4r100 question

RiVerBum01 · Jan 24, 2014

Guy at work asked me a question about his 01 f350. I'm no transmittion expert by any means so I figured I'd ask you guys. He says that his transmittion sometimes seems like it has 5 shifts when it's cold out. It rarely does it when it's warm. I told him maybe it was his torque converter locking but I wasn't sure. His truck is all stock, never had any programmers or chips on it at all. I think it has around 220k miles. He asked a few ppl that he knows and someone said it was a cold gear in the transmission LOL. He is pretty smart when it comes to anything mechinacal and he drove a semi for years so I'm sure he knows what a shift is. Anybody know what could be causing this?

GatorBaitR6 · Jan 24, 2014

Transmission not as smooth when its cold and old and the TC locking is rougher then normal...? Thats about all I got... I know when I first bought my truck and i took it to a shop for the oil cooler replace I was a Newb and thought my 6.0 had a six spd automatic... when in fact it was just the TC locking..

CurtisF · Jan 24, 2014

TC lockup in these trucks can feel like having a 5-speed at times. Play with the tuning just a bit and it can feel like that all the time.

RiVerBum01 · Jan 24, 2014

Well shouldn it be 1-2,2-3,tc lock, then over drive. Somehow there is a 5th shift somewhere. Maybe the converter is locking, unlocking, then lockig again? He said usually the truck is lugging pretty bad when it shifts normally, but when this 5th shift happens the truck doesn't lug down as bad.

RiVerBum01 · Jan 24, 2014

CurtisF said:
TC lockup in these trucks can feel like having a 5-speed at times. Play with the tuning just a bit and it can feel like that all the time.

His truck doesn't have any kind of tuner on it. He said he would like to buy some kind of chip to make it shift like it does when it is cold. Figured I would try an figure out what is making the truck do this first. Then find a tuner that can make the tranny do this all the time, if it isn't gonna hurt the truck.

Arisley · Jan 25, 2014

Tony Wildman tunes.

CurtisF · Jan 25, 2014

RiVerBum01 said:
Well shouldn it be 1-2,2-3,tc lock, then over drive. Somehow there is a 5th shift somewhere. Maybe the converter is locking, unlocking, then lockig again? He said usually the truck is lugging pretty bad when it shifts normally, but when this 5th shift happens the truck doesn't lug down as bad.

You're miss-counting. The 4R100 will feel like a "5-speed" when the TC lock doesn't occur along with the 2-3 upshift. You don't get 5 different upshifts, you get what feels like 4 (just like counting a 5-speed). Which by the way when the TC does lock up immediately after the 2-3 upshift, that's when you get the lugging.

RiVerBum01 said:
His truck doesn't have any kind of tuner on it. He said he would like to buy some kind of chip to make it shift like it does when it is cold. Figured I would try an figure out what is making the truck do this first. Then find a tuner that can make the tranny do this all the time, if it isn't gonna hurt the truck.

Cold shift strategy is different than warm shift. It's normal.

Tuning changes can move the speed/pedal position for the shifts. The same can be applied to the TC lockup.

RiVerBum01 · Jan 25, 2014

I understand what your saying. But even counting the tc lockup, and the truck remaining in 1st gear when stopped, there should be only 3 up shifts and converter lockup. So the truck should only feel like it has 4 shift changes.
Could you send me in the direction of someone that sells tuners for transmittions only? Ive tried to convince him to put custom tunes on it but he thinks it'll wear the engine out faster

lincolnlocker · Jan 26, 2014

RiVerBum01 said:
I understand what your saying. But even counting the tc lockup, and the truck remaining in 1st gear when stopped, there should be only 3 up shifts and converter lockup. So the truck should only feel like it has 4 shift changes.
Could you send me in the direction of someone that sells tuners for transmittions only? Ive tried to convince him to put custom tunes on it but he thinks it'll wear the engine out faster

So your saying that it acts as if it has 6 gears total?

Should only feel as if it has 5 gears total..

live life full throttle

RiVerBum01 · Jan 26, 2014

lincolnlocker said:
So your saying that it acts as if it has 6 gears total?

Should only feel as if it has 5 gears total..

live life full throttle

Exactly! And I'm trying to figure out what's causing the extra shift

lincolnlocker · Jan 26, 2014

RiVerBum01 said:
Exactly! And I'm trying to figure out what's causing the extra shift

You have rode in this truck and witnessed this?

Unless there are 2 lock and unlock perameters in the cold weather strategy then no freekin way there is 5 gear like upshifts!

live life full throttle