Does it feel like the engine dies because the trans is locking up at idle/ loading it and forcing it to stall? I'd imagine you'd be able to feel that happening vs something different like it just dying from another issue like a lack of fuel at idle.

When the engine is cold it would be revving a bit higher which sounds like it is helping to keep it running? ie. similar to you using the accelerator to do it.

 

Almost sounds as though the lock-up clutch in the transmission is dragging and stalling the engine. I would see if a dealer or transmission shop can help with a diagnosis. I wouldn't think that it is not an electrical problem with a solenoid in the transmission Because it should throw a code, But one could be leaking through enough to keep the clutch slightly applied. I don't know what Forscan allows you to see but I would be looking at torque converter clutch lock-up command. I have seen this in other ford products through the years and if so it could be anything from a solenoid, bad converter torn or broken internal seal or even the PCM. The Ford manual states with no codes and symptom only first replace lock-up solenoid. By the way the tcc solenoid is a direct one wire no splice connection to the PCM.

Just my 2 cents, as a long shot would diagnose the temp code you have, these cars are so sensitive on can-bus side you never know what can be crossing over. what cod did you get??? There was a member that had no wipers and it turned out to be the battery module, just so happens the same wire transmitted multiple signals.

 

I have the temp sensor on order and will update when replaced.

Thank you greatly for the advice and help.

 

You are very welcome, I hope that you luck out and the sensor takes care of the problem. If not , I would try the Lock-up solenoid. I'm afraid that unless you have great do it yourself skills, you will probably have a dealer or decent transmission shop change it for you. From what I see in the manual, this repair can be done in the vehicle without the removal of the transmission. I have done valve bodies in many rear wheel drive trucks a cars but I haven't looked at one of these. Possibly they have some previous experience with this issue in the 6F35 transmission. Good luck and please let us know what you find.

 

Chuck,
I have installed the new temperature sensor and it didn't work. So after investigating, I see the previous shop (my wife had a diabetic hit the front end of her car due to blood sugar levels) and I think they probably used the cables of the sensor plug to pull it off of the cowling. Either way, I pulled them all the way out, hooked the new sensor directly to the wires, it worked. I then put the wires back into the plug assembly, attached the new sensor, confirmed it work and then used Shoe Glue to keep the wires in place. I would of used epoxy, but the shoe glue works great. No luck on the problem. So then I installed the new cam sensors. No luck. Then I changed the transmission fluid again. I told myself I'm going to do it until the fluid cam out looking new. Since I have already done it 3 times it's looking pretty good now.

At this point, 100% zero change. I have always thought this was a transmission problem and not many of the other items I have done, but others mentioned it and it wasn't to costly. I am going to YouTube videos on changing the locks up solenoid and get on that.

If you have any additional advice, I'm all ears. Thanks for the advice so far. I am pretty good mechanically so I should be ok. I rebuild my Mercury 175 and put in new pistons, and believe me, I was happy to hear her start. That was my first total engine rebuild. I had the parts manual, service manual and owners manual so it made it pretty easy. I must say,. YouTube, forums and good people are a godsend.

 

I'm sorry that you did not fix the problem, it was a long-shot the manual does say that the solenoid can be manually stuck. I do have the manual and from what I read here i can not post it on here. if you like you can Private message me with your email and i will send it to you. I hope this is allowed, I don't want to get in trouble here as I like this site and I like to help people that want to help themselves.

 

I'm having trouble finding a video that specifically shows this. Are you talking about this part (video) or a solenoid inside the transmission?

 

Are you good with Forscan? I don't know if I should try to reprogram the transmission or not. I just watched a video of a transmission shop identifying a used transmission in the vehicle and the cars PCM didn't match the numbers on the transmission. This made it shift hard in 4th gear. I doubt this is the issue because the ONLY time my car has an issue is when the car is not moving. As soon as the car gets moving, everything is perfect. I believe you are correct with the lock up solenoid and it makes sense, I just want to make sure that I change the correct part. My next purchase after this will be a new transmission with upgraded parts and HAD torque converter. I'm so tired of this. Hell, I'll end up paying half that to have a Tranny shop fix my issue.
And again, thank you for your help.

