Just picked it up two weeks ago today. Had 7 miles on it when I got it. Today on the way home from work the transmission failed and left me stranded in the middle of a busy highway.

I came to a stoplight after driving approximately 40 miles. I was not in the lane I wanted to be in, so when the light turned green I accelerated a little harder than I normally would to get ahead of the guy on my left and move over a lane. Definitely not an abusive maneuver, just a spirited acceleration. As I was slowing down for the next light, the engine started lugging and eventually stalled when I came to a stop. After re-starting it, it would stall immediately when I'd put it back in gear - drive or reverse.

I suspect it had a torque converter clutch failure. It did feel like there might have been some slippage going on during acceleration, but I'm not really sure since the vehicle is so new, and new to me. I'm just not intimately familiar with how the trans works in all situations yet.

Anyway, I bought it from Tindol Ford in Gastonia, NC. That's where I had it towed back to. They put me in a brand new mustang to drive in the meantime. I'll keep the thread updated as soon as I find out what they found and what they intend to do. At this point I'm not sure I even want it back if that's all it takes to tear one up. Very disappointed.

 

Hi there! I can look into your Bronco's acceleration concern on my end. To get started, could you please send a private message over with the name/location of your local Ford dealer and your Bronco's VIN?

 

Thanks for responding. I sent a PM.

 

Update:

Got an email from the service manager. Apparently they were able to drive it. Said they ran a diagnostic on it and didn't note any faults. They did say that they noted shuttering during shifts. They did NOT tell me what they did to make it drive. I was not able to get it to do anything except stall the engine every time I put it in gear. I even pulled all the PCM fuses to cycle the power on the PCM and still got the same result. Now they're putting it in line for their trans tech to perform further diagnosis on it.

 

Just another quick update. I went up to the dealership today so that I could drive the vehicle for myself and witness it driving after the fault that I experienced. Apparently the dealer technician who took it for the first test drive did not have to do anything to it to get it to work. He simply got in it the next morning and started it up and drove it off like nothing ever happened. It is absolutely baffling to me.

I drove it around for about 30 minutes this afternoon and it performed normally. The service department said that they were unable to see any fault codes or any history regarding the event in the PCM and they are not able to duplicate it. As far as everyone involved so far is concerned, there’s nothing wrong with it.

I am not going to take possession of it back from the dealer until somebody finds a smoking gun and corrects the problem. What if this thing locks up on me going down the interstate and I get run over by a log truck? This is a serious safety concern.

Just to be clear, this is not a dealership problem. So far the dealer has treated me as expected. This is a Ford Motor Company problem.

 

Sorry that you're having this issue, please keep us looped in as to what has been done if anything to keep you rolling safely.

 

New update today…

 

Man, I am sorry to hear that. I too just took possession of a 2023 Badlands and am still getting over the really cheap a*s flimsy plastic parts of the interior. What the hell was Ford thinking, or thinking with? Again, sorry for your troubles.

 

I'm considering a Bronco Sport and researching possible issues......Has this duplicated itself? Sorry for your troubles and thank you for a reply, Jon

 

My daughter bought a gently used Sport in 2022 with only 4K miles on the odo. It was fine for a few thousand miles then the recalls started flying in primarily centered around the rear brakes. She waited over six months for parts at one point. She became fed up with the car and tried to trade it back in to the selling dealer but they held all the issues against her. She bought it during COVID so needless to say, she was way upside down in her loan.

After months of trying to dump the car and get out of it clean, she finally bought a 2024 Nissan Rogue brand new. They did ding her for $800 in negative equity but at that point she didn't care anymore and paid too much for the Nissan.

With that stated, the Bronco was safe to drive, otherwise, Ford would have instructed her not to drive it. This was definitely a Ford screw up but half of the fault lands squarely on the dealer for not being more proactive and communicating better with her.

In truth, I begged her not to buy the vehicle in the first place. Too many common parts with the Escape and the Escape has suffered plenty of issues in it's current generation.

I tried to get her to buy an entry level Explorer which actually comes with quite a bit of goodies, she could have afforded it and she would have had a much better built vehicle. The early build current Gen Explorer issues primarily focus around the rear camera which has migrated into the Lincolns and other Fords. She'd been better off but no one listens to dad, the ultimate Ford enthusiast of the family.

 

tim
read this one

https://www.thedrive.com/news/ford-r...n-can-fall-off

 

Such a shame. People are expected to pay a premium for these vehicles and deserve better support.