Questions and Answers

Explorer Shifts Slowly Q. Good Day Vince, I have asked for your help before and was your answers were greatly appreciated. So here's the following scenario. I have a 1991 Explorer 164,000 miles, 4.0 liter, automatic transmission, 4x4. I have a problem when I first start out in the morning. When I put it in drive the transmission will not shift until it is warm.

I can manually put it in LOW 1 and then into LOW 2 it will shift. If I go into D it shifts back into LOW 1 and will stay there. Once it warms up to normal driving temperature it shifts normally. I wish to know if my guess at the problem could be 1 of 2. I'm guessing that either the seals shrink and expand or the fluid has gotten to the point of needing changed/flushed. I have looked/smelled the fluid and it doesn't appear to smell burnt but it doesn't have the normal maroon color to it. You help is always appreciated.

Thanks,
Don

A. You know as I read this question I thought it sounded familiar. So I looked back and I realized you asked me this the last time you wrote and I didn't answer. I do apologize. I answer so many questions every day that sometimes I goof and screw up.

Anyway, with 164,000 miles we're walking in tricky territory. The most likely cause of the slow shifting is a partially clogged transmission filter. But with this milage, I would hesitate to recommend a filter and fluid change unless it is something you do on a regular basis.

If you do a filter and fluid change now, there is a chance that the transmission could self destruct in a few hundred miles.

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