 

On the Ford and most vehicles it's on the valve-body in the transmission. There is a cover on the front of the transmission, the cover accesses the valve body and the solenoid is on the valve body, there are seven solenoids. On this picture it is to the right. https://spprecision.com/products/6f...BRACEiwA-Wiqq57bQoTj6BSih0Z2lk0dLvnKe7lNq9Dd4ZyGm1ZX5Z2nZKLLYLSXShoCNP0QAvD_BwE

 

Here is a video of a transmission tear-down you don't have t remove the transmission and when you get to the valve body I don;'t believe it has to come out of the transmission. The black plastic holds the solenoids in. As I said some posts previous this is not an easy job, you may want to find a transmission shop. Watch the first minute or two and then skip to the 38 minute mark for the valve body.

 

I only used Forscan to rest my Battery monitor and activate Navigation. I wasn't real happy messing with those modules. I bought my Escape through a Ford dealer but it was trade to the Sister store that is a Chrysler store. The Chrysler store serviced it put new brakes, rotors, four tires and a new battery in it but did not reset the battery monitor. So I reset it and did the Navigation, that was the only thing it didn't have. I bought it from a dealer because I wanted the Ford warranty. I used to work at a used car dealer (previously a Ford dealer) until I retired and I know that you never know about a used car until you have it for a while. The car was well maintained at a Ford dealer, but they traded it?? I intend to drive it till it falls to the ground. I have a 2003 Harley F150 100th Anniversary truck with 40,000 mile but it hasn't seen a rain drop in 10 years let alone our Western Pa snow!!!

 

Western Pennsylvania huh? Hell yeah, Cincinnati isn't to far. Lol.. I have watched that video before. I think I have watched every video on the 6F35. It's funny the link you sent, that was the website I found the transmission I am thinking about buying if this solenoid doesn't fix it. My wife has been driving our 1997 Ford Expedition for a long time now. I have a 2005 Excursion lifted with 40s and she won't drive that. I really need to figure this out. And I appreciate the communication, it's nice to have someone that has some knowledge and helping me.

 

Sounds like you are a Ford man through and through. I started as a Ford tech. In 1970. I can still do a C6 transmission in my sleep, but the only electronic trans. I have worked on was a 4r70w in my 01 F150 the big thing today is the way things are controlled. My wife has aCTS and it's on its third COM always a different problem but still a pain. Cars are way to complicated. My previous beater work car was a 06 Escape Hybrid, it never left me down but it sure did some strange things. All of a sudden it would fix itself and be fine for months and then back to something special. I am glad to see that thing gone.

 

As I said I do have the shop manual and if I can help with any information let me know. Good luck!

 

I appreciate the help. Yes I have been a Ford man my whole life, but with the 6.0 PowerStroke and the problems I have had with it, and now the Escape, I think this will be my last. After all my research which is thorough in in depth, I learned Ford was told by the engineering team from International who was helping Ford develop the engine that the head bolts would fail and needed to be upgraded. Ford declined to take their advice. Also it was told that the oil coolers location and design would be problematic, again, Ford chose not to address the problems, even before production began. I spent $16,000 putting a new engine in it already and made.the mistake to not swap to a Cummins because I think the head gaskets are already blown again. It's either that or the oil cooler again. Those two problems mask each other. And now with the Escape. My mother gave me her 06 Escape years ago because she didn't want to deal with it. (She's more of a "take it to the dealer" type) after 3 trips costing her money every time, she gave up getting the transmission fixed. Now my wives 2013 Escape is having a transmission problem. And after almost 40 days to reading and trouble shooting this current problem. Tens of thousands of people online have reported problems with the Escape. The sad part is, it's a really nice little car when it runs correctly, but Ford's great idea of telling owners (in the owner's manual) that the TM fluid is good for the life of the car is NOT good advice. Every time I go to a dealer to get help, they want to charge a diagnosis fee, then give me a quote, and I ask "is that going to fix the problem" and they say "we think so". Well my wallet tells me you better "know so".

