P0770 self solve
Thread Starter
5 Year Member
Joined: Jun 2018
Posts: 45
Likes: 16
P0770 self solve
Hi, guys.
Truck: 2012 F-150 SuperCrew 4x4 5.0, 99K miles
Issue: Truck went into limp mode after accelerating from a stop sign. The truck did a rough shift from first to second, then it went into limp mode and would not go out of third gear (wouldn't up-shift or down-shift). Stopping and restarting the truck didn't clear this issue, and by the time I got home, the check engine light was on with code p0770. My initial research on the code suggested anything from bad fluid to a new transmission needed.
Sharing my experience: The purpose of this post is to hopefully help others troubleshoot this issue should they come across this same problem. This isn't to say that what I found and experienced is going to solve your problem, but I was somewhat frustrated with the lack of information out there and thought it would be a good idea to compile my findings in one place via this post.
The code read p0770 shift solenoid E. This solenoid's only job is to allow fluid to go through the valve body to allow shifts for 4, 5, and 6 (off for 1,2,3 and on for 4,5,6)..
My diagnosis: Here is how I determined what my problem was:
The first (helpful) Google search I conducted was this JustAnswer forum that showed which solenoid was even bad.
There is a picture showing the valve body and lead frame assembly with the problematic solenoid indicated. (There is faulty info in this thread regarding the ohm resistance for the solenoid: it states 17.5–18.6 ohms of resistance, but that's not correct.)
There are other posts on F-150 forums that address others having this problem, but only what the dealer told them the solution was (i.e., a valve body replace or a molded lead frame replace or even a trans ecu reflash), which is all great, but how do you know that was what the problem was? In my experience, this p0770 code was very specific to one particular part: shift solenoid E.
How I solved the problem: I found the manual to the transmission here.
If you have an advanced scan tool that can manually turn on and off the solenoid to see if it's responding correctly, that can help you troubleshoot faster. (I did not have such a tool, so I meticulously went through the pages of this manual and started troubleshooting.)
First, you have to drop the pan and drain the fluid, dropping the filter and paying attention to your fluid condition. (Don't pay attention to color; according to
, it looks dirty with low mileage.)
NOTE: If you have glitter in your pan, then the problem involves more than just a bad solenoid.
Next, you have to get a T30 socket, pull the valve body screws, and drop the valve body assembly, being careful to first disconnect the electrical connection on the outside. Pull the tab on the molded lead unit and then pull the pass-through sleeve out, then you can remove the eleven T30 bolts to drop the valve body. Be careful to note that the thermo-whatsit that controls the transfluid going to the cooler will drop out with its spring when the valve body assembly comes out—keep track of it.
.
Follow his recommendations and replace the o-rings on the bulkhead connector sleeve and pump pick-up seal.
When the valve body assembly is out, here is what I did to isolate the issue. On page 14 of the manual, I found the pin combinations and the ohm resistances you should find at each combination. Get your multi-meter and set it to lowest ohm setting, then you can see that for shift solenoid E, or SSE, your resistance should be 10.5 ohms; mine was reading 18.5 ohms. To eliminate the possibility that it wasn't the molded lead frame or any other solenoid, I went through the other combinations on the pins in succession and found that all the other solenoids and sensors were reading at the proper listed resistance. So I knew that all my other components were working correctly, including the molded lead frame.
Please
, which is very informative on how to deal with the valve body assembly once it's out and on your bench.
There is a slide mechanism on the lead frame that is important to put back together correctly, so pay attention to how it's installed so you can get it reassembled. This mechanism connects with your shift lever/****/selector and tells the transmission what to shift into.
Caution: You want to be careful when handling this valve body assembly, as it conducts electricity for the solenoids and static can still fry things. Wear gloves when handling the valve body to avoid static shock shorting out anything, even when testing the pin combos.
One caveat to all this is I had no way of testing my valve body. At this point, there could have been something inside it that was causing a malfunction too, but that was outside of my comfort zone to mess with this. I replaced the solenoid and put everything back together and filled it back up with new fluid, so when everything shifted correctly, I was appeased (lucky?) that nothing was wrong with the valve body.
