I suggest people filing a lemon law with the BBB if you are not getting any resolution. This 'awakens' ford to your problem. It's not hard to do, a few sheets of paperwork and mail it in.

 

I keep reading all these posts about the tranny is it any wonder I'm leery about gettin a 2010?

 

ya know, there are a few things that come to my mind here....

1. I prefer to purchase vehicles on their 3rd year production. Why, well, any litle problems they have identified & fixed and design changes, if they are needed are typically done in year 2 of a new production, so most of the problems are resolved.

2. I had a 1990 F150, ordered new. It had a stumble off idle (4.9 liter w/5 speed, handling package)- the dealer & myself thought we would give the truck 1000 miles to get broke in and the ECM to adjust (which I put on the truck in 2 weeks. Well, it got worse. 3 trips to the dealer and the service adviser is telling me "there is nothing wrong with your truck". I drove my 65 shelby mustang to the delaership, parking the nose at the rear entrance to the service managers office (so he couldn't escape). I greeted him nicely, finding him actually with his jacket off, working under the hood of a taurus with another mechanic. he asked if he could help me, I said yes. I pointed out my nice, new, Regatta Blue XLT SWB Lariet (with twin pipes and wide tires) adn stated, "i have had the truck in here 3 times- your mechanics say it isn't broke, I say it is". He smiled and asked what it is doing, I advised him it had a stumble off idle. He looked at the mustang and said, "ya know, no matter what the commercials say, it's not going to run like that one", I replied, true, but I should be able to put that truck in 4th gear at 25 mph and not miss a lick, I can't do that with the mustang"- he smiled, drove the truck with me, he stalled it 4 times before he even got it off the lot- I looked at him and asked, "so we agree it's broke", he smiled and said, "Yeah, it's broke".

It took them 2 weeks to go through the entire system (including a dyno run at AAA's facility in LA), including Ford engineers to figure it out. At one point I stopped by the dealer to see how the truck was doing, the hood was opened, 2 mechanics (both with gray hair), the Service manager himself were all leaning over the engine with a series of cables hooked up, I asked the mechnic who was sitting in the engine compartment how it was doing- he just shok his head, I said, "If I had to guess, we would all luv to have a carb on this thing so we could turn 2 screws and righen up the fuel mixture a tad"- everyone laughed! and said you're right. Ford ended up sending a custom programmed ECM and the truck really ran incredibly well (I think it was the equivalent of a HP chip program- before the chips existed).

The point being, with new series of vehicles, especially e-component controlled systems, there will be issues. Some can be solved easily, some require time to sort out. But the dealer has to be held accountable by the customer and Ford will assist in making things right in most cases.

Patience, communication and more patience.

 

That tranny barring minor modifications has been in service since 2006(Navigator). You would figure it would have the bugs worked out.

 

for all of the Chicken Littles. The 6 speed tranny has been out since 2007 in the Expedition, and 2006 in Navi. It is a very very solid tranny. The only difference between the Expy tranny and the F-150 tranny are the shift bands. The F-150 gets slightly bigger clutches.


The biggest issue with the 6 speed tranny is the Tranny Control Module (TCM) programming. It has a deliberate hard shifting feature for when the weather is colder.

Once the tranny warms up, the shifts are softer. Ford did this on purpose...they just didn't account for how hard those shifts would be. Since then, Ford has issued a TSB with accompaning software to reflash the TCM and soften these shifts.



If you guys read back on this forum to last summer when the 09's first arrived, you'll see lots of "shifting complaints" during the Winter. The complaints pretty much died off this Spring/Summer...and now they are re-appearing as the Temperature drops.




