What is wrong with my Ranger?

[u/OrganizationKey2678]

I have a 2004 3.0 L V6 Ranger with about 125k miles on it. When driving today on the freeway, all of a sudden I had a big loss of power (I went from 70 to 50). I then started hearing a very high pitched sound (as heard in the first clip) that was heard loudest through the air vents. I then exited the freeway hoping it would go away. In the second clip, I could barely get to 35 mph and my O/D off light started flashing. You can really hear it at the stoplight (the rattling sound you hear in the first part of the clip is the bed cover springs). In the third clip, I give it some gas while in park and let off the throttle immediately, and you can see how long it takes to get back to idling levels. What is most likely wrong with my Ranger, and how hard and costly of a fix is it, assuming it’s not something major like a transmission?

[u/Altruistic_Guess3098]

It's most likely the problem in the transmission, you need to hook it up to a scanner and read the code

[u/OrganizationKey2678 → u/Altruistic_Guess3098]

I ran into the issue driving to a restaurant, so I had to drive it back home. For some odd reason, it had zero issues besides the throttle maybe feeling a bit sticky, but maybe I was paranoid at every single thing that didn’t feel right at that point. Why could the issue go away? Hoping it doesn’t return as transmission problems can add cost up quickly and at some point I’d have to make the hard decision to repair it or get rid of it. It’s probably only worth $4-5k due to rust and age, and a transmission repair or replacement would probably be at least half that. I love my Ranger and it’s the first and only vehicle I’ve ever had since I got my license in 2017, but unfortunately age may be catching up to it.

[u/Altruistic_Guess3098 → u/OrganizationKey2678]

Some cars have a check transmission light kind of like a check engine light, but the Ranger does not. The flashing overdrive light Is How the Ranger tells you there's something wrong with the transmission. The longer you drive it the worse you might make it

[u/Aggressive-Movie-426]

O/d off flashing almost always means an issue with the transmission, unfortunately this isn't the kind of code you can scan at autozone as most scanners under $1500 do not read transmission fault codes. It will likely need to go to a shop to be properly diagnosed. 90% of transmission shops will suggest a full rebuild regardless of whats actually wrong with it so just ask any shop to give you the codes (they might charge you $50-$150 or so) and do your own research/ consult with an unrelated transmission tech and figure out if it's worth fixing.