"gary" > wrote in message
news:9nEEe.25144$5V4.5789@pd7tw3no...
> A year and a half ago I was in an accident with my 2000 grand caravan 3.8L
> 4sp. (not my fault). Tranny fluid spewed everywhere. Got the van
repaired
> and it shifted slightly rough after that. I assumed it was because of the
> accident but never pursued it.
>

>
> I have Ford tranny fluid in there!!! I put 2 and 2 together and maybe my
> bad shifting in the 1st place was what the body shop used for fluid and
got
> worse by the addition of FLM. WOW. I found a site at
> www.allpar.com/eek/atf.html that says rough shifting can be caused by the
> wrong fluid and gives directions on how to clear that up. Basically I
> dropped the pan and changed the filter, cleaned it all up and replaced.
> Added 4 quarts of fluid and then took the lower tranny line off of the rad
> and pumped another 5 quarts out that way and replaced with new.
>

I was one of the posters that submitted a flush info to that site, I'm glad
that someone was able to make use of it!

I hope also that you read my comments regarding an external tranny cooler,
if your van is fitted with an in-radiator tranny cooler only.

> Took it for a spin and it was like I was driving a brand new vehicle. I
had
> gotten so used to the hard shifts and cringing when it came to a shift
> change that I forgot what it was like to drive a smooth vehicle. I took
it
> out for several spins after and it was so smooth I could hardly tell where
> the shift change was.
>
> I'm writing this for anyone who has hard shifting and might want to know a
> cure. It was so simple. I feel like I am driving a new vehicle after a
> year and a half. If your vehicle calls for ATF4+ only use ATF4+ do not
use
> a substitute and from what I gather do not use an additive that "converts"
> it to ATF4+.
>

Great - we sing that song regularly in this forum. It's amazing that there
are
shops out there that will put the wrong fluid in these transmissions.

Ted