95 slow shift out of gear...

[jeepman_3]

Whenever I am driving slowly around town my Transmission takes a while to shift out of first gear. It seems after things heat up its ok. Any suggestions. I have 103,000 miles on it. Is there a vaccuum modulator...I have experienced this prolem on an old chevy one time and it was a vaccum hose on the trans vacuum modulator. I cannot find one on this years villager.

[accordztech]

how is ur fluid? new, used? i am not sure about mercurys but hondas have a tranny and engine ECU. the ecu on the tranny controlls shifts and learns the driving style of the person driving. what i do is i reset the car by taking off the battery and then drive my style. shifting changes and everything else. again though i dont know about our villagers. but it worked on my moms villager when she started getting bad gas milage. after a ecu reset it was fine.

[jeepman_3]

Originally posted by accordztech
how is ur fluid? new, used? i am not sure about mercurys but hondas have a tranny and engine ECU. the ecu on the tranny controlls shifts and learns the driving style of the person driving. what i do is i reset the car by taking off the battery and then drive my style. shifting changes and everything else. again though i dont know about our villagers. but it worked on my moms villager when she started getting bad gas milage. after a ecu reset it was fine.

Fluid you can't change..I researched that..there is no trasns filter either...
I still have the problem even after pulling the cable on the battery off and reconnecting (about an hour)

[armin4]

you can change the fluid and yes there is a trans filter. I'm changing mine in a few days and i have done it before. Its an auto...

[jeepman_3]

When I went to the autoparts store they indicated my 95 Villager didn't have a filter...Does anyone know if the 95 has a filter in the trans or not?
I researched the problem in a chiltons manual. It said to check the VSS-Vehicle Speed Switch...I pulled the switch and put a volt meter across it and spun it. I got the correct voltage, The manual said that it may be a problem with the PCU. I'll keep you all posted on what I find...

[jeepman_3]

I had just changed the filter and fluid this w/e. I really didn't notice that much differrence. Although now I have clean fluid!! I"ll try reseting the computer again, just incase that needed to be done again..

[eltigre]

Originally Posted by jeepman_3

I had just changed the filter and fluid this w/e. I really didn't notice that much differrence. Although now I have clean fluid!! I"ll try reseting the computer again, just incase that needed to be done again..

Turn the ignition to the ON position...do you get the OVERDRIVE OFF lamp blinking for about 8 seconds?

[wyattran]

Originally Posted by jeepman_3

Whenever I am driving slowly around town my Transmission takes a while to shift out of first gear. It seems after things heat up its ok. Any suggestions. I have 103,000 miles on it. Is there a vaccuum modulator...I have experienced this prolem on an old chevy one time and it was a vaccum hose on the trans vacuum modulator. I cannot find one on this years villager.

New to the forum. I am having the same problem with my 97 villager. If you find the cause let me know. I called the dealer concerning the fluid. They said there is no filter, and that they could flush the system and refill for $180 +. I do not want to pay that much. Hope to find another fix. Thanks

[JEEPMAN33]

Originally Posted by eltigre

Turn the ignition to the ON position...do you get the OVERDRIVE OFF lamp blinking for about 8 seconds?

Man, I had a Hell of a time getting back to you!!! This website kept kicking me back to the profile page...Very frustrating....I had to start over with another ID as you can see...anyway heres whats up....I am still having the slow shift problem. I had found something on a Ford website that someone had a F150 with slow shift issues. That problem wound up being a broken accumulator spring in the valve body.

I did some detectivve work on this and after getting a Service Manual on CD on Ebay for 10 bucks and after 3 days delivery i searched the CD for the trans Valve body.

There are several springs in this valve body for the 4f20 transaxal. I had gone to a Mercury dealership to investigate the spring availability. I was just going to get all new springs and replace them all, but found out that Mercury doesn't sell just the springs alone. You need to purchase the whole valve body which cost $1200.00 bucks. I think I may just live with the slow shift issue. The Villager is a 95 with now 118k miles on it. If it dies, I think I will just scrap it and buy something new, unless someone can locate these valve body springs somewhere. I beleive more people have this problem but are getting ripped of by either having the transaxal rebuilt for maybe $10.00 worth of spring parts or they are having the transaxal replace for about $4000.00 or there just trading in the bad vehicle.

BTW- Eligre - I had found your "trans test" on another thread and tried it. My OD lite flashes only for 2 seconds after I just insert the key and just turn the ignition to just on, but not start. I didn't get any error codes at all, which leads me to believe more this maybe a worn spring issue, not an electrical or sensor issue. It seems these springs go out on the high mileage vehicles. I beleive they were designed to fail like this, just to make you run to the dealer at the end of the veicles life, or maybe to get you to purchase a new vehicle.


Eligre - It appears you are very knowledgeable on Quest and Villagers...are you a former mechanic?

Anyway, anyone that can help, chime in. Man, I want to fix this thing but I don't want to drop the trans pan once again unless I know I have parts in hand..you know what I mean???

See ya'll -Jimmy from Chicago-

[JEEPMAN33]

New to the forum. I am having the same problem with my 97 villager. If you find the cause let me know. I called the dealer concerning the fluid. They said there is no filter, and that they could flush the system and refill for $180 +. I do not want to pay that much. Hope to find another fix. Thanks


Wayattran----Wrong----Do not go to dealer for this...

Murrays auto HAS the filter...for about $12.00....