I just recently helped a man scrap his 50' houseboat and the engines I was curious about. They are Crusader engines. After reading a few articles I am under the impression these are highly sought after engines because they are not computerized. The man writing the most informative review says people want simple. When something stops working out in the water, people want to be able to pull the carburetor off, clean it out and get their boat running again. He even had pictures of the a Mercury engine next to the crusader engine and said, if you were broke down on the water, which one would you prefer. One looked like a NASA probe and the other an engine. The oil filter was easily accessible, everything was simple. Truth be told, I know it's unavoidable and these new electronic engines are here to stay. But I will be finding a manufacturer that can build an engine with electronics that doesn't break down on a regular basis. Also manufacturer that addresses known faults in the design prior to production vs Ford that decided to move forward as is.

There is a GREAT series on called "cars that built America" and it is a great insight to how the big companies came about and what their corporate mindset was and more than likely still is. Ford has always been about "build them cheap" and in my mind at least, their quality and unwillingness to help someone owning one of their products even after the warranty has expired knowing the problem that person is having is due to their own design or engineering failures isn't acceptable to me.

That's me venting..lol...sorry.. however I am reading some positive things about the new 6.7 liter PowerStroke. So there may be hope. ?
Time to dive in, hopefully I can get to the valve bodies tonight.

 

My son is part of many Instagram groups that follow diesel trucks and lifted trucks. He is all the time showing me pictures. For example, the last one he had had 4 lifted trucks trucks. It said "a lifted Dodge" and had a nice lifted Dodge. "A lifted Chevy" and a picture if a nice lifted Chevy, and so forth and so on until I got to the bottom where it said "A lifted Ford" and it was a picture of a Ford with the engine removed up on a mechanic's lift. I was a soldier stationed in Germany in 99 - 02. I remember the internet not being quite what it is today. Consumers are finding it extremely easy to educate themselves on products now. If I was on the board of directors of Ford, I would push for better quality. I know I would gladly pay 10% more for a car that was made of higher quality components.

 

I worked at a used car dealer for the last 7 years. We bought a lot of Enterprise and off lease cars as well as auction cars, I can only say every manufacturer makes substandard cars. Everyone has problems some more than others. Some are junk. One thing you have to keep in mind most of the people on forums are on there because they have a problem. When I look at this forum most who have a major issue have just joined maybe their first post. Just like survey's people don't talk when they are happy only when they have issues. As for diesels when they first put them in pick up trucks Ford had a good engine, not much power but lasted for ever just like these little turbo engines they turned up the power and lost reliability. It seems a lot of parts are being made in places that never had much technology, third world countries.

 

Oh I totally agree. I am a firm believer that people don't get online and post when everything goes as it should. I actually try to always get online and leave good reviews if something goes as it should. You hit the nail on the head though, they all make junk. It's capitalism at it's worse. My grandfather has a fridge and garbage compressor that he's had in his kitchen for 40 years and it still works great. This will morph into an economics conversation but I guess it's relevant. They want the cars to break. So does government. It all ties together. The gov needs it to break so Ford can pay their worker to make more, so the mining people can dig more iron ore so the maintenance shop can pay their maintenance man all while Uncle Sam collects on every purchase and income. In 1999 Germany had dumpsters that were separated by glass, plastic, paper and trash. Big business a long time ago decided recycling wasn't in their best interest here in America. It's like the high speed rails. Have you ever researched why America doesn't have high speed rails? The car companies and gas companies got together and went around the country buying up all railways they could and closed them down. The only thing left was the big frieght lines. Cutting this short, son is having leaf blower issues...

 

Does anyone know if I replace the solenoids if I will need to reprogram the car? I know if I put a new solenoid body and valve body then I have too reprogram the car, however I have talked to a very helpful rep at Ford and also a senior tech at a transmission shop and nobody knows. They both said something on the lines of, I really don't know, we always replace the solenoid and valve body and reprogram it. I have heard a few say if I just replace one solenoid (the tcc) then it should be fine but when I pulled a few others, they looked "dirty" and since it's a lot of effort to get into it, I figured I would replace them all.

