Hi Guys - First post here just to provide some information in thanks for all the help and knowledge the site provides me when I am researching......

I have a 2006 Expy (2wd) with 158K mostly trouble free miles. Recently the transmission starting having trouble shifting. The problem was pretty consistent from 1st to second, but at times the tranny acted as if it was having difficulty choosing the correct gear. It basically felt exactly as if you chose too high a gear in a manual transmission (Lack of power, low rpm, etc). I am thinking maybe MAF Sensor or, or perhaps TPS, maybe even the famous torque converter issues on these cars...…. No Check engine light and after trouble shooting a bit, I find that if you shift the car manually the tranny does run correctly through all gears.

A long story short, as documented on this forum in just a few posts, the problem was actually in the transmission valve body. Looks like the Transmission Check ***** really do degrade and cause shifting problems on these cars after substantial mileage.. Positive news is the valve body on these tranny's are right under the pan and can be accessed without removing tranny from car. There are u tube videos to show you how to replace valve plate, check *****, etc.

In my case after researching on this forum I found a member (I think his name is Rob) who had helped several members with tranny problems on this forum. It turns out Rob owns Landmark Transmission located in Roswell Georgia. After reading his very informative and generous posts I decided to take the Expy to his shop for his opinion. Rob diagnosed the Valve body problems and fixed the car for a reasonable price without needing to replace the transmission.

Can't say enough about this guys honesty and knowledge. If you are looking for a good trans guy in Atlanta area -this is your guy - 770-993-0455. Even more comforting is he is a Ford guy too! Check him out.

Thanks for all your help and hope this info helps someone else with the same problem.