FYI: If one of your other solenoids is bad, you need to be very careful and take that solenoid out and with you to Ford to order; they make different variations of the other solenoids that have to match your valve body (take detailed photos of both sides of your valve body and take a picture of your sticker on your transmission on the driver side that lists your solenoid strategy and sol body id). Ford has to match the exact solenoid to your transmission; otherwise, you have to reprogram your computer for the different version of that solenoid so your truck shifts right. HOWEVER, there is only one version of shift solenoid E (SSE).
Important: READ the manual and find the appropriate T27 bolts to remove the molded lead frame—there are only six—and find out what INCH pound torque settings to put them back in at (page 90–91 for torque specs).
My trans fluid was only dirty—there was no glitter or metal in the pan and no clutch material; just a little metallic sludge on the magnet. I wiped this clean, changed the o-rings on the pass-through sleeve bulkhead, and replaced the pump pick-up rectangle seal. I had a friend help hold the thermo-whatsit in place, and we put the valve body back in. I then used the manual and followed the instructions on the pattern to torque the T30 bolts back in. (There is a pattern, and I strongly recommend that you follow it. There is a set INCH pound torque for these bolts as well, so don't mess around—pay attention and do it right. Look at page 106 for torque specs and pattern.)
One piece of advice: When reinstalling the valve body assembly, you have to have everything torqued to spec before you put the bulkhead pass-through sleeve back in. There are tabs on the bulkhead that push the retainer clip on the molded lead unit in so you can push up on the tab from below to lock the two together. I had to push in on the bulkhead and still use a fair amount of pressure to push up to get it to click. I was nervous about this breaking and took out the valve body assembly again and tested it on my bench to make sure I wasn't going to break it. (I really, really didn't want to break it and have to replace the molded lead unit). I then put the pan on and filled it up—I needed 8 quarts to refill the transmission.
.
After refilling, I manually shifted the truck with it up on the blocks through third gear (when you're not driving, you won't be able to shift higher than third manually). Then I put more fluid in the trans, drove it, had one hard shift from third to fourth because the valve body wasn't full of fluid, but after that, it shifted smoothly every time. I drove the truck home and topped off the fluid one more time and was done. I can now assume the valve body was not the issue either at this point because 1) other than dirty fluid, the pan was spotless; 2) only the SSE tested above the ohm rating, leaving me to believe it was a mechanical failure and NOT particles in the fluid; and 3) when reassembled with clean fluid, I have never since had an issue and the code cleared on its own.
Conclusion: This is what makes me believe that the p0770 code is very specific as to what's wrong: the solenoid failed mechanically. Now in your truck, this could still be a failure due to particulates blocking the solenoid, so as you go through the process I just described, please pay attention to everything.
Labor and expenses: I spent about eight hours of labor and tracking down parts at multiple dealerships. All in, I have $170 into parts, including replacement o-rings for the bulkhead, rectangle pump seal, eight quarts of fluid, and a new solenoid. Total down-time on the truck was six days because I didn't want to drive it till i got it fixed, potentially making the problem worse.
Please comment further on errors I may have made or things I missed and was lucky didn't go bad. And let me know if this helped you! It's frustrating to not know what is wrong with your truck. I had to borrow an inch pound torque wrench, but other than that, if you have a socket set, I believe you can do this job.
My problem is fixed and my truck shifts a little smoother, especially now that I have clean fluid—nothing dynamic but noticeable in shifts and MPGs too.
Good luck.
Truck: 2012 F-150 SuperCrew 4x4 5.0, 99K miles
Issue: Truck went into limp mode after accelerating from a stop sign. The truck did a rough shift from first to second, then it went into limp mode and would not go out of third gear (wouldn't up-shift or down-shift). Stopping and restarting the truck didn't clear this issue, and by the time I got home, the check engine light was on with code p0770. My initial research on the code suggested anything from bad fluid to a new transmission needed.
Sharing my experience: The purpose of this post is to hopefully help others troubleshoot this issue should they come across this same problem. This isn't to say that what I found and experienced is going to solve your problem, but I was somewhat frustrated with the lack of information out there and thought it would be a good idea to compile my findings in one place via this post.
