A lot of people don’t go to the Ford dealership until their local mechanic has tried three of four different things and failed to fix the issue. Retired FoMoCo guy here, with many years on the
Parts & Service side of the business, so please understand my bias. The training a certified Ford tech receives is leaps and bounds beyond that of your local mechanic. It‘s your money.
“E” stands for error in this case. The guys at the dealership joked that is stood for expensive, but my repair was not that bad. Had to replace the 2-5 solenoid, which is relatively inexpensive. Labour costs were elevated because the tranny has to be dropped in order to access the solenoids, which is too bad because the tranny is the same as the one used in Explorers of the era, and their solenoids can be accessed without removing the transmission. Things are pretty tight on these Thunderbirds, so it comes with the territory.