Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting ATX: P0732/P0734, Flashing O/D light, Skips 2nd

  1996 Mercury Mystique, Zetec, ATX, almost 160,000 miles.

  Everything was fine this morning, driving to church.

  On the way home, a few hours later, the transmission behaved oddly.  It was letting the engine rev awfully high before it shifted out of first gear, and after a while, the O/D light began to flash.

  After changing out of my suit, I fired up my Alex Peper OBD�??II thingy, and went for a drive.  I've determined that it is waiting much too long to shift out of first, at which time it shifts into second, and then almost immediately into third.  At third gear and above everything seems to behave normally, except that the O/D light does begin flashing after I've driven for a while.

  I've pulled the following two DTCs:

    P0732:  Gear 2 ratio
    P0734:  Gear 4 ratio

  I dunno why the P0734 code.  When the OBD�??II data indicate that the car is in 4th gear, the car does indeed behave exactly as expected for 4th gear.  When the OBD�??II data indicate that the car is in 2nd gear, the car behaves as you'd expect it to in 2nd gear, considering that every time it's been in 2nd gear since this began, it has been at a speed where 3rd or 4th would have been more appropriate.

  I checked the transmission fluid.  It looked clean, and there was the right amount.  (It is yellowish, though; shouldn't ATX fluid be red?).  I added a can of Trans�??X, but that didn't seem to help.

  Any ideas?  

Since you mentioned that your fluid is yellow, that would mean that there is water in there. Not a good thing at all! The only place that water could easily enter the tranny is from the cooler which is part of the radiator.

Does the car run at normal temp?
Have you check the coolant res and see if there are signs of tranny fluid floating on the surface?

Sounds like it is time for a new radiator to me. I would not drive the car at all, since the reason the car is acting up is because of the coolant in the tranny fluid. This is either causeing the valves/pistons to stick in the valve body and not allowing for proper shifting or the thinner fluid is allowing the band and clutches to slip or runaway line pressure or any of the above.

As long as you can get the cooler section of the radiator checked and verify the leakage, then you should be able to replace the radiator and flush the tranny. And hope that the coolant did not do any harm to the transmission.

Good luck!!

Ford TSP gives the following for your CELs:

Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) P0731/P0781 indicates gear #1 incorrect ratio. DTC P0732/P0782 indicates gear #2 incorrect ratio. DTC P0733/P0783 indicates gear #3 incorrect ratio. DTC P0734/P0784 indicates gear #4 incorrect ratio.

DTC P0750/P0751, P1751 indicates SS1 electrical malfunction. DTC P0755/P0756/P1756 indicates SS2 electrical malfunction. DTC P0760/P0761/P1761 indicates SS3 electrical malfunction.

Possible causes:

-- Internal Transmission.
-- Damaged solenoid.
-- Solenoid circuit open or shorted to VPWR or GND.
-- VPWR circuit open or shorted.
-- PCM damaged.


Also, the following was in the CD4E section:

Fluid Condition Check

- Make the normal oil level check as outlined previously under Fluid Level Check.

- Observe the color and odor of the fluid. It should be red, not brown or black. Odor may indicate an overheating condition or clutch disc or band failure.

- Use a clean, lint free cloth and wipe the dipstick. Examine the stain for evidence of solid particles and for signs of antifreeze (gum or varnish on dipstick).

Note:
Evidence of fluid contamination, breakdown, or improper fluid can cause poor shift quality. If the transmission fluid condition is suspect, drain the transaxle and replace the fluid wit MERCON® Multi-Purpose Automatic Transmission Fluid XT-2-QDX or MERCON® equivalent.

If particles are present in the fluid or there is evidence of contamination, the transaxle drain plug should be removed and a sample of the fluid filtered through a paper filter and examined. If transaxle failure is confirmed by further evidence of coolant or excessive particles in the fluid, the transaxle must be completely cleaned and serviced. This includes cleaning and flushing the torque converter (7902) and transaxle cooling system. During disassembly and assembly, all overhaul checks and adjustments of clearances and end play must be made. After servicing the transaxle, all diagnostic tests and adjustments listed in the diagnosis section must be completed to make sure that the problem has been eliminated.

Hey, I hate to tell ya, but my my Contour acted like that, it turned out the be the Torque Converter had died. Had to get the tranny rebuilt.
My Tour was fine one minute, then, when I stopped for a light, it would not go once the light turned green. Acted like it was in neutral. I finally got it moving a little, and once it got up to 20 mph, everything kicked in, and it was fine. Then it would do it again at the next light. I got the flashing O/D light and CEL. I was too afraid to drive the thing anywhere after that.
I used our truck while a friend changed tranny fluid, that didn't help. My dad even came down from Virginia, checked it out himself, he couldn't figure it out.
So we had AAMCO fix it.

My Mystique now has a new transmission. Took it to a transmission shop, where the tech there determined that neither 2nd nor 4th gears were working. For very understandible reasons, I couldn't nail him down on a firm estimate of how much it would cost to repair/rebuild the transmission, or how long it would take, so I opted for the more certain and more quick, albeit most likely more expen$ive route of having him order another transmission from Ford and installing that. With any luck, and some reasonable maintenance, I shouldn't have to worry about transission troubles again for at least another 160,000 miles.

So did the shop say what the cause was? Damn I hate not knowing if I was wrong or not!

On a lighter note, glad that you will at least have a new tranny. I was SUPPOSE to get mine back today, but didn't!!!!