my dash brake light came on and all illumination lights went off. Don't know if its all related, just seeing if anyone else has had these issues, thanks.


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## kimber750 (Sep 19, 2011)

Fords are known to have problem with tranny plug. Dealer sells replacement pigtails.

What codes did you pull?


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## Buswell Forest (Jan 11, 2013)

Electronic gremlins are the absolute worst. Good luck.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

kimber750;1859284 said:


> Fords are known to have problem with tranny plug. Dealer sells replacement pigtails.
> 
> What codes did you pull?


Im not sure of the actual numbers but come to find out even after all the solenoids replaced, pigtail replaced it looks like I blew a friction clutch. The fiction clutch is used in reverse and in tow/haul. So now another 1300 bucks it should be a brand new tranny! It better be for the 2300 bucks i"ll have into it! Now hopefully the illumination dash lights that keep coming on and off doesn't have anything to do with it or I'm sure it will blow again.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Kimber it was actually the coast clutch that went I guess


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## kimber750 (Sep 19, 2011)

How many miles? If I was opening the tranny would at least put friction plates in and go over the pump.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

kimber750;1859739 said:


> How many miles? If I was opening the tranny would at least put friction plates in and go over the pump.


This truck has 80,300 miles and has pushed, pulled or hauled something from 308 miles. I was going to call him tomorrow and ask him how much more to do all that. When he pulled the pan there was no metal, just a greyish film on the magnetic drain plug.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

If it's reasonable I might as well have a 100% new tranny, the way we were going to do it I guess it would be a 80% new tranny. If its a bunch more (which I can't see) I'll just have him do what he can do and we'll probably be getting rid of it come spring while I can still get some decent trade or re sale money for it. I was going to trade it in last year but decided to keep it one or two more years....should have got rid of it then. Dealer said they would give me 12 with the dump bed still in it and I didnt think that was too bad. Its very clean except for two very small rust spots over the rear wheel wells but thats getting taken care of before plowing starts. We'll see.


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## kimber750 (Sep 19, 2011)

Brian Young;1859809 said:


> This truck has 80,300 miles and has pushed, pulled or hauled something from 308 miles. I was going to call him tomorrow and ask him how much more to do all that. When he pulled the pan there was no metal, just a greyish film on the magnetic drain plug.


http://natpronet.com/trans/5R110W.pdf

Not too much else more he would have to do other than install the new parts as he puts it back together.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Here's an update, went to pick up the truck this past Saturday, got down the road and the tow/haul light came back on so I took it right back. He found codes relating to the coast clutch and said it would need to be replaced. He tore it all down, found nothing wrong with any of the clutches and said everything looks very good in there, held pressure etc.. He did some tests on everything and tested all the solenoids and everything is working just fine. He says it has to be the PCM and seeings how the original wiring pigtail that was bad might have damaged the circuit that controls that part of the tranny. After talking to a couple friends (Experienced Ford techs) they say they've never seen a PCM fail like that, neither did the mechanic working on it who also is an experienced Ford tech and a tranny guy that now owns his own shop. Seeings how these PCM's rarely ever fail I found a used one in Maine and he's over nighting it to his shop. HOPEFULLY this is it. FORD OWNERS....CHECK THE WIRING PIGTAIL FROM THE TRANSMISSION TO THE PCM!!!!! I guess it's a know problem. Nothing was melted or anything on the original wiring harness but something was making noise in the plastic end of the pigtail. Kimber your thoughts....?


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## kimber750 (Sep 19, 2011)

Actually problems with Ford PCM's is quite common, just look at identifix. I know of 3 trucks I have worked on with tranny issues that turned out to be caused by pcm. But these were all older trucks with 4r100 or e4od. Gonna be doing a pigtail on 99 F550 next week lets hope that will cure it's problem.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Well thats encouraging, I guess,lol. I actually joined a Ford truck site much like this and I was reading pages of "tow/haul light flashing" threads and many seem to have the same issues but no one posted the outcome! A lot of guys said they just flushed the tranny out or just replaced a solenoid that failed. I'll know by noon today whether the PCM fixed it or not and update the outcome.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Latest update...new/used pcm in, mechanic took it for a 10-15 mile road test and all is good, I get in it, drive it around the block and light starts to flash!!!!!!!!!!!!:angry: He pulled it in and scanned it found the same code (P0751 solenoid A). He clears it and drives it without the tow/haul mode on and the light stays off, the minute we push the tow/haul mode button it starts flashing again. We cleared the codes again and drove home with tow/haul off and everything seems fine, no lights flashing and shifts fine. Actually, even with the tow/haul light flashing it shifted fine. A few weeks ago my brake light came on and all my dash lights and radio went off then back on in about 30 seconds, its done this trick a few times now, wondering if its related.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Bump.....this is killing me!


