I bought an '04 LS V8 with 28000 miles on it. The car is great. I've only had the car a few days and the last two days I've been having problems manually shifting the tranny. In D5 or D4 the car shifts fine and everything seems fine. But when I shift manually it won't shift past 2nd gear. I'll start off from a stop in 1st then shift to 2nd and then I'll try to shift to third but nothing will happen, I have to put the shifter back into D5 to get it to shift. I've even tried just sitting in my driveway and moving up through the gears with car running and my foot on the brake, it shifts from 1 to 2 and ocassionally it will go into 3 if I keep moving the shifter but most od the time it just stays in 2nd. When I test drove the car before I bought it the shifter worked perfect. I don't think its a tranny problem because its fine in D5 or D4, I think its something to do with the shifter or maybe the computer or something. Is there anything I should try before I bring it to the dealer. Thanks for the help.

if the car is not moving, i dont think it will let you shift past 2nd. as for why it wont when youre driving, i am not sure.

You could try disconnecting the battery for a while. Maybe the tranny learned some lazy habits!

Mine did that a couple of times. Turn the car off, then back on and it was fine. Hasn't done it since. Supposedly just another one of those Lincoln quirks.

Take the car to a Ford dealer for a diagnostic. I bought my 04 LS used with 29,000 miles and immediately had tranny problems. Ford's 5yr./50k mile warranty covers you no matter who owns the car. Cost me $0 for a tranny rebuild, solenoid pack, etc. Might be worth checking it out.

thats right the car is still under warrenty so take it in,

The warranty is 4 years (not 5) or 50K. If your 04 was put into service late 03 it could be out of warranty.

I tried disconnecting the battery to reset the computer and then I went out and drove the car and the problem is still there. Ocassionally it will shift into third but usually I'll have to hit the shifter multiple times and it seems if I use more force it seems to work more often. Its weird shifting from 1 to 2 just a little movement of the shifter and it shifts perfect but I have to use more force after that, even if I get it o shift to 3 its hard to get it to go to 4 or 5. It downshifts fine with no problem. I think it might be in the shifter itself, I've never seen the shifter out of the console but if there is something like a switch that the shifter makes contact with when you move it to tell the transmission to shift, maybe that switch is going bad or its not making good contact. But like I said I've not seen one of these shifters out of the console so I'm not sure how it works. But I looked into the warranty and the car wasn't put into service till March of '05 so I have untill March of next year so I guess I'll bring it in and have it looked at.