Also, I can locate lots of solenoid kits for the 2012 or and earlier (gen 1 for the 6f35 transmission) but none for 2013 or later (gen 2). I ended up buying the solenoid body which comes with the solenoids and the part that holds them. I was told if I'm replacing that to also replace the valve body (even the rep in the parts department thought it strange they didn't sell a complete kit). I finally found (after calling 4 Ford dealerships) a dealer that would reprogram the car for free if I bought the parts for them, but the solenoid body is $434 at the dealer and $260+ all over the internet and the valve body is $140 with a $275 core charge. So I decided to purchase the solenoid body online (surprising from another Ford dealer) and I'm planning on using the solenoids from it and putting them in the solenoid body that's in my car already so the computer doesn't think I changed out the parts and needs reprogramming.

Thoughts anyone?

Does anyone know what the computer reads to know the new valve body is installed? Is it within the solenoids themselves? (I took a solenoid apart and didn't see any chip or electronics other than what a solenoid should have) is it in the black cover that covers the solenoid body. (The piece that needs removed in order to remove an individual solenoid) or is it in the solenoid body or valve body itself? How does the car know it's different???? Ahhh

 

Also, does anyone know if forscan is capable of programming the new solenoid valve strategy and solenoid body. If so I may just install the new solenoid body and reprogram it myself.

 

These are the number 2 position (ssc) and number 3 position (tcc) yet they both have # 3 on them. According to a manual a friend sent me, they come numbered for a specific position. So either someone at Ford messed up in the manufacturing of the transmission or it really isn't that relevant. Or.... Maybe that's why my tcc is failing (we think) but the manual also states the solenoids are the same as in part number. So why the labeling? Hmmm
Something I'm missing. Back to educating myself now that I have more material. . . For everyone that doesn't have the drive to figure this all out, hopefully my efforts help. It only took about 2 hours of labor to be able to pull the valve body off the front of the transmission. If I knew what I was doing and had the parts, Indo not see why the maintenance manual (and auto shops) charge 10 hours for this job. (I'm pretty sure thats what I learned). Anyway. Thanks to all that are assisting and I will keep everyone updated. After reviewing the material it does make sense to me now that the auto parts store only carried 3 solenoids. There are only 3 used, just multiples of them.

 

I don't know about the 6F35 specifically but most solenoids are best changed as a group (solenoid pack) as they call them or all together if they are sold individually. The thought process is that if one is going out, chances are one or more will not be too far behind and, since they all work together, you want them to be the same age (like spark plugs). The solenoids themselves have no memory to speak of but the circuit board they are all connected to may retain some memory. When the solenoid pack or the circuit board the solenoids are are all connected to loses power for X amount of time, the PCM will lose sight of it and thus the related shift patterns. When reconnected, it will need to relearn shift patterns for the first few days or miles, depending on how much you drive. During the relearn process, shifts can be erratic and include some slipping, hard shifts, and generally weird or undesired behaviors (late/early shifts etc). If after a few days of driving or a 100+ miles at varied speeds, the behaviors persist, then there is something else going on.

If there is no "memory clear" in the PCM through Forscan for the transmission, you can force all systems to clear themselves like this.

 

That's a great Video. He always has good Ford Information. When I was working in the used car dealership that battery disconnect and most importantly jumping the terminals together was our go to fix for any strange problem in any car line. It is a very effective tool to stop any confusion in the communications in late model cars. It wont fix everything But it does fix a lot of small problems.

 