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## kimber750 (Sep 19, 2011)

Brian Young;1862309 said:


> Latest update...new/used pcm in, mechanic took it for a 10-15 mile road test and all is good, I get in it, drive it around the block and light starts to flash!!!!!!!!!!!!:angry: He pulled it in and scanned it found the same code (P0751 solenoid A). He clears it and drives it without the tow/haul mode on and the light stays off, the minute we push the tow/haul mode button it starts flashing again. We cleared the codes again and drove home with tow/haul off and everything seems fine, no lights flashing and shifts fine. Actually, even with the tow/haul light flashing it shifted fine. A few weeks ago my brake light came on and all my dash lights and radio went off then back on in about 30 seconds, its done this trick a few times now, wondering if its related.


Sounds like intermittent short which will be a real SOB to find. I would start with tracing the wire for Solenoid A from the tranny up to the pcm connector. Also sometimes the pcm will need to be flashed by the dealer when a new one is installed. Have also seen the plug in the tranny go bad. For a 4r100 this requires replacing solenoid pack, not sure on yours. Any of the speed or abs sensors can cause problems. When I get back Monday I can look up the pin #'s at the connectors for solenoid A.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

thanks Kimber! actually my ABS light does come on from time to time as well from a bad sensor he found. WOuld that have anything to do with the tranny?


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## Whiffyspark (Dec 23, 2009)

Shouldn't cause the issues you're describing


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Drove it today without the tow/haul on and hopefully it doesn't hurt the tranny towing our trailer around town til we get this figured out.


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## Plowtoy (Dec 15, 2001)

Don't know if this will make a differance, but have you checked the round 7 trailer connector? Seems I have had many trans issues with a corroded round 7 connector. I have had corrosion from the park light pin to the brake light pin in there and sure enough, the trans thinks your applying the brake, there for causing the trans to shift all crazy like and throw a trans code.... Might be worth a check...


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Plowtoy;1866107 said:


> Don't know if this will make a differance, but have you checked the round 7 trailer connector? Seems I have had many trans issues with a corroded round 7 connector. I have had corrosion from the park light pin to the brake light pin in there and sure enough, the trans thinks your applying the brake, there for causing the trans to shift all crazy like and throw a trans code.... Might be worth a check...


Thanks for the input plowtoy. I'm going to have the dealer look at it next week and give them the list of things I think it might be and put that on the list. Its used daily to tow our one trailer around and it's well lubed with FF but I have never checked the back of the plug. Thanks again!


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## Antlerart06 (Feb 28, 2011)

Brian Young;1866432 said:


> Thanks for the input plowtoy. I'm going to have the dealer look at it next week and give them the list of things I think it might be and put that on the list. Its used daily to tow our one trailer around and it's well lubed with FF but I have never checked the back of the plug. Thanks again!


My 99 F350 7.3 had same issue Auto tow button would flash and after 2 different dealers Found a bad wire in the steering column


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Antlerart06;1866494 said:


> My 99 F350 7.3 had same issue Auto tow button would flash and after 2 different dealers Found a bad wire in the steering column


Thats what ive been reading in another forum, Im checking that tonight. I guess its right where the shifter goes into the column


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## Antlerart06 (Feb 28, 2011)

Brian Young;1866570 said:


> Thats what ive been reading in another forum, Im checking that tonight. I guess its right where the shifter goes into the column


yes 
When mine went bad They said its a common thing First dealer never seen it happen
2nd dealer seen it a lot


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Update and opinions wanted. The mechanic stumbled on a ford tsb for 09-11 super duty's with the similar issues as mine has. The tsb stated the coast clutch drum develops hairline cracks that you cant see at fist just by looking at it until its too late. Come to find out the part number for the 09-11 is the same as my 06.


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Final update, well it's fixed! turns out it was that coast clutch drum, he was able to borrow some sort of pressure plate so he hooked it up and almost instantly saw the fluid start to bubble, he then removed the tranny and removed that drum checked it again and could see exactly where it was coming from.....whewwwww. Now it kind of makes sense, when in tow/haul that solenoid triggers different gears (I think he said when in tow/haul mode it shifts 1,3,5th and without it shifts 2,4,6th) so thats why it would flash only when in tow/haul. I'm not really out anything that didn't need replaced. There were 2 or 3 bad solenoids, the wire pig tail was bad. I guess Im only out the 100 bucks on a new/used pcm which will be for sale, if anyone needs one pm me


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## Sprag-O (Dec 31, 2013)

Glad to hear you fixed it... I had a Camry that after checking all wiring, rebuilding and flat out replacing, we could never get working... sent the car to russia for a loss....

The Wifes Honda on the other hand, those are easy...


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## Brian Young (Aug 13, 2005)

Yeah in all the years of turning wrenches I was never a tranny guy, Ive removed and replaced my share but zero rebuilds. Luckily he's a friend that we worked at the same dealership for years and did all of their transmissions. Best of all the part, seals and a couple of o rings aren't 700ish they're 200ish!!!!!


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