Falcon Transmission woes
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Transmission problems seem to plague EA to EL Falcons, the electronic four speed box is definately lacking when compared to it’s three-speed brother. Why that is I’m not sure, but I would like to tell you of one gearbox I found interesting.
Anyway to get on with the problem, we have a 1997 EL Falcon with the lovely shitty electronic 4 speed Automatic transmission. I have never been a fan of these gearboxes, especially after doing a 4 week stint with a Taxi company. I was ready to let fly if I was asked to pull another one out! So the EL was having an issue with not changing out of third gear when hot. 10-15 minutes of driving and everything worked fine. Drive long enough and the transmission would select third gear and stay there, no shifting up and no shifting down.
As the owner had replaced the battery recently, my first thought was that the computer needs resetting. Removed the negative terminal for about 10 mins, re-connected it, pushed the accelerator to the floor twice, once with A/C on and once without, jiggled my left ear twice, held my left leg at 15 degrees for 4 seconds, nah just kidding! Went through the steps for resetting the computer and took it for a long drive. Still got stuck in third after warming up. Next idea.
Have you seen the way to check the transmission oil in EF and onwards Falcon’s? They don’t have a dipstick like every other ‘normal’ transmission. No they have a 13mm filler plug type arrangement. So to check the fluid level you have to jack the vehicle up both ends to make it level and remove this plug. When they said “Let’s get rid of the dipstick” I think they meant the guy that designed the AU Falcon, not the transmission dipstick!!
So checking the fluid level was out of the question for me, not that I thought it had anything to do with the problem we were having though. I booked it in for a check-over at our local Auto Trans. specialist to see what they thought. They did a check for fault codes that may have been logged into the computer. No problems there, so off with the transmission pan and out with the old fluid and filter.
They found pieces of the transmission cooler in the pan, which is never a good sign. The cooler is the standard ‘in the radiator’ type set-up which often starts to fall apart internally and sends small pieces of copper back into the transmission with the returning fluid. That in itself is enough to warrant a new transmission and around $2000.00, but I was still curious as to the cause of our problem.
It seems like low fluid level will cause these transmissions to play up when hot. In my limited experiences with Auto transmissions it has been the exact opposite, when the fluid level is low they slip and carry on but as the fluid heats and expands the problems go away. At least I can say that I learnt something new today! Even though the transmission is still up for a reconditioning, it will at least drive around for a while with all forward gears functioning.
If you have found this post because of transmission drama’s, do yourself a favour and have the transmission serviced or at least the level checked before deciding which child to sell on the black market! And if you own an EF and onwards Falcon, don’t go looking for the dipstick because it simply ain’t there!
Take care and be safe on the roads.
Craig
