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Question posted by sjhadrick03 on August 29th, 2013

1997 Ford Explorer Xlt - Can You Tell Me What Happened??

I was driving on the H3 freeway, HI going up a slight incline I increased my speed to 50-55 mph when the engine started to stutter and I noticed a lot of smoke around the rear end of the car. I took it to a mechanic who told me the bottom of the car was coated with oil, the rear door was splattered with oil & possibly gas. He cleaned up as much as he could and droved the car and tried to make the car spring the leak again but nothing happened. He said the transmission fluid was 1/4 low. The car has 111,600 miles and has been rarely used the last 5 years. The diagnosis was a failure of the transmission seal and the transmission should be rebuilt. What do you think?

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Answer #1: Posted by joepleb972 on January 29th, 2014 7:49 PM

joepleb972

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Most likely you have the 5r55e transmission. It's a great transmission, but it has a reputation for the valve body gasket failing. When that happens, they will do crazy things like no overdrive, shift flares, etc. That could explain the stuttering, and fluid being forced out of the vent tube.

If it doesn't give any more problems, don't worry about it. But if it does strange things, Check out having the valve body gaskets replaced along with a filter and fluid change. It's really not too expensive to have that done.

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