UPDATE:
Sorry for anyone that has been following the thread for the lack of response. After all said and done, I believe the issue was both, the torque converter is slowly failing (this is what was found on other forums as well) AND the TCC solenoid. I ended up purchasing a valve body from Ford (due to my lack of knowledge about solenoids and my fear of getting this deep into the transmission and putting it back together and it not be fixed). After doing more online research, talking to a few others, I decided I didn't want to have to reprogram the TCM (transmission control module)(maybe it was the ECM... Engine Control Module) because the transmission shifted perfectly, and other than the stalling when put into gear, it worked great when driving. So I ended up pulling the new solenoids out of the new valve body and did a direct replacement of one by one. Once I put it all back together, it was time to test it. I believe I said a little prayer and put it in gear.....And........It died. I was crushed. However, staying positive, I already printed out the instructions on how to teach/relearn the transmission. When I had the battery off I did the terminal trick, and also using Forscan to "forget" what the Transmission had learned. So I went out and did this with my wife reading the instructions. After that, I'm going to say the transmission got a little better, but it might have only been positive thoughts. I drove the car around a little bit and about 10% of the time it would stall coming to a complete stop. After a few minutes I could keep it from stalling by simply letting off/lightening up on the brake pedal for a split second and the engine would survive the stall and come to a stop and stay running. I put the wife in the car and had her drive it until she could do the same. After her drive time, the engine was only trying to stall about 5% of the time. After a few days of asking my wife how the car was, the stories started to fade. No more "it about died going to work this morning!!!", Like I'm the problem for asking. So I believe now after the last month of my wife driving it normally, I haven't heard about it. Winner winner chicken dinner.

WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY:
I wouldn't have installed the mustang throttle body.

I wouldn't have installed the new cam sensors.

I wish I would have trouble shot the external thermometer before getting a new one. Once I replaced it, it didn't work. So I then troubleshot it and realize one of the connector cables was pulling out from the connector. (It was $25 dollars and her external temperature gauge works now, so no big deal)

* I would have purchased an upgraded transmission with the heavy duty torque converter for $2000 and had it installed.*

Although I do enjoy troubleshooting items and figuring out how to fix it, this was not fun. There was many items that I threw parts at it in the hopes it fixed it. It reminded me of my 6.0 Power Stroke. All the mechanics said "it can be the head gaskets or the oil cooler. It's the same symptoms so we can't tell till we get into it". Well that's how I felt here. I would read a forum that someone having the same problem fixed it with "this part" but no luck. I probably changed the transmission fluid 5 times which adds up cost wise. The new parts that I didn't need. The Forscan program that I had to learn and purchase the tool to connect to car. My garage was occupied for quite some time. My wife complaining about driving the 1997 Ford Expedition. AND.... Once it's all said and done, waiting for the transmission to fail again. It's inevitable after reading endless complaints about this transmission and also talking to a few transmission shops. Plus, after watching the series "Cars that built America". It's very apparent Ford has always been about selling low quality affordable cars to the masses vs building a quality reliable product. So as my garage had my wife's transmission taken apart, I had to change my blown brake line of my Ford Excursion outside on the cold driveway. And as I am pulling this rusted brake line off the truck, I see some lines in perfect shape running alongside of the brake lines. They where the fuel lines. I ordered a kit online that came with every single brake line for the whole Excursion for $150 and the lines are stainless steel. So just think, people are paying $80,000 for these Super Duty trucks, and Ford can't even put stainless steel brake lines on them. What a joke, with Ford's purchasing power, they would probably cost $20.

Best of luck for anyone that is dealing with the 6F35 transmission that Ford uses. DO transmission oil changes often. DO NOT listen to the owners manual and not do them. It's as simple as changing engine oil and it will make your transmission last.

Thank everyone that gave me advice and assistance. If it wasn't for a community of people helping others, Ford would have won this battle as I wouldn't have been able to do it myself. A special thanks to the member who send me some information through email, it boosted my confidence I was finally on the right track and I needed the push at that time. I was about to pull off on the side of the highway and set it on fire. So thank you again.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.

 

Although I do enjoy troubleshooting items and figuring out how to fix it, this was not fun.

Troubleshooting is never fun when time is of the essence or it's with a primary means of transportation (at least for me).

I have some stories that are not relevant to this topic but, I will say even dealers are fallible and can look right when the answer is left.

Glad you seemed to have figured it out!

 

2013 2 liter Titanium AWD did a tranny flush at 57,000 miles
Torque converter went out at 90,000
When torque converter goes out it will kill the engine the minute you put it in gear!
new torque converter was put in
I also had them put in a new valve body
cost $3600.00 16.5 hours labor!!!!!!!