Tranny Issue
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Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 2
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From: AZ
Tranny Issue
Hey guys. I recently tried passing a vehicle on the interstate in my 04 FX4, when all of a sudden my truck jumped into a false neutral. I pulled over, turned my truck off and restarted it. To make a long story short, I drove home going about 45 mph with my hazards on. I only have 1st and 2nd gear now. After second gear it goes into a false neutral again. I have no check engine light, scanned it anyway and it only came back with an ABS code. It shifts from first to second just fine. P, R and manual 1st and 2nd have no issues either. I wanted to see if any of you have had this problem and what the fix was before I get ripped off at some transmission shop. Thanks in advance for your help
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 1
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My 04 Screw with 122,000 miles on it did the something similar on Xmas eve. I had a busy day of running around and I had one short run after I had came home to do. I was doing about 30 mph and I heard a loud revved up sound. I had 1st and 2nd but went to neutral in 3rd. I first checked the fluid and being at night it looked a lil low so I add a little and it ended up being a lil over. It still stalled out in 3rd or it was a hard shift to 3rd.
I came on here and did some research all day Xmas (nice Xmas huh?) and found if I turned off OD it would shift normally. So I did that and it worked and I figured that would give me time to get it checked out. I took it by a nearby tranny shop and the did a quick check and said 3rd gear was gone and need a rebuild, cost $1900 to $2500. OUCH! I called around to a few other shops for about 10 days and manage to get the cost down to $1300 on a rebuilt one with 12 month/15,000 miles warranty. So thinking that was the way to go even though I found the videos on here on how the fix it, I just couldn't pull the trigger to do it myself, uhh previous nightmare with a Nissan hardbody tranny that still haunts me to this day, so spending the $1300 I thought was ok. Dealership wanted $5000.
Now driving it, I had to manually turn the OD off each time. One day I heard a thud of a sound twice and thought ok its on it final leg. So a day or two later I forgot to turn the OD off and for some reason it shifted through all the gears but a little ruff. So I called a mechanic buddy of mines and he thought that I might had gotten the fluid hot and just need a change. The last time I had it done was around 88,000 miles so I went with the flush and change but I also added Lucas fix to it and now it shift fine, knock on wood.
Long story short, try the least first and see if that does it. I still don't know what the thud sound, but my guess would be that little fluid I added may have helped to dislodged the gears that was stuck??? I never had any codes or engine light come on just the shift to neutral when going to third. Now I'm looking at changing the front, rear differential and transfer case fluids.
I came on here and did some research all day Xmas (nice Xmas huh?) and found if I turned off OD it would shift normally. So I did that and it worked and I figured that would give me time to get it checked out. I took it by a nearby tranny shop and the did a quick check and said 3rd gear was gone and need a rebuild, cost $1900 to $2500. OUCH! I called around to a few other shops for about 10 days and manage to get the cost down to $1300 on a rebuilt one with 12 month/15,000 miles warranty. So thinking that was the way to go even though I found the videos on here on how the fix it, I just couldn't pull the trigger to do it myself, uhh previous nightmare with a Nissan hardbody tranny that still haunts me to this day, so spending the $1300 I thought was ok. Dealership wanted $5000.
Now driving it, I had to manually turn the OD off each time. One day I heard a thud of a sound twice and thought ok its on it final leg. So a day or two later I forgot to turn the OD off and for some reason it shifted through all the gears but a little ruff. So I called a mechanic buddy of mines and he thought that I might had gotten the fluid hot and just need a change. The last time I had it done was around 88,000 miles so I went with the flush and change but I also added Lucas fix to it and now it shift fine, knock on wood.
Long story short, try the least first and see if that does it. I still don't know what the thud sound, but my guess would be that little fluid I added may have helped to dislodged the gears that was stuck??? I never had any codes or engine light come on just the shift to neutral when going to third. Now I'm looking at changing the front, rear differential and transfer case fluids.