I agree that upon Ford identifying problems maybe there should be a notice sent to dealers that would let them tell us " we are aware of the issue and and are working on it" - that might keep us from leaving our vehicles for extended times at the dealership but then I guess Ford would get sued for selling a new truck " that they knew was faulty" ie. Telling You that they had an issue & telling me -buying a new truck that its the best thing since ice cream or cold beer...

On a lighter note - it sounds like they didn't lie. The shifting issue is "normal behavior" cause a lot of us DO have it!.. Ain't right but normal. Lol

 

Honesty is the best policy. We're big boys and girls and would welcome a less obfuscatory relationship with Ford.

 

I agree but I gotta be honest - I have no idea what obfuscatory means

 

Right, the only thing this manual mode does is give you the ability to instruct the transmission computer when you want it to shift.
Instead of the computer modules virtually "pushing a button" you are.
It still downshifts on it's own if in gears 4-6 down to 2nd.

 

just tonight my truck did the neutral rev up tonight. trans had sat for a couple hours and cooled off jumped in the truck took off towing my trailer, when the truck went to shift to second it popped out of gear, let my foot immediately off the throttle as that is my first reaction and it grabbed second on its own. and was fine after that.

 

obfuscatory basically means purposely cloudy, unclear, or otherwise confusing. At least that's what I assume... I only know the verb form of that word - "obfuscate". I only know that because I'm a programmer

 

ob·fus·cate
   [ob-fuh-skeyt, ob-fuhs-keyt] Show IPA
–verb (used with object), -cat·ed, -cat·ing.
1.
to confuse, bewilder, or stupefy.
2.
to make obscure or unclear: to obfuscate a problem with extraneous information.
3.
to darken.

Unfortunately, the perfect description of the service writers at many dealerships. It would be so much easier on their customers if these people would just be honest. If they have not seen an issue, just say so and add "I will be looking into this immediately". If they have heard of said issue but do not have a helpful answer, the simple "yes, we have heard of the issue and Ford is working on a solution" would make most owners less uncomfortable. Unfortunately, too many dealers tore the common sense page out of the training manual.

Regards

 

Exactly to the T what happened to me last week for the first time in 10K miles. Scary. Traffic was coming my way and I was in the wrong lane for that to happen. Yikes

 

Paul,
Just curious, how long does the adaptive shift learning process last?

 

I do believe that Ford has a solution, but as in any business the best solution is the most cost effective one... It costs much less to change code than it does to rebuild a transmission and replace hard parts... If I were the managment at Ford and the amount of complaints is low as we all suspect, the easiest route is the way to go. I am truely sorry for being pessimistic, but I did purchase a very expensive truck that I love. I have my children in the car everyday and pull a trailer with my children in the truck on the weekends... When it fails, I hope I am close to home and in my truck alone...

 

...especially when there is most likely nothing wrong with the hard parts. Please do not take this the wrong way...If the problem was as hard part serious as you fear, I would think there would be some discussion amongst the Ford techs via the Tech Hotlines about transmissions suffering catastrophic failures. There are several quality Ford techs that help out on this forum. So far the only concerns they are voicing about the new drive train is where there lunch money is going to come from since these new trucks are not failing.

I posted this on the other thread earlier today:

Although this is only my opinion, Ford appears to be preparing to to upgrade programming on the entire fleet. It is likely that some other software tweak was introduced and they needed to test it.

At the risk of annoying some here that have the trans and DEF issues, the postponement of the new flash until some more testing is completed speaks to Ford's confidence that the hardware is fine and another short delay in the software tweak will not put the transmission hard components in jeopardy. I do not believe they take votes on whether the engineers think they can just get the trans past the warranty period and hand the issue to the owners. Call me naive...

Regards

 

This is not the case at all, but rather it's ignorance that's generally the root cause resulting in the dis-satisfaction that occurs. During the "emergence" or "discovery" phase, engineering needs to review the data, determine if there's a genuine concern, meets design intent or somewhere in-between as a result of the customer being dis-satisfied with the end product.

The lack of having an answer, while frustrating, is not intentional. What typically happens if you have a small handful of people pouring over data, then design reviews are conducted, test drives are performed and a team decides based on the data if something needs to be addressed. But prior to the decision point, everything is either a hypothesis or conjecture and may prove to be completely incorrect.

This is just touching the surface, the actual root cause analysis would involve individual component design verification, part measurements for the affected assembly, stack-up tolerance variation between components, supplier A, supplier, B, through supplier Z. As an example, it could be something as simple as the machine tooling from the spool valve supplier has worn just enough to interact with the valve body supplier tooling thus pushing the overall boundary of the tolerance between the parts. However, just a few weeks or months ago, design intent was met.

Being a new transmission, the initial questions on shift feel would normally spike. The calls into the Customer Assistance Center would result in an inquiry of whether this was normal or not. But over time, something new may have develop. The CAC only knows at this point what they've been told and until proven otherwise, will continue to do so.

The point I'm trying to make is that the dissemination of good information based on factual data happens much slower than any of us would like. The response you may receive is not out of malice or intentional, but rather because unfortunately it takes some time to sort out and to get the information to the Dealers.


-Paul

 

I just love blanket statements like this that are proffered as fact with absolutely no evidence to support...

a) Show me the independent analysis which has diagnosed this problem on the 2011 SD and determined that the problem is hard parts and not software.

b) Show me the independent analysis which has shown the solution is to rebuild the transmission and replace hard parts.

c) Show me confirmation this problem is actually damaging transmissions.


Sorry dude but I'm not buying it one bit.

 

Paul,

Obfuscate just sounds better to most people than the word ignorance. People who do not understand the actual meaning of the word ignorant are ready for fisticuffs as soon as they hear the word directed their way.

My main intent with the post was to demonstrate a more common sense approach for Service Writers to tell the owner of a new $60000 truck that has a problem that Ford is still working out the solution. Telling half the story usually results in a disastrous customer response.

Regards

 

Ignorant of the definition of ignorant?

Definition of IGNORANT
1

a : destitute of knowledge or education <AN ignorant society>; also : lacking knowledge or <A href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comprehension" target=_blank>comprehension of the thing specified

2
: unaware, uninformed


Just saying that in some cases, the person whom you would think should have some insight in to the current situation, (and rightfully so if you're the customer) may not yet. Thus the saying, "ignorance is bliss". Btw, I tell my Manager this from time to time. The older I get, sometimes I feel that the less I know, the better off I am.

-Paul