Drivetrain Auto Transmission Sometimes Slow To Shift Into First

Louer Adun

New Member
Oct 9, 2012
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Hello everyone, I want to first say hi, as this is my first post on the forums here. I just bought an 07 Mustang (V6 4.0l) last week and will likely be visiting here a lot.

Anyways, on to my problem... The Mustang drove great the first couple days I had it, but I was unfortunate enough to run over an opossum the other night, and have had a good deal of issues since. 2 days after I ran over the opossum, the wife was on her way to work and I get a call that the car stopped accelerating and was dead on the side of the road (ugh). I went and picked up the wife and had the car towed to the dealer (I usually do all my work myself but I'm new to automatic transmissions and there was tranny fluid everywhere and I already had sold our second car). Long story short, the transmission cooler line had popped off and dumped all the tranny fluid effectively disabling the transmission. $300 later, the car is back up and running by the end of the day. The next day there is a puddle of tranny fluid under the car, bring it back to Ford and they claim everything is good, there was just loose tranny fluid in the bumper...

Since then the car has driven fine except that sometimes when the car is cold it has a hard time shifting into first. The car generally shifts fine for the first shift of the day, but the first time I stop I'll let off the brakes and the car doesn't roll forward like expected, I give it a little gas and it revs up to about 1200 rpms then starts revving down and the tranny kicks in smoothly. If I give it a little more gas, the tranny still kicks but a little harder and with a chirp of the tires.

Needless to say, I jacked the car up and checked the tranny fluid today. It looks real clean, and it is slowly dripping out the fill hole (with fill bolt removed) so it is at the proper level. Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I start looking for a new transmission? Automatics are a whole new animal for me, so I'm not sure where I should look. Hopefully this is just normal and I'm worrying over nothing.

Also to note, the car does have 120k miles and also has an intermittent shimmy when braking. I have 4 new discs and new pads sitting next to me, that will be a project for this weekend. I'm sure I'll be back if that doesn't resolve my shimmy... but anyways I'm getting a little off topic.
 
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Hi Louer Adun,

Make an appointment at your dealership so they can take a look. Ford certified techs are in the best position to diagnose and repair your vehicle. Check out www.FordParts.com for replacement parts for your 'Stang or consult with the parts department of your local dealership.

Thanks,
Crystal :)
 
Make an appointment at your dealership so they can take a look. Ford certified techs are in the best position to diagnose and repair your vehicle. Check out www.FordParts.com for replacement parts for your 'Stang or consult with the parts department of your local dealership.

No offense, but I was sort of looking for some opinions on the matter and not a solicitation from Ford. Since the fluid is good, I doubt Ford can do anything for the problem besides recommending a tranny rebuild/replacement. I was hoping for some feedback on the longevity of the auto transmissions in the V6 autos or if anyone else has had similar problems and whether they got worse, or needed a tranny replacement, etc. I noticed in other threads some had mentioned problems with the Mustangs being slow to shift into reverse (especially on a hill), was mainly wondering if this is a common problem. It happens very rarely, but seems to occur after the first stop after I get going in the morning, and generally just that once and not again all day.
 
Alright so I brought the car by a local tranny shop today (Cottman transmission), that does a free diagnostic test. They quoted me $1500-2500 depending on exactly what is wrong, but suggested that the internal passageways for the tranny fluid are getting worn... Needless to say, I think its pretty unlikely that the internal passageways are getting worn out... Guess I will be getting a second opinion tomorrow.

Also, I noticed that the transmission will occasionally drop into neutral and coast when I let off the accelerator versus downshifting all the way to first. I think this is probably related to the same issue, which I am really leaning towards being an intermittent pressure problem. They did note however that they tested my transmission fluid pump and all was good there.

Any other ideas?
 
So I got word back from the service tech that the overdrive planetary was completely destroyed. I talked to the wife and I guess she had driven it for a couple miles with lacking acceleration before it finally died on her. The transmission sticking in neutral was due to the loose crud getting stuck in the filter. Going to set me back $2200 for the rebuild. Totally sucks, but that's life. Hopefully the wife has learned her lesson... I've only told her a hundred times to pull over and call me whenever a car starts acting up like that on her...