Tupe up tips needed: 1996 Mercury Marquis 4.6l

[swanicyouth]

Dad also informed me that this car was ordered with a special road handling package which included, dual exhaust, trans oil cooler, and what ever else that was included with that package...which would be nice to find out.

Apparently the tranny has had this problem before and a mechanic drained it and changed the filter and put in an additive that contained whale sperm as stated by the tranny mechanic. Could have been and might have been snake oil as far as I know.

Whale sperm. LoL. You know how they get sperm from a whale? 20 guys join hands and form a circle... And the whale lies on his back...

Well that used to be the old joke, anyways...

"Whale sperm" used to be used in tranny fluid. They stopped using it a long time ago. Probably before my time. I believe they stopped using it because it couldn't handle the high temps - or, maybe they couldn't find enough horny wales....

Anyway, I'm guessing the shudder you are experiencing is during torque converter lock up. Most commonly it is. If the fluid is good and it's not slipping - that is likely the issue. I read the TSB about reprogramming the T/PCM. I can tell you from experience and from pulling out a lot of worn AODEs due to various problems and replacing them for various reasons, this "reprogram" won't always (ever?) fix it on an aged vehicle.

What the T/PCM reprogram is likely trying to do is compensate for whatever friction modifiers in the fluid have been eaten up or wear in the torque converter lock up mechanism has occurred due to age/time. They likely also recommend replacing the fluid at the same time as well - they always do. But the electronics can only compensate so much. Nissan has a similar issue and a similar "fix" that involves replacing the valve body and the TCM - it doesn't work.

If you can get it done for free or cheap - do it. But from my own research and experience (I've dealt with toque converter shudder in the past), I can tell you the Lubeguard or "Dr Tranny" stuff does work 9 times out of 10 to alleviate this issue. It's the only "additive" I would recommend to anyone. Of course, before you add it - change the fluid and the whale sperm to Ford's recommended Mercon whatever fluid. Use Ford fluid only - not an "approved for" version from the Autozone.

Also, I know it's costly, but you want to change the fluid twice before adding the additive - drive the car in between changes a bit. Most slush boxes hold 9-10 quarts of fluid/whale sperm. Only HALF drains out when you change the fluid/whale sperm via dropping the pan or pulling the plug. Most of the rest just sits in the torque converter. So, your only changing half the fluid if you do it once. Some will still be left if you do it twice, but usually it's fine. Back in the day we used to drill a little pee-hole in the torque converter and put a little self tapping brass plug in it to drain the fluid out. Now a days, that would probably light every warning light on your dash.

Do Not Flush The Transmission with any "flush" product !!! Whatever you do - don't do that. Flushing is only for transmission failures and if your replacing or rebuilding the transmission. You will never be sure you get the "flush" out of the torque converter. You can flush a cooler safely, but not the trans itself without R & R'ing it.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[fiveoh]

Dad also informed me that this car was ordered with a special road handling package which included, dual exhaust, trans oil cooler, and what ever else that was included with that package...which would be nice to find out.

Apparently the tranny has had this problem before and a mechanic drained it and changed the filter and put in an additive that contained whale sperm as stated by the tranny mechanic. Could have been and might have been snake oil as far as I know.

Sounds like the trailer towing package.

Glad the plug swap alone seems to have worked out for you. How has it been running for the past month?

Like another poster mentioned, cleaning the EGR setup might help with your driveability, too. I'm not a technician and can't tell you exactly how, but I figure the cleaner everything is, the better/smoother it'll run, right?

Another thing I used to do on my 5.0 Mustang ( I know, before the 4.6's time ) was to clean the throttle-body. I used to use carb clenaer before 'throttle-body friendly' cleaners were available, but try cleaning that out, too. I learned this from a Ford dealership mechanic who did this to my car when it was just a few years old (1990 Mustang 5.0) after I explained to him the strange symptom of stumbling or shutting off when going over speed bumps! Driveability was excellent, otherwise.

Good luck,

 

[CCC4me]

My money is on the coils...they only seem to last ~100k on the mod motors.

In regards to the tranny, do a full drain and fluid change (along with the filter) as described here: Transmission Fluid and Filter change

Be sure to only use Mercon V (available at Wal-Mart even) as everything else is known to cause the shudder. Fixed the torque converter shudder/hunting in my daughter's Crown Vic right up after that.

 

[MPBGT]

I had a '96 Grand Marquis about 8 years ago. I had a miss and what I thought was a slipping trans. There were two things I did which in turn resolved both issues.

1. Do a tune up. It's just plugs and wires on that year, no distributor. If memory serves me correctly, there are only two coil packs, one per bank, but you shouldn't need to touch them unless the plugs and wires don't take care of any miss or rough idle you have.

2. The 4.6L engine has a TERRIBLE EGR (emission gas recirculation) system. The passages that lead into the egr (under the throttle body) will become caked with carbon. It can be easily cleaned once you pull off the housing.

Once I took care of the above, that engine purred like a kitten.

+1 on cleaning the egr valve, while your at it do the throttle body and check your PVC valve.
Plugs are a given and a cheap thing to replace that will eliminate that from possibility. Coils are expensive, but it's a good idea to replace them because they will go bad.
Another thing to check is the iac ( idle air control valve) and the tps ( throttle position sensor). It's also not a bad idea to do a smoke test for vacume leaks.

 

[Klasse Act]

I'd replace the fuel filter because its cheap and easy to get to, the PCV valve is also cheap but don't know about its location.

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