Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting shifts hard

First I just need to say that I havent been around for quite some time and the site looks great. Anyway to my problem, Yesterday morning about half way to my college my car started to shift very hard from when it went from 1st to 2nd gear. It continued to do this for about 5mi. My car sat for about 3 hours and it hasnt done it since. I know I need to change the fluid because I'm at 30k. I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas, or if my transmission is going to die on me. Thanks for any help.

Sounds like what I'm going through right now. From what I've learned, its the PCM (powertrain control module). They have to be reprogrammed, or so Ford tells me. Reportedly takes only .2 hours at the dealer. Ford has out 2 TSB's on the problem; one being the PCM, and the other is about the Intermediate Shaft Sensor (oh yeah, that thing). I have seen some others say you can pull some fuses, and that clears the problem from the PCM. Too bad I didnt check here LAST night. Good luck.

try a bottle of lubegard from napa auto parts

I'm going to try and reset the PCM later today and see if that works. About the PCM bing reprogramed, that was done sometime last winter when I got a check engine light.

I have been experianceing what I believed to be hard shifts as well. This has been since I purchased the car at 24,000 KM. How does one reset the PCM. Any negatives to doing this?

icon, did the lubeqard help your hard shifting problem. just gotta know

I didnt get a chance to try the lubeqard yet, been to busy. I did however my check engin light came on and I got the code form that. It was 1744(Torque Converter Clutch System Stuck in Off Position) and I did notice that the car was shifting out of 1st gear at lower RPM's and when on the freeway 80MPH was at about 3250RPM instead of 3000RPM. I'm assuming that this is all related but not sure. I also found this which sounds like exactly what is happening to me and was wondering if anyone knows what happened( http://www.contour.org/cgi-ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=003058 )

How many miles do you have on your car? Have you ever changed the transmission fluid in your tranaxle? I'd say check your transmission fluid first to see if there's enough fluid in there. Then check the fluid condition. If you've never changed the fluid, maybe it's time to change them. I believe the tranaxle has a 30k fluid change level.

yeah, I know its time for a fluid change, I just haven't had the time yet. could that fix my problem?

It could be the problem, but it's also possible that there are other damages. Just get a professional flush first and see what happens. Eitherway, you should get those fluid changed like you would with engine oil.