Ford Taurus Transmission Issue

[paratrooper307]

Morning all,

Having an issue with my spare beater car and figured I'd tap into the knowledge of the forum to see if my suspicions are correct. I have a 2004 Ford Taurus SEL with the Duratec motor and AX4N transmission. It's been a great running car, but one day when driving on the highway I started up a hill, the cruise control downshifted but the car was still losing speed. Pulled over, checked the fluid and other systems, everything seemed okay. Now the car still drives, shifts fine, but there's a whirring/growl under the hood when under load, and the car feels very down on power. It takes a lot longer to accelerate to speed, and it doesn't like to maintain speed on hills. Based on symptoms, I'm thinking the torque converter is cooked. I know they were a problem on these cars, but most of the complaints seem to center around splines stripping and the car being immobile. The car's never had any problem shifting and it doesn't overheat. Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Greg Ducato]

That sounds more engine related, the trans will not make it feel down on power. If it has all the forward gears and converter clutch operation is OK then the trans is not your problem. As you noted these are notorious for pump drive spline failure in the converter. When this happens you lose all forward and reverse.

 

[paratrooper307]

Perhaps, but the engine's running smooth and not throwing any codes. I just ran a stall test and it passed once (2100 rpm) and failed twice (stumbled and stopped revving around 1400). I'll keep digging because I'm not looking forward to pulling the transmission. Thanks for the reply!

 

[natemc]

I have one sitting in the weeds. It has one of two problems. Either my kid broke the linkage internally from pulling on the shifter(father in laws theory). Or it lost the pump splines(my theory).
There is a plug in the top of the trans that you can put a gauge in to test for low pressure.

Transmission issues can and will give a low power complaint when material begins to go through the rotating group. More drag internally means more down shift. If the trans has shifting issues now from flow and pressure issues than the vehicle will seem sluggish and low on power.