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i think ihave just come to the conclusion that my transmission will act up only when its wet outside. im not 100 percent sure but it was raining this morning and my transmission will get in the 3000 to 4000 rpm range and have little power when i try to acclelerate. also if its on cruise the rpm's will jump up again for a couple seconds then go back to normal. im not positive yet if this is the only time because i just thought of it this morning so i will have to pay more attention. is there something that could cause this????
[SIZE=2]Ford Thunderbird Transmission Concern
[/SIZE][SIZE=3]Q. [/SIZE][SIZE=2]Hi Vincent, I have a 1995 Ford Thunderbird LX, 4.6 liter V-8, a little over 50,000 miles with automatic transmission, P/S, A/C and cruise control. This is one of those intermittent problems that doesn't seem to have any particular cause, and doesn't occur at any particular time under any particular circumstances. It seems to occur most often at highway speeds between 55 and 75 mph, but it will also do it at speeds as low as 30 mph.
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It does it in warm weather, it does it in cold weather. Sometimes it does it when the cruise control is on, sometimes it doesn't. Here's the problem: While driving at constant speed, usually on the highway, the engine will suddenly rev up. For example, at 70 mph the tachometer normally reads about 1,800 when everything is running okay, but when the engine starts acting up and does it's revving thing, the tach will jump up to about 2,800 to 3,000 rpm.
It usually holds at the increased engine rpm for three or four seconds and then in what seems like two or three steps will gradually drop back to normal. The entire sequence takes about eight to ten seconds. It might do it once, and then not do it again for ten minutes, if at all. There is no increase in the forward speed of the car when this happens, but there is a slight lag in forward speed just as the engine starts revving.
Usually there is at least a one or two minute gap between these revving incidents, but on two or three separate occasions, it has done it three or four times in rapid succession. When this happens, the engine usually revs higher, 4,000 rpm, and the lagging that occurs as the revving begins can make the car kind of jerky or lurchy.
When the car was new, this particular model did get a batch of bad transmissions that Ford replaced under warranty. This one didn't start having transmission problems until about a year after the warranty expired, and Ford's fix at that time was to install a transmission cooler, and change the transmission fluid to some special blend high-temperature fluid. That was done probably back in 1998 or 1999.
About two and a half years ago it was in the shop for what I thought might be transmission problems, but turned out to be bad spark plug wires that were causing the car to run poorly. They also did general tune-up work, and I think they changed the transmission fluid and filter at that time. It has probably been driven about 15,000 miles since then.
I've asked a couple of friends who are pretty good shade-tree mechanics about the current symptoms. One said it sounds like a transmission problem. The other says it sounds like a computer module malfunction.
I was hoping that someone like you with a lot more knowledge and experience than my friends and I could narrow it down to either a specific fuel delivery problem, an electronic problem, or a specific transmission problem so the mechanic doesn't need to go poking around in two or three different areas trying to figure it out when I take it in for the repair.
Because the engine never revs when the car is just sitting idling, or at low speeds around town, and since the forward speed doesn't increase when the revving does occur, I'm thinking it is a transmission thing. Any help you can provide in getting a more accurate diagnosis will be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Mason
Fairhope, Alabama [SIZE=3]A. [/SIZE]I have a feeling you're right Mason. When you have a sharp increase in rpm with no corresponding increase in vehicle speed, or a decrease, it almost always means a transmission problem. It might just be the overdrive. Try leaving it out of overdrive and see what happens.
Another possibility, albeit a small one, is the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS). They get a "dead" spot in them and when you hit it, the engine and transmission will do some weird things.
Check the computer for DTCs, there might be some set that will aid to confirm or deny this theory.
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Yeah, when it does this lock out the overdrive, I think you will find that this does not do anything because the O/D is shifting down for some reason.
Get some contact cleaner and clean up the TPS, if it does this mostly in wet weather that suggests an electrical problem. Cleaning the TPS with the correct solvent definitely won't hurt, may help.
Holy crap. I can't believe it. I have the same problem with the same exact thing. So there must be something to it. 2 people wouldn't come up with that just out of the blue.Did ypu come up with a solution.
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i would suggest that it's possibly he same problem I have with my F150, with the 5.0 Coyote and 385 horsepower. At only about 3,500 lbs. and that 205 HP V8, your car has a pretty good power/weight ratio. If when starting off, especially on a hill, your tach shows excessive RPMs with little power, you may just be spinning the rear tires. You may not be able to see or hear it, but since it only does this in the rain, I'd be willing to bet on it.
Call the dealership. The people in the service department are the pros, they represent the car maker itself, not Bob at Bob's Garage. When I was turning wrenches in dealerships ,we had access to the most up to date fixes that existed, and if a car broke we probably saw it in the shop and repaired it.
There were zero times when we couldn't find a problem and properly repair the vehicle. It just didn't happen because we were factory trained and knew the cars inside and out. If we were stuck, the area service rep called the factory itself. I worked on and repaired something like 8,000 vehicles in a relatively brief automotive career. Since we worked on commission we had to repair the car or we didn't get paid. You learn a little.
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