[eltigre]

Originally Posted by JEEPMAN33

Man, I had a Hell of a time getting back to you!!! This website kept kicking me back to the profile page...Very frustrating....I had to start over with another ID as you can see...anyway heres whats up....I am still having the slow shift problem. I had found something on a Ford website that someone had a F150 with slow shift issues. That problem wound up being a broken accumulator spring in the valve body.

I did some detectivve work on this and after getting a Service Manual on CD on Ebay for 10 bucks and after 3 days delivery i searched the CD for the trans Valve body.

There are several springs in this valve body for the 4f20 transaxal. I had gone to a Mercury dealership to investigate the spring availability. I was just going to get all new springs and replace them all, but found out that Mercury doesn't sell just the springs alone. You need to purchase the whole valve body which cost $1200.00 bucks. I think I may just live with the slow shift issue. The Villager is a 95 with now 118k miles on it. If it dies, I think I will just scrap it and buy something new, unless someone can locate these valve body springs somewhere. I beleive more people have this problem but are getting ripped of by either having the transaxal rebuilt for maybe $10.00 worth of spring parts or they are having the transaxal replace for about $4000.00 or there just trading in the bad vehicle.

BTW- Eligre - I had found your "trans test" on another thread and tried it. My OD lite flashes only for 2 seconds after I just insert the key and just turn the ignition to just on, but not start. I didn't get any error codes at all, which leads me to believe more this maybe a worn spring issue, not an electrical or sensor issue. It seems these springs go out on the high mileage vehicles. I beleive they were designed to fail like this, just to make you run to the dealer at the end of the veicles life, or maybe to get you to purchase a new vehicle.


Eligre - It appears you are very knowledgeable on Quest and Villagers...are you a former mechanic?

Anyway, anyone that can help, chime in. Man, I want to fix this thing but I don't want to drop the trans pan once again unless I know I have parts in hand..you know what I mean???

See ya'll -Jimmy from Chicago-

Damn! Highway robbery!
No not former mechanic but sometimes I look like one
When I was a young and BROKE student, I didn't have any cash to take my vette (chevette, that is; ) to get fixed so I bought a manual and studied the hell out of it, after that I was hooked on cars and their inner workings....any car I get/have I usually get a factory manual and try to find out as much as I can....although nowadays, it's becoming harder and harder to have the time to work on my babies......I have 2 86T 300ZX (the cars I really enjoy) that I'm tinkering with.....turns out that the Villager has the same engine as the Z's I told my wife she better watch out because I may need some parts ........

Anyways, if you can spare the time off the road, why don't you see if you can remove that valve body get the springs out and see if anyone close has it or research spring suppliers on the net....just a suggestion. My motto is : I will find a way to get to the end result as CHEAP as possible

Let me what you find, I'm curious

[JEEPMAN33]

FYI,

Heres the link to that Ford Website..


http://207.68.164.250/cgi-bin/linkrd...goto%3dnewpost

[JEEPMAN33]

Well with some persistance I had found a valve body rebuild kit for $49.00.
Heres what the website says it will fix:
K87944C 1993 - 1998 Quest, Altima, Maxima DOHC RE4F04A & RE4F04V Mercury Villager 4F20E Corrects / Prevents / Reduces: Prevents direct drum blowout caused by runaway line pressure. Burned 3 - 4 clutches. No 2nd. No 3rd after 3 - 2 or 4 - 2 kickdown. Direct clutch (3rd) inner seal leaks, wears or opens up due to rotating force. Corrects long or soft 1 - 2 and 2 - 3. Has High-Temp low shrink rings

I haven't tried it yet but soon as the wheather warms up I will go at it! If that doesn't work at least I'll have new springs in the valve body...

[JEEPMAN33]

[quote=JEEPMAN33]Well with some persistance I had found a valve body rebuild kit for $49.00.
Heres what the website says it will fix:
K87944C 1993 - 1998 Quest, Altima, Maxima DOHC RE4F04A & RE4F04V Mercury Villager 4F20E Corrects / Prevents / Reduces: Prevents direct drum blowout caused by runaway line pressure. Burned 3 - 4 clutches. No 2nd. No 3rd after 3 - 2 or 4 - 2 kickdown. Direct clutch (3rd) inner seal leaks, wears or opens up due to rotating force. Corrects long or soft 1 - 2 and 2 - 3. Has High-Temp low shrink rings

Well I finally got a chance to yank the valve body out of the old beast last w/e. Sure was scarey at first, Either the Van was gonna run great or never run at all after I got done with her...But here's what happend...I followed the rebuilt kit instructions and replaced the springs that came with the kit. The kit also has you change 2 check balls in the Valve Body, along with opening the port holes from 1/8 inche to 1/4 inch for better TF flow...I did all that and reassembled the valve body back to the trans and it STILL runs the same way!!! I think I am just going to try replacing the TPS (throttle position Switch for the hell of it, even though on Ohm meter test it reads ok...Other than that all thats left is the VSS (Vehicl Speed Switch) which I also cheked, but I will change that after the TPS if necessary...Any Ideas out there??????

[dxrflyboy]

Other than engine related problems (if the engine isn't running right, the PCM shifts the transmission late), the VSS would be the next thing to check. The best way to do this is with a scan tool with PID (parameter identification data) monitoring capability. The scan tool will tell you what the VSS output is while you are driving and also interpret it into mph or km/h. Also, check and make sure there aren't any stored trouble codes.