There is another slight issue that sometimes happens. Sometimes at low speeds where you vary vehicle speed alot (less than 20 mph), the TCM gets "confused" and shifts gears unexpectedly. It only happens occasionally though. I've also seen/felt that happen in the new Chevies. IMO that is just the nature of the game when there are 6 gears and the TCM is trying to find an appropriate gear.
why? it's a programming thing. not mechanical

besides. the truck will have a 5yr/60,000 mile Powertrain Warranty

a 3yr/36,000 mile 100% Bumper-to-Bumper Warranty


Free Roadside Assistance, Free Towing



if the truck dies, call Ford and they come get it and fix it. it shouldn't happen on a brand new vehicle...but hey, stuff happens. I'd like to see you build several million units of something and not have 1 single flaw...hell, try having only 1-2% with flaws.
have a good day

 

I agree, don't bitch unless you have given them a chance to fix it. No auto maker has 0 come backs on any car/truck they make.

 

and surprisingly, many people just come here to bitch about how crappy their vehicle is...but when asked, they haven't let the Dealership fix it yet. I don't get it

Agree totally! Agood Ford tec told me they have never seen a hard failure with this tranny, drive the SOB and don't fret about it!!!!

 

To tylus/bk/others bitching about bitchers.

I cannot speak to any other threads on this subject but I didn't see one post on this particular thread where the customer has not given Ford the chance to fix the problem...so, not sure why you are bitching to us about it.

We are still completely happy with the rest of the truck and will continue to give Ford more opportunities to work with us on the funny shifting problems we are experiencing. I'm sure I will be adding another Ford to the family fleet next year as my '04 F250 is getting up there on miles.

Dontrowell - I would still recommend the F150, it is a sweet truck and as I mentioned, I was not trying to steer you away from buying one. Just make sure you drive it more than just around the block before you buy in case they have not implemented this new TSB that everyone says will make everything better. I'm hoping that it does when I take my wife's back in for the 3rd time.

As some have mentioned, the majority of owners are not having this problem.

Good luck,
BB

 

Thanks, well as said earlier will wait till some feedback on the 2010's start popping up here, with the new software on board, have'nt seen one yet on any of the sites, I had a goofy trany once with a GMC & it drove me around the bend, just want to cover all bases before dropping 50g's on a Platinum, thanks to all for your feedback.

 

I think as important as the tranny working is the dealership you buy/get service from. If you trust them and they are fair and listen to your concerns, I wouldn't worry about a thing.

 

not you in particular

but if you visit the site with any frequency...you are going to see people who do that.

hope you have better luck getting yours repairs. from your description, that sounds more like a tire balance issue to me. unless you mean the tranny is shifting between 5&6th all the time

 

I have to agree with everyone about the tranny issues. If you haven't given the dealer a fair opportunity to repair / reflash then do so.

Drive the S**t out of the truck but treat the truck with respect.

If Ford employs 500,000 6 speed transmissions this model year and they have a flaw / failure rate of 2% then that's 10,000 pissed off people. Small numbers to Ford but these pissed off people may be F-150 owners and Expy / Navi owners. Suddenly you have non-Ford owners or potential Ford owners looking more harshly at three Ford badges and wondering why they can't build a decent tranny when we all know better.

When one pays upwards of $50k for a truck / SUV, drive line issues are not acceptable. I'm sorry, it's just not OK.

Tim

 

Agree 100%, in spite of the Ford faithful saying to take it in for a reflash that may or not work, its a wonderful truck just drive it, that does not cut it at all, theres no way in hell that a 50g vehicle should have to be taken in virtually brand spankin new for a major component as a transmission. And please stop with the percentages who are you trying to convince this is all normal?
It boils down to three things, A the tranny was poorly engineered, B the unit was not tested properly C Ford realized they had a defective unit on their hands and tried to bandaid with these so-called reflashes.
So now we'll see if Ford has changed these defective units for 2010, I have been told they have added a new software, I truly hope they have as I would love to purchase one.

 

Anyone dumb enough to pay 50K for a 30K truck should have problems lol!!!

 

correction on this: i was not thinking here, the front drive 6 sp was a joint gm ford design (not the rear drive). regardless, the 2010 ford crew 6r80 I own shifts better than the 6l80 in my gmc denali . nice truck.