The code read p0770 shift solenoid E. This solenoid's only job is to allow fluid to go through the valve body to allow shifts for 4, 5, and 6 (off for 1,2,3 and on for 4,5,6)..
My diagnosis: Here is how I determined what my problem was:
The first (helpful) Google search I conducted was this JustAnswer forum that showed which solenoid was even bad.
There is a picture showing the valve body and lead frame assembly with the problematic solenoid indicated. (There is faulty info in this thread regarding the ohm resistance for the solenoid: it states 17.5–18.6 ohms of resistance, but that's not correct.)
There are other posts on F-150 forums that address others having this problem, but only what the dealer told them the solution was (i.e., a valve body replace or a molded lead frame replace or even a trans ecu reflash), which is all great, but how do you know that was what the problem was? In my experience, this p0770 code was very specific to one particular part: shift solenoid E.
How I solved the problem: I found the manual to the transmission here.
If you have an advanced scan tool that can manually turn on and off the solenoid to see if it's responding correctly, that can help you troubleshoot faster. (I did not have such a tool, so I meticulously went through the pages of this manual and started troubleshooting.)
First, you have to drop the pan and drain the fluid, dropping the filter and paying attention to your fluid condition. (Don't pay attention to color; according to
NOTE: If you have glitter in your pan, then the problem involves more than just a bad solenoid.
Next, you have to get a T30 socket, pull the valve body screws, and drop the valve body assembly, being careful to first disconnect the electrical connection on the outside. Pull the tab on the molded lead unit and then pull the pass-through sleeve out, then you can remove the eleven T30 bolts to drop the valve body. Be careful to note that the thermo-whatsit that controls the transfluid going to the cooler will drop out with its spring when the valve body assembly comes out—keep track of it.
Follow his recommendations and replace the o-rings on the bulkhead connector sleeve and pump pick-up seal.
When the valve body assembly is out, here is what I did to isolate the issue. On page 14 of the manual, I found the pin combinations and the ohm resistances you should find at each combination. Get your multi-meter and set it to lowest ohm setting, then you can see that for shift solenoid E, or SSE, your resistance should be 10.5 ohms; mine was reading 18.5 ohms. To eliminate the possibility that it wasn't the molded lead frame or any other solenoid, I went through the other combinations on the pins in succession and found that all the other solenoids and sensors were reading at the proper listed resistance. So I knew that all my other components were working correctly, including the molded lead frame.
Please
There is a slide mechanism on the lead frame that is important to put back together correctly, so pay attention to how it's installed so you can get it reassembled. This mechanism connects with your shift lever/****/selector and tells the transmission what to shift into.
Caution: You want to be careful when handling this valve body assembly, as it conducts electricity for the solenoids and static can still fry things. Wear gloves when handling the valve body to avoid static shock shorting out anything, even when testing the pin combos.
One caveat to all this is I had no way of testing my valve body. At this point, there could have been something inside it that was causing a malfunction too, but that was outside of my comfort zone to mess with this. I replaced the solenoid and put everything back together and filled it back up with new fluid, so when everything shifted correctly, I was appeased (lucky?) that nothing was wrong with the valve body.
FYI: If one of your other solenoids is bad, you need to be very careful and take that solenoid out and with you to Ford to order; they make different variations of the other solenoids that have to match your valve body (take detailed photos of both sides of your valve body and take a picture of your sticker on your transmission on the driver side that lists your solenoid strategy and sol body id). Ford has to match the exact solenoid to your transmission; otherwise, you have to reprogram your computer for the different version of that solenoid so your truck shifts right. HOWEVER, there is only one version of shift solenoid E (SSE).
Important: READ the manual and find the appropriate T27 bolts to remove the molded lead frame—there are only six—and find out what INCH pound torque settings to put them back in at (page 90–91 for torque specs).
