I did an oil change on my wife's Safari yesterday not because I felt like it but because it was about 500k overdue. <I am still dealing with some bug or something I picked up 6 months ago when I was away in East Timor and Indonesia. Generally in the afternoons I am only operating on 1 or 2 cylinders.> Anyways, I got the filters back on and proceeded to fill her up with fresh oil. It took me over 3 liters of oil to hear it splashing into the oil drop pan. 
The first time in my life I have forgotten to put the drain plug back. Of course only operating on a 1/4 of the little brain power I got, without thinking, I panicked and pulled the partially full funnel and managed to get oil all over the front of both the exhaust and intake manifolds and pretty much everywhere in the front 1/3 of the engine bay. 
Good thing I had also forgotten to haul the drain pan out from underneath. It caught most of the oil. The rest I cleaned up with some rags.
I got it filled up and everything cleaned up just in time to go get Lety in Langley. Pulled out of the yard and it feels like it is struggling. Going down the Sumas Bypass I discover I have no OD. I'm thinking, that's strange, maybe it just needs to warm up. Its becomes clear on the freeway, when I am doing 2800rpm at 100k, that I am not getting OD. Off the freeway, I discover that I only have 2nd (while 1st was selected) and 3rd. Both 1st and 4th (OD) is gone. With the OD selected, there is no engine braking. Too late it's dark and I have to get a friend to go get Lety. I played with it a bit and took it for a few more test drives. I was surprised how well it got around with only 2 gears, but I had to shift manually. A few times I tried resetting the ECU by disconnecting the batteries, but the same warning flash came back after the first engine start-up. The last thing I did before turning in was to add a bit of Lubegard Red.
This morning, I am thinking big bills for a tranny rebuild.
Anyways, I decide to take Lety into Langley for work but at a BJ40 speed. Back in Abbotsford, I ran the E Transmission Self Diagnosis as described in my FSM. It came back with a code for the Over Run Clutch Solenoid. Next, I called as friend in Quebec who has heeps more experience with the Safari auto. He was pretty sure it had to be an electrical problem. Not having a clue of what this solenoid does, I then spent the better part of the afternoon looking for the connection where I could test the damn thing as the FSM explained.
I got to thinking that, before it went I had not had a even one of the usual transmission failure warnings. Rather, after the oil change it just stopped working properly.
Wiping up the spilled oil, I had moved a lot of wires. So, I proceeded to check every single connection on the harness from the TPS back to the connections on the tranny itself. Fed-up that I couldn't find any obvious problem, I decided to one more time reset the ECU by unhooking the batteries.
Off for another test drive, I was surprised to find that it now shifted fine by itself into first and all the way through the gears to OD. Stopped it and turned it off and back on and didn't get any warning flashes. Drove it to Langley and back again to fetch my wife - 120k at 2200rpm - without a problem. In fact it never shifted so nice. Must of been the Lubegard Red.
I haven't a clue where the connection problem was. I have learned on thing. If you have an electronically controlled transmission that stops working properly, don't head to the tranny shop immediately unless you are sure it went bang or slip. Run the ECU's diagnostics and then start checking connections and wires. It doesn't take much to screw these electronic transmissions up to appear like you got major problems.
That said, time to add a big tranny cooler, a remote filter and to put on my "to buy list" one of those Extreme Stage II Valve Bodies from Wholesale Automatic Transmissions.
And yes, I feel very lucky.
The first time in my life I have forgotten to put the drain plug back.
Of course only operating on a 1/4 of the little brain power I got, without thinking, I panicked and pulled the partially full funnel and managed to get oil all over the front of both the exhaust and intake manifolds and pretty much everywhere in the front 1/3 of the engine bay. Good thing I had also forgotten to haul the drain pan out from underneath. It caught most of the oil. The rest I cleaned up with some rags.I got it filled up and everything cleaned up just in time to go get Lety in Langley. Pulled out of the yard and it feels like it is struggling. Going down the Sumas Bypass I discover I have no OD. I'm thinking, that's strange, maybe it just needs to warm up. Its becomes clear on the freeway, when I am doing 2800rpm at 100k, that I am not getting OD. Off the freeway, I discover that I only have 2nd (while 1st was selected) and 3rd. Both 1st and 4th (OD) is gone. With the OD selected, there is no engine braking. Too late it's dark and I have to get a friend to go get Lety. I played with it a bit and took it for a few more test drives. I was surprised how well it got around with only 2 gears, but I had to shift manually. A few times I tried resetting the ECU by disconnecting the batteries, but the same warning flash came back after the first engine start-up. The last thing I did before turning in was to add a bit of Lubegard Red.
This morning, I am thinking big bills for a tranny rebuild.
Anyways, I decide to take Lety into Langley for work but at a BJ40 speed. Back in Abbotsford, I ran the E Transmission Self Diagnosis as described in my FSM. It came back with a code for the Over Run Clutch Solenoid. Next, I called as friend in Quebec who has heeps more experience with the Safari auto. He was pretty sure it had to be an electrical problem. Not having a clue of what this solenoid does, I then spent the better part of the afternoon looking for the connection where I could test the damn thing as the FSM explained. I got to thinking that, before it went I had not had a even one of the usual transmission failure warnings. Rather, after the oil change it just stopped working properly.
Wiping up the spilled oil, I had moved a lot of wires. So, I proceeded to check every single connection on the harness from the TPS back to the connections on the tranny itself. Fed-up that I couldn't find any obvious problem, I decided to one more time reset the ECU by unhooking the batteries.
Off for another test drive, I was surprised to find that it now shifted fine by itself into first and all the way through the gears to OD. Stopped it and turned it off and back on and didn't get any warning flashes. Drove it to Langley and back again to fetch my wife - 120k at 2200rpm - without a problem.
In fact it never shifted so nice. Must of been the Lubegard Red.I haven't a clue where the connection problem was. I have learned on thing. If you have an electronically controlled transmission that stops working properly, don't head to the tranny shop immediately unless you are sure it went bang or slip. Run the ECU's diagnostics and then start checking connections and wires. It doesn't take much to screw these electronic transmissions up to appear like you got major problems.
That said, time to add a big tranny cooler, a remote filter and to put on my "to buy list" one of those Extreme Stage II Valve Bodies from Wholesale Automatic Transmissions.
And yes, I feel very lucky.
