Need Advice

[capt512]

Morning to all of you,

I have gotten a lot of great information from this site since I bought my MM back in April of this year and now I feel its prudent to come to Ya'll, southern for you guys, to get advice again.

Since purchasing my car I have had a lot of the same problem as a lot of you with my MM. Speaker rattle, hesitation when cold & rough idle as well as pulling to the left and steering wheel shimmy. We won't go into the paint issues.Mileage now is 1484 miles.

I've been denied service at a local Ford dealership because they " Can't work on Marauders", which I found out later was totally false. There was no bulletin issued by Ford!

I then tried another Ford SVT dealer here in Kansas City, Bill Woods Ford, who really treated me and my car like gold.
I took it to them with a list of problems which had never been fixed by the selling dealer as well as an introductory letter.
Mike Hause, the Service Manager at Bill Woods was more than polite and kept the car three days trying to correct the problems I mentioned earlier.
They succeeded mostly by adjusting the shift linkage on the trans, putting on a new left front tire for the shimmy, and installing a new fuel pump for the hesitation and stumble.
Shimmy's gone ,Trans goes into reverse ok now BUT that Da** hesitation stumble is still there at the 30 to 60 MPH acceleration.
Every time I try to blend into traffic above 30 mph or just drive normally in traffic, if I'm below 30, I have to hit the passing gear to get out of the stumble. I find this not only aggravating but dangerous. We all know the power these cars have when hitting the passing gear and doing that on a rain slick road or interstate could be very hazardous. That doesn't include the increased risk of tickets either.

I talked with the Service Manager and he said that they checked for a update to re-flash the Pcm but that I had the latest one.
Thats so hard to believe with a build date of 6/30/02 and a code sticker of FDH2.

So heres my questions?

Is it possible to put in a new PCM say for example one that comes out on the 2004's that has most of the problems corrected? Second could it be that the hesitation I'm feeling is not a PCM but a trans issue?

The other day when coming home I hit the passing gear at about 55 and when I got to about 76 the trans acted like it went into neutral. High rev and no acceleration. It did so until I let off the gas.

HAS ANYONE HAD THAT HAPPEN?

Anyway even though I've found a great dealership I believe if he could have fixed the problem with a PCM reflash he would have.
Is it possible for them to have missed that there is a program available?

I know that this is a lot of questions, but at this point I'm at a loss as to what to do.
My cars been in the shop 4 times since April and 3 times for the hesitation stumble cra*.
I love the car but the risk of an accident or another ticket is too high to keep on going like this especially with winter coming up.

For any of you guys who can research my VIN # for a PCM update here it is: 2MEHM75V73X611992.

As always I thank each of you for taking the time to read this thread and I'll be watching for any and all suggestions.

Thanks,
Mike :banana2:

PS. Sorry about the length of this thread.

[Macon Marauder]

Cap'n:

I would have thought that a GOOD Ford or Mercury service department could have addressed the hesitation problem, too. Kinda surprised the SVT dealer couldn't.

I see your MM is stock (SO FAR!). My advice is to a: try to get your car to one of the Ford Chips tuning sessions, or b: install an RPC chip.

Either one of these should fix you up. But they do have a certain element of risk. The tuning probably less so.

If you want your MM to remain stock then you may just have to visit ALL the dealers near you (and not so near) until you get to one that can help...

[Mark McQuaide]

Sounds like you have a bad tranny with that slipping you experienced. There have been a lot of recent posts about tranny failures. I'm sure you'll get tons of responses from knowledgeable members here. At least you found a good dealer.

[Smokie]

High revs, without an increase in speed and assuming you are not touching shift lever.....smells like transmission trouble to me. I agree a chip or programming would resolve any hesitation or stumble; however I would leave bonestock until they fix the tranny problem, don't give them an excuse to deny warranty coverage. After tranny issue is fixed call Dennis. I also have a 6/02 car with same code as yours and Dennis turned my car into the car it always should have been, great results. Good Luck.

[SergntMac]

A PCM upgrade seems impossible to me, the '04 MM engine has dual knock sensors, and the 4R75W tranny.

I agree with the advice pointing to the transmission, your "stumble" may actually be a slipping OD which you can't get around without downshifting. Here's a brief test that may help nail this down

Get on a highway where there is an incline. Once you're locked into OD, set the cruise control and see if the car will pull itself up the incline. Do this with the air conditioning on and off, because that triggers a change inside the tranny. Any unusual behavior under these conditions, and take the next exit for your dealership. Your tranny is on it's way south.

BTW, LM doesn't repair trannies anymore, they are crated and sent out. All the dealer does, is R&R, and you get a new tranny.

Good luck, keep us posted?

[capt512]

Thanks Sarge,
Thats an excellant idea. Will try that when I pick up my son from school. Will let ya'll know.
Mike

[capt512]

Sarge,

Check out my response to your test suggestions in my new thread "Transmission Woes" and see what ya think.

It did OK on the highway test except for slight hesitation when AC kicked on and off but I'd be interested in your opinion on the other problems mentioned in the new thread.

Thanks,
Mike