05XE no longer exists, now something else

Friends, a silly Canadian changed my user name (at my request). I am no longer 05XE. My 2005 XE, after 12 faithful years and 111,500 miles now has the dreaded coolant/transmission cross contamination that plagued the early year 2nd gens. I was under the impression that the 4 bangers were mostly immune. However, the transmission shop believes it was caught right away. Last Monday it went from shifting completely normally to locking in one forward gear 3 or 4, and showing codes for two shift solenoids shorted. The shop, Cincinnati Transmission Specialists is very familiar with the problem and is confident mine can be fixed with a new radiator and a valve body for the transmission. It is in for repair now. The repair work will come with a 3-year warranty. I will be selling this truck after it is repaired and detailed. I did a coolant drain and fill at 106k miles and it was all crystal green. Last transmission drain and fill was at 90k in 2015 and there was no contamination at that time. Sad face. I just put in new plugs, intake port gaskets, cleaned throttle body, put in new bilstein shocks, and 02 sensors. Has the dark grey powdercoated wheels and a calmini bumper. It will be a great truck for someone.

On the bright side, I made the decision to go ahead and get a new Fronty. '17 SV CC-LB 4x4 with value package. Was like searching for a unicorn, but my sales guy (who sold me my XE 12 years ago) found one. It is Lava red and has all the fancy schmancy features I went without for so long in the XE.

Something I notice right away.. I cannot whip this heavier, slightly longer truck around corners like I did with my XE. Definitely can feel the extra mass. I could formula 1 my XE around a corner but gotta take it a little slower in this new one. ::grin::

pic shows my geriatric silver XE and the new SV while I was moving my belongings over.