About 15-20,000 miles ago the O/D light started blinking. There was no noticable change in the way the car drove, no slippage, no hard shifting, no change in the way the car feels when I put it into and out of OD (by pushing the button.) The only noticeable change is that the engine RPM increases by about 300rpm when the light starts blinking and the gas mileage gets much worse. This has been going on for about a year. I'm afraid to take it to Ford because they will want to put another transmission in, I'm afraid to change the fluid because other posts make me think this might make the transmission fail -- it seems to work just fine. Sometimes I drive for 100 miles or more before the OD light begins blinking, sometimes it starts soon after getting underway, but it stops for awhile whenever I turn the engine off. Any idea what the problem might be? I did try to get the code read and the Autozone said there was no code set, but I think the lady didn't know how to use the reader and a transmission code saying "transmission problem" is useless anyway when I don't have any problem other than rpm and mileage changing. Is there a sensor that could explain this behavior?
Feb 27, 2008 at 4:34 PM