03 Windstar Tranny Shutter

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

J Wald - 18 Sep 2008 21:53 GMT

My Windstar with 90k + miles has developed a shutter in overdrive. Nothing
special as far as activity, just going down the road and I get a shutter.
Let off the gas and it stops only to return a minute ot two later. I
disengaged the O/D with somewhat better results. It still shutters, but not
nearly as much. The fluid is at the proper level. What the fix? Tranny
flush, or repair? Thanks.

Signature

J Wald

"Tattaglia's a pimp"
Vito Corleone - Godfather I

Reply to this Message

SC Tom - 18 Sep 2008 23:54 GMT

> My Windstar with 90k + miles has developed a shutter in overdrive. Nothing
> special as far as activity, just going down the road and I get a shutter.
> Let off the gas and it stops only to return a minute ot two later. I
> disengaged the O/D with somewhat better results. It still shutters, but
> not nearly as much. The fluid is at the proper level. What the fix? Tranny
> flush, or repair? Thanks.

Filter and flush is cheaper than an overhaul, but you may need to anyhow.
Pretty much your decision.
If it's the same transaxle that's used in the Escape, shudder is a problem.
Most of the time, it took a rebuild/replacement to fix it.

SC Tom

Reply to this Message

Dennis - 19 Sep 2008 05:20 GMT

>> My Windstar with 90k + miles has developed a shutter in overdrive.
>> Nothing special as far as activity, just going down the road and I get a
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
> SC Tom

Same issue with my windstar, only mine started at about 55,000. I changed
the filter/fluid and it made no difference. I decided to just live with it
until it breaks completely before bothering to get the trans rebuilt. I'm
at 114,000 still driving it with the shutter. You kind of get used to it
after a few years...

Reply to this Message

Jeff Findley - 19 Sep 2008 14:38 GMT

> Filter and flush is cheaper than an overhaul, but you may need to anyhow.
> Pretty much your decision.
> If it's the same transaxle that's used in the Escape, shudder is a
> problem. Most of the time, it took a rebuild/replacement to fix it.

When we had our 02 Escape (I got a supplier discount), it developed the
shudder, so Ford flushed the transmission. It started to come back near the
end of the warranty, so we traded it in. I didn't want to buy an extended
warranty to cover my butt for a problem that Ford knew about, but seemed
unwilling to fix properly. This mess was all over the Escape discussion
boards on the Escape fan website.

The plant where they made them was in Batavia Ohio and was a joint venture
between ZF and Ford. Once, I talked to one of ZF's senior engineers and he
said he wouldn't trust the guys at the ZF plant to make a pizza. ZF
eventually sold their part back to Ford and took a big loss doing so.

To be fair, I'm sure part of the problem was typical over complicated German
engineering coming from ZF.

Jeff

Signature

A clever person solves a problem.
A wise person avoids it. -- Einstein

Reply to this Message

SC Tom - 19 Sep 2008 16:17 GMT

>> Filter and flush is cheaper than an overhaul, but you may need to anyhow.
>> Pretty much your decision.
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>
> Jeff

Knock on wood, I bought my '02 Escape new, and haven't had any transaxle
problems. I change the fluid regularly (Mercon only) and added an external
filter. I'm hoping this will help prevent any future problems, and so far it
seems to have worked. A number of people on the Escape Central web site have
had the dreaded shudder of death, and I would venture a guess that 80-90% of
them required a replacement. The problem seemed to be worse with the '01,
and a little less with the '02, and decreasing steadily since then. Of
course, the newer ones have a different tranny, so hopefully the whole
problem will go away.

Reply to this Message

The Spelling Police - 19 Sep 2008 07:30 GMT

> My Windstar with 90k + miles has developed a shutter in overdrive.

Shutter is what you put over the windows when the hurricane is on the way.
Shutter is the part of a conventional camera that exposes the film to the light.

ShuDDer is what a transmission does when it's buggered.
ShuDDer is what I do every time I see another example of who's going to be
running the city/country/planet in a decade or two.

Reply to this Message

mechanic@telusplanet.net - 19 Sep 2008 08:40 GMT

Actually, it is the words "then" and "than" that I love so much.... A common
US kinda thing, the misuse is creeping into Canada....

Consider these two statements.

I would rather have lunch THAN give him a blow job.

I would rather have lunch THEN give him a blow job.

What's in a word?

A guy goes to the hospital... "I'm here for my castration", sez he.... After
the operation, the surgeon visits the patient in recovery and says "While we
had you out, we noticed you looked a little gnarly so we circumcised you at
the same time".... The guys eyes got real big and he began to repeat
"circumcise.... circumcise...circumcise...".

Even Googles new "fuzzy logic" has it's limits. If we don't know what we're
looking for, how can Google?

As for "shudder" and "shutter" (and all of the other faux pas we see day
after day), one would have to hear these people talk to be sure of anything.
It is intersting that those from New England don't spell 'car' as 'kah' and
those from Alabama don't spell 'tire' as 'tahr'.

All the same.... I'll bet that someone bitches about top posting.

>> My Windstar with 90k + miles has developed a shutter in overdrive.
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> ShuDDer is what I do every time I see another example of who's going to be
> running the city/country/planet in a decade or two.

Reply to this Message