Ok so I have a 2005 f150 5.4 SCab. Just ticked over 120,000 miles. Today I was driving home and had about a 5 hour drive. 2.5 hours in, as I was passing a semi truck on a 1 lane road my rpm kinda jumped up and I seemed to lose acceleration for a moment until I let off and then got back on it. At that time my ABS light came on. I noticed nothing more until I came to a stop at a light 15 miles later or so. At that time it kind of surged somewhat a couple times taking off, then shifted to 2nd and it started slipping somewhat badly. But as it shifted to 3rd it gripped right up and went. I pulled over at the nearest safe spot and checked trans fluid. Was nice and bright redish pink and level was good. I could find nothing leaking or looking concerning from the outside. When I restarted the truck the ABS light went away only to come back about an hour later. But as I continued to try and get home I started getting a somewhat whining whirring noise that sounded like it was coming from behind me. The trans went from slipping in 2nd only to slipping in 1st as well, although holding fine in 3rd and 4th however the whirring whining droning noise only got worse and worse. But it’s Sunday night and nobody is open and I needed to get home. At this point the transmission is slipping quite badly in 1st and 2nd and the noise has gotten seriously loud. I know I shouldn’t have kept driving but I don’t want to stop on a 1 lane road in the middle of nowhere hours from home. Any ideas? From when the slipping started to when I got home was about 150 miles. I tried a few different methods leaving red lights and stop signs and a few times giving it 3/4 throttle or more would get it to slip 1st gear up to 3000rpm and then it would start gripping and would grip through 2nd as well, but then that method wouldn’t work at the next stop sign. I’m kinda confused and could use some help.

 

You may have the electric shift transmission I have same on my 05 . Not to down play the transmission failure diag but your alt battery system can cause some of this . Make sure it's in good shape .
Your red colored fluid with no burnt smell is a good sign . I'm no mech and I'm weak on transmissions . I would inspect my drive shaft and differential to try and rule that out . You should change out diff fluid in future anyway . And inspect your linkage into transmission . Having a drain type trans pan helps change fluid in the future .
A more knowledgeable member will chime in soon to help .

 

Don’t sound good...

 

yes I forgot to mention I changed the diff fluid about 3000 miles ago. I used the Ford motorcraft gear oil with friction modifier. It was changed because the differential was making that shaking shuddering when you take off with the steering wheel turned. It mostly solved that but it still shook a tiny bit sometimes.

 

Well it’s off to the transmission shop. We’ll see what they say

 

Let us know...

 

Well I’ll give you a complete list when it’s done (and I have it in writing) but he essentially said the entire trans needs to be rebuilt. The converter is bad and he listed a bunch of other stuff my brain didn’t retain. He said there was a lot of metal on the magnetic plug and something about even though the fluid looked good the pan had never been removed and he knew this due to something being there that would be removed had the pan ever been taken off? So someone must have just flushed the fluid. Either way I was given the choice of the “cheap” route with basic replacement parts for $2k or upgraded HD parts for $2500 all said and done. I chose the latter so I perhaps won’t have to deal with this again. But Automatic transmissions might as well be the Enigma machine to me so..... not like I have a choice but to trust their diagnosis.

 

Been there done that ... enjoy your fresh tranny.. warranty ?

 

Ya a fresh transmission will be nice, and he is giving me a full 2 year unlimited mile warranty so not too bad

 

Nice..