2007 Ford Taurus - Transmission Light & Beep? **FIXED**

[rhillig]

We have a car in the shop, that we seriously think is the reason technicians drink

Transmission light come on, in the dash. After a little bit of driving, there is a beeping noise. Nothing in a set pattern - very random. Dash lights will flicker.
No codes present.Checked transmission fluid & test drove, watching data on scantool - nothing seems out of the ordinary.With the no code situation, felt there was a fault in the instrument cluster. Replaced with a rebuilt from Ford. Still has the same problem.

Any ideas??

We have tried Identifix, iAtn, and our local transmission rebuilder. No one else has seen this problem before.

[steven kiser]

Many times I've found wiring issues at through plug, neutral safety switch, a kinked transmission line, a plugged transmission filter and we can't forget the possibility of a bad transmission. Just for s and g's sometimes I run a secondary ground off of the battery and attach it to engine block or in this case after cleaning an area to get a clean spot for a good ground on the transmission. If you turn the head lamps on and see a pulsation after a few minutes the alternator may be spiking and causing this issue. The spiking could also be a sign of a bad ground so I would really spend some time following the negative cables. If there is a connector on the OEM secondary ground you mat find it rotted inside. A quick thing I do is to place the negative clamp of my battery load tester on the engine and hit the switch. If there is a significant drop in amps that's another sign of a bad ground. Please don't have the engine running or key on when this is done. Seen that happen in another shop, not pretty. Did this vehicle give or get a jump start prior to this issue? was battery removed, charged and installed with the key in the on position? I have had customers that refuse to admit any thing that they see as a boo boo on their part. Melted or flash spots on posts or cables are a tell, new fuses are another and if there are new ones installed I always make sure the rating is correct. People seem the think it's OK to stick in any fuse since there aren't enough 20 amp ones in the package they purchased so 7.5 is fine. I'm done now so good luck on this. Ford wiring or module glitches are such a joy to deal with.

[rhillig]

Thanks Steven for the spots to check. We have checked & cleaned all the grounds, checked voltage. We resorted to google search & most of what comes up with the strange beeping we have, has to do with an air bag light fault. Air bag lights are all good & operational. Even tried making sure all the seat belts were hooked. Made sure all the doors/trunk was securely shut. Transmission fluid is clean, transmission shifts normally.

[steven kiser]

I've run across weird issues stemming from a 20 pound key ring. Some people seem to have every key from the kingdom on their ring and it messes up the cylinder sometimes effecting the ignition switch itself. During a test drive when the symptoms appear try wiggling the key and cylinder. I may be mistaken but the trans lite on the dash is a temp warning light and beeping noise is the audible. Did you try replacing the fluid temp sensor? This will not show as a code, it may contribute to a code issue though. I've run into situations where a trans cooler (radiator) has been bypassed and an aftermarket installer that's way to small. You mention that the transmission shits are solid and timely s an overheating trans isn't likely especially during the timeframe mentioned. The only think I know that could cause such a fast overheat would be a restricted cooler or a slipping pump. Both may cause an erratic shift but the latter would be a definite. Good Luck.

[Rich]

We had a truck in here that had the air bag warning bulb removed, It beeped like this. I was going to mention it, but when you replaced Dash you took care of that issue. We replaced our missing bulb and the beeping went away. It also caused a "codeless" CEL. Good luck with this one.

[rhillig]

Yesterday we found out how to put the instrument cluster in engineer test mode, as long as it's in that mode - no beeping. Stop the vehicle & restart it in normal mode - the BEEPING beeping is back.
When it is in engineering mode - we get codes $AH77, $9208 & $C002. But even with google search - have not been able to find what the codes mean. Battery & alternator test good. Ignition key is not loose or rattly.

[steven kiser]

I've got nothing more. Possibly the codes or random numbers have to do with the reman dash cluster not being completely purged of prior information. This was extremely common with Chrystler products leading to a cross contamination between all modules. I had some that would tell operator that the cruise control was on or other accessories when they weren't on that car. I had one where the customer swore up and down that even though the light was on his cruise wasn't working. His vehicle never had it and it was my first experience of "cross contamination". Getting back to this issue, it sounds to me that the transmission fluid overheating alarm is activating. From what I've read in the post so far it makes perfectly good sense to me. The chime is the audile and light is visual. A bad ground may be causing it but it sounds like it's in that circuit. I would look for the sensor or if it's inside the transmission look for the wire at the through plug. I've seen through plugs melted causing issues but once you've located the wire determine if it's a negative or positive trigger and either disconnect it or loop it to see if it resolves the issue. It may have nothing to do with the transmission itself but just that particular circuit. I've run into add on accessories wired in by a moron that effects the draw, resistance or continuity of the power or ground group they wired into. Good Luck.

[rhillig]

Steven,

Thanks for all your help & suggestions. After two days, we are throwing in the towel & took it to a Ford dealership - see if they can see anything different with their scantool & testing.

[rhillig]

Update to our crazy saga....even though we were told when we ordered the cluster that we did not need to have it programmed to the car.....we did. And then it took two more updates to get the lovely BEEPING noise to stop.

Off to figure out getting set up for the Ford programming on our system..............

[steven kiser]

Congrats and thanks for posting repair.