Flush Vs. Drain Trans?

[nghtshd88]

My trans has gotten hard shifts the hotter it gets in the past 4k miles and slightly getting worse/ along with a sort of slow engagement with the gear selector. Might be the solenoid but first Id like to try the fluid since its mainly bad only when its hot and most likely has never been changed at 90k miles.

Is there a huge difference with flushing it versus draining and refilling it with a new filter?

It's $210 at the dealer for a flush and close elsewhere at private shops.

 

[LS4me]

My trans has gotten hard shifts the hotter it gets in the past 4k miles and slightly getting worse/ along with a sort of slow engagement with the gear selector. Might be the solenoid but first Id like to try the fluid since its mainly bad only when its hot and most likely has never been changed at 90k miles.

Is there a huge difference with flushing it versus draining and refilling it with a new filter?

It's $210 at the dealer for a flush and close elsewhere at private shops.

Do a flush. You'll want to remove ALL the old fluid!

 

[joegr]

Flush/exchange.
Changing all of the fluid is much better than changing 1/3 of it.

That said, the odds of this fixing your problems are very low. You change the fluid to prevent future problems, not fix present ones. (There are always exceptions, so I don't really blame you for trying.)

You can change the filter and clean the pan when you change the solenoid assembly. I think that most 04s have had bad solenoid assemblies.

 

[hite337]

Go ahead and flush it. If anything (like the solenoid) fails later then you can just drop the pan to fix that issue and do the filter while its off. If the fluid doesnt have many miles on it, drain it into a clean pan and re-use it. Synthetic trans fluid is expensive. I would also only let a dealer flush my trans, they know the correct way to do it IMO

 

[nghtshd88]

Well Im hoping it doesnt just fail at once.

I actually called another dealer by me and its $159 for a flush. Might as well try, its starting to be unable to decide what gear it wants around 35mph. I am hearing the buzz in the radio though in park an I believe I read somewhere here thats a sign the solenoid is going

Can someone link me to reputable place that sells the solenoid? Couldn't find it at tasca or fordparts. Ive realized its hard to find parts for this car, I need rear tierods too and havent found them anywhere!

 

[joegr]

...
Can someone link me to reputable place that sells the solenoid? Couldn't find it at tasca or fordparts. Ive realized its hard to find parts for this car, I need rear tierods too and havent found them anywhere!

Here it is on FordPartsGiant

http://www.fordpartsgiant.com/Page_...bute=&isvinskip=&Attributes=37656,40901,22102

$317.41

 

[JoshMcMadMac]

Here it is on FordPartsGiant

http://www.fordpartsgiant.com/Page_...bute=&isvinskip=&Attributes=37656,40901,22102

$317.41

Just make sure it is the latest revision, "9L" as in 9L2Z-7G391-A.

http://www.tascaparts.com/parts/ind...A&make=Ford&action=oePartSearch&siteid=213668

 

[jrand]

fresher fluid will help your cause if it truly has not been replaced in 90k.

as for the symptoms, make sure coils are in spec, maf is clean, throttle body clean, fuel filter and injectors are new/clean, and make sure car has the correct octane of fuel, (and ensure everything else on the car is generally in spec and functioning) THEN disconnect the battery, reconnect the battery and follow the new battery procedure, and run a drive cycle and watch your ls purr like a kitten.
your solenoid could be bad, but your trans is probably just receiving bad shift parameters + old fluid and that is resulting in poor trans performance