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Hello Eric “The” Car Guy,
I am a long time fan and recently watched your video about the Chevy 1500 pickup your dad gave you. I can relate in a big way because my dad with whom I was very close and who gave me a passion for all things mechanical past away in 2013 at the very young age of 67. He was sick for many years and to make a long story short one of the things inherited from him I cherish the most is the truck.
It is a Ford Explorer 2003 XLT V8 – 4.6 liter. It has a tow package and an off-road package with a 3.73 differential and can tow 7000 pounds.
He purchased it brand new in 2003 but got sick and over the years it was used on a regular basis, but very little. It was pampered and treated like a king. Mostly they used his wife’s car.
When I got the truck in july 2013 it had 36,000km (22,000 miles) on it. IT was mint and still is.
I am a pretty avid backyard / home mechanic and also pretty well equipped.
I do a lot of preventative maintenance and recently, nearing 60,000 miles I proceeded to do Ford intense usage maintenance schedule since I tow a camping trailer + plus off road use for hunting and fishing.
The truck is doing great. I am replacing spark plugs, transmission / differentials / transfer case fluid & filters, etc…
My question now. I know this truck having the 5R55S transmission has a design flaw from Ford with the Overdrive and Intermediate Servos sleeves getting used up and problems starting at about 70,000 mile. This flaw often leads to bands getting broken and snapped on the Explorers, Mustangs, some Jaguars, Thunderbirds & Lincoln LS.
Then you have to get a reman transmission installed or the servos sleeves rebored…Thousands of $$$$
Recently I learned that a company named AJ1E Superior Solutions
(http://www.fordservoboretransmissionfixsolution.com/) Created a pretty permanent fix for this problem by machining Ford OEM servos and fitting them with special O rings. They sell it as a kit (2 servos) to be installed at home, with very good instructions. No need to drop the transmission. 200$ plus shipping.Note that I have no symptoms yet about this issue, except maybe an occasional mild flare up when shiffting between 2nd and 3rd which might just be a normal occurrence for this truck.
Do you think I should order this kit and install the new servos to prevent problems I know are probably coming soon or do I wait to get symptoms and DTC codes before acting?
Keep in mind I intend to keep this vehicule a long long time.
Ford tech Makuloco has a good video on it here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8HfyXLf8pc
Thanks in advance for your help.
Stay dirty.
Jeff (Steelj)
Thank you , I do also think it would be a wise investment , but I was looking for some comments to educate me on this problem. Maybe some other members went trought this and have an opinion on this.
Only thing holding me back is a Youtube video from a reputable transmission tech who used this kit on a clients truck but had to replace the o-rings himself on it because the bores where to narrows and the plastic sleeve over them was warped and got the original o-rings off their grooves…
Maybe his client’s bores were not so damaged after all. From what I read otherwise most people that used the kit were pretty happy with it after many miles.
I don’t want to post this question to the ETCG Answers questions lives thread because I know Eric hates long questions :-))))