My trans fluid was only dirty—there was no glitter or metal in the pan and no clutch material; just a little metallic sludge on the magnet. I wiped this clean, changed the o-rings on the pass-through sleeve bulkhead, and replaced the pump pick-up rectangle seal. I had a friend help hold the thermo-whatsit in place, and we put the valve body back in. I then used the manual and followed the instructions on the pattern to torque the T30 bolts back in. (There is a pattern, and I strongly recommend that you follow it. There is a set INCH pound torque for these bolts as well, so don't mess around—pay attention and do it right. Look at page 106 for torque specs and pattern.)
One piece of advice: When reinstalling the valve body assembly, you have to have everything torqued to spec before you put the bulkhead pass-through sleeve back in. There are tabs on the bulkhead that push the retainer clip on the molded lead unit in so you can push up on the tab from below to lock the two together. I had to push in on the bulkhead and still use a fair amount of pressure to push up to get it to click. I was nervous about this breaking and took out the valve body assembly again and tested it on my bench to make sure I wasn't going to break it. (I really, really didn't want to break it and have to replace the molded lead unit). I then put the pan on and filled it up—I needed 8 quarts to refill the transmission.
After refilling, I manually shifted the truck with it up on the blocks through third gear (when you're not driving, you won't be able to shift higher than third manually). Then I put more fluid in the trans, drove it, had one hard shift from third to fourth because the valve body wasn't full of fluid, but after that, it shifted smoothly every time. I drove the truck home and topped off the fluid one more time and was done. I can now assume the valve body was not the issue either at this point because 1) other than dirty fluid, the pan was spotless; 2) only the SSE tested above the ohm rating, leaving me to believe it was a mechanical failure and NOT particles in the fluid; and 3) when reassembled with clean fluid, I have never since had an issue and the code cleared on its own.
Conclusion: This is what makes me believe that the p0770 code is very specific as to what's wrong: the solenoid failed mechanically. Now in your truck, this could still be a failure due to particulates blocking the solenoid, so as you go through the process I just described, please pay attention to everything.
Labor and expenses: I spent about eight hours of labor and tracking down parts at multiple dealerships. All in, I have $170 into parts, including replacement o-rings for the bulkhead, rectangle pump seal, eight quarts of fluid, and a new solenoid. Total down-time on the truck was six days because I didn't want to drive it till i got it fixed, potentially making the problem worse.
Please comment further on errors I may have made or things I missed and was lucky didn't go bad. And let me know if this helped you! It's frustrating to not know what is wrong with your truck. I had to borrow an inch pound torque wrench, but other than that, if you have a socket set, I believe you can do this job.
My problem is fixed and my truck shifts a little smoother, especially now that I have clean fluid—nothing dynamic but noticeable in shifts and MPGs too.
Good luck.
Last edited by tsmooth; Jun 7, 2019 at 04:21 AM.
Thread Starter
5 Year Member
Joined: Jun 2018
Posts: 45
Likes: 16
Thanks If you can drop the pan to change fluid (and have a multi-meter) you can do this. Just takes a little more preparation to watch the videos and reference the manual so your familiar with what your looking at before you dive in.
Junior Member
Joined: Apr 2024
Posts: 1
Likes: 1
Thank you so much
This thread saved me. I couldnt find anyone on Maui to do transmission work for weeks and I was able to pull this off by following this thread. I also created an account just to say thank you. Saved me weeks of not having my truck and a ton of money.
max
max
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Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2017
Posts: 268
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If I had done it myself this would not have happened, I would much rather have no heat and defroster than major wiring problems and driving with no front turn signals
Its as if the mechanics of the world all died off and all thats left is derelicts staring a cell phones charging $100 an hour to screw up an oil change or put in the wrong cabin air filter
makes me wonder about where air safety is headed
Junior Member
Joined: Feb 2025
Posts: 1
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Thanks so much for posting this. My 2017 Expedition (1st gen ecoboost and 6R80) started giving me the P0770 code and locked me into gears 1-3. This happened right after I dropped the pan to change the fluid and filter. I must’ve knocked something loose while I was in there.
I replaced the parts mentioned in the original post and it seems to be back to normal now.
This was helpful for removing the valve body: https://automatictransmission.com.au...structions.pdf
I replaced the parts mentioned in the original post and it seems to be back to normal now.
This was helpful for removing the valve body: https://automatictransmission.com.au...structions.pdf