I have a 03 Lincoln Aviator and the trans has gone up twice now. The first time it went out a friend that owns a junk yard gave me a 4L2P FC out of an 04 Aviator w/ high mi. It didn't last 8 mo. My friend says he has an 03 Explorer w/ a 5R55S in it and says he thinks it should work. Does anyone know the difference between the 5R55S, 3L2P FB, and the 4L2P FC......Thanks

 

You have a nice vehicle and by this time you know from experience you get what you pay for. Do it once and do it right get a rebuilt trans from a reputable supplier and that should be the last time you will have to go through the trouble of yanking that thing out and changing it. That vehicle does have all wheel drive doesn't it? Lots of work there.

That is providing,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, it is a trans problem and not something else that controls the trans!!

 

The only trans that these ever came with (according to my knowlege of working on them) was the old 5r55s (which is mostly identical to the 5r55w, and extremely similar to the great-granddaddy of this series which is the 4/5r44/55e in the ranger).
These trannys were somewhat troublefree for a long while, but they did have one major bug; that was the overdrive and int. servo bores would wear, and then slip due to the pistons stikcing, then burn a drum and almost always set an incorrect gear ratio code (2nd and 5th gears is the o/d servo, 3rd gear is the int. servo). The great thing is, if you get the trans rebuilt and the bores fixed (which I do all the time), they can go for over 200k without problems. THere is a kit out there that gives you the reams and the sleeves needed to fix these once and for all. I've rebuilt many, many of these and they're still on the road many years later (it's either luck or skill, and at my age, I'll take luck any day).
The problems on these trannys started (usually) anytime after about 60k (if used for mostly in-town driving) but could wait a while if driven on the highways a good deal. They were an easy rebuild, and the parts are still on the inexpensive side. Like I said, once done, they lasted.
One note: if you ever get a used gearbox from somewhere with any miles on it, it's almost always a good idea to get it overhauled before installation to prevent just this scenario from happening. Good luck!

 

Hey guys i'm going to be buying a 2003 Lincoln Aviator. I live in New England and the all wheel drive will do me some justice during the winter season. The mustang is getting stored away and hopefully the lincoln will be on the street soon if all goes well. I'm hoping one of you fellas has a carfax account and could run the aviators VIN for me. 5LMEU78H83ZJ21901.

 

My husband and I are at our wits end trying to find somebody in the Cleveland, Ohio area that can put the kit you are talking about on our 2003 Ford Explorer. I've been emailing the guy from the servo bore transmission fix site and he said based on the codes that the mechanics gave us, this kit will fix the problem. We have already wasted over $125 dollars getting people to read the codes only to tell us it's a solenoid pack issue. We want to just put this kit on to see if that fixes it. I can't get ANY shop to be willing to put this kit on for us. Can you offer any suggestions on an approach to take when trying to explain and convince someone to put it on for us. I know that they can't warranty their work with a third party kit and I would be willing to sign off on a no warranty clause. Or is there ANYBODY out there in our area that knows of someone that would be willing to do this work? Please message me and I will send the link to the site that has a complete set of instructions and a video how to put it on. We would do it ourselves but can't get our car lifted high enough to work on it.

 

I would say you have an unusual situation confronting you , and that is a trans shop is only going to either do a complete rebuild or exchange your vehicle's trans. A dealership these days doesn't usually do in shop rebuilding of transmissions anymore , they just exchange them for a factory remanufactured trans that has all the latest modifications in it. It is cheaper to have an outside rebuilder do it and quicker to just install the reman unit. There is a big difference between a rebuilt unit and a factory remanufactured unit. Rebuilt units usually have certain parts that appear defective replaced while remanufactued have all the latest updates in them. Also the warranty is much better!!! Suggest you check this out with either your local dealership or your trustworthy shop.