1997 Ford Explorer Flashing O/D Off Light

Thank you. I'll take the car over to a parts store as soon as I can and let you know what they tell me.

As a follow-up to KHLowe2008 - I've had no luck finding anyone who can/will the PCM for me. AutoZone says their scanners only read "check engine" messages. There aren't a lot of other parts stores in the area, and the ones I called dais they don't do the scanning.

The local service station offered to do it for $59. For that kind of $$, I'll take it directly to the transmission guys.

Thank you for tyring to help.

It was frustrating. No, there doesn't seem to be any difference in the way the car runs. It starts on the highway so there isn't much shifting, but the light will stay on when I get off the highway and it seems to shift fine. When I am on the highway, if push the button used to switch the O/d on and off, I can feel it shift.

I think the speedometer is workiig right. Maybe not. This car is much different than my last car so I don't have as good a sense for speed. However, the last time I drove it on the highway, and the light was flashing, the speedometer said I was doing 90 mph and it didn't seem possible that I was going that fast. I also thought it was registering high when I was off the highway and driving on the toiwn road. But, I only noticed the speed thing that one time and, again, wasn't sure if it was the speedometer or me.

Thank you. Just one more question - what is the "VSS"? And, if it is the VSS, is it likely to be a major repair?

Thank you. You've been more heldpful than I can tell you. I will get it in to have it checked and fixed as soon as I get my check next week.

Again, thank you.

Me again. Aamco has a promotion where they will scan PCM's for free. So, I FINALLY, got the scan done. They said the error # is 741 and that means the "clutch converter is slipping". Does that sound right?

They said if it only needs the converter replaced, it would cost about $925. But, he said that there's a good possibility (more likely than not) that something has leaked into the transmission and the trans. Will need to be overhauled. The price he gave me for doing that was $1900-2000. Does all this sound reasonable?

(Note - I will check around and see if Aamco is the best choice or if I should go to the local transmission guy a couple of people have recommended.)

Thank you again for all your help.

Thank you. The mgr. Seemed to be a pretty straight shooter, but that last bit of information is very helpful. I'm going to have to chance driving it for about another month. (I'd prefer not to but I won't have the money until then.) The Aamco manager seemed to think I'll be OK but did say there was some chance of doing more damage, or having the converter thing give out totally.

Again, thank you for your help and for explaining things in such a clear way. I'm really glad I 'stumbled' across this site.

That's what AutoZone will tell you. They will also tell you that the light has to be on at the time when they read it. Don't believe them. Ask them if they will just hook up the reader anyway. They did it for me and it threw the code for a "Torque Converter Clutch Solenoid" which was stored in the PCM. My O/D light had stopped flashing and had only done it twice before for a very brief time over the past two weeks. Mystery solved and the had the part. And to think they insisted they would not be able to read the code to begin with. Those crazy guys must not want to sell their stuff!