2001 F150 Transmission/Transfer Case Problems
 

To preface this posting, I am helping a friend research a transmission failure on his 2001 F150 truck with only 5600 miles on it. I believe the truck is called a "super cab", but please don't hold me to this. The truck is an F-150 with four full-size doors. It has the larger V-8 engine, Triton V-8, although I'm not sure which specific model name it carries. I believe it to be the Super Crew model, but I'm willing to be corrected on this should my information not be consistent with your 'enthusiast' knowledge.

To get to the problem, I borrowed the truck this past weekend to transport my son's furnishings and materials to college. After about 350 miles of non-eventful driving down Interstate 40-West, we stopped at a rest area for a break. Upon returning to the truck, I placed the transmission in reverse and it wouldn't move. The rear-end appeared to be locked up. The truck would roll forward, and would barely start to move backwards when the accelerator was pushed, then the rear end would seize up. After several aborted efforts to get the truck to move in reverse, and a couple of instances of grinding noise and a loud POP when it appeared the back end was going to break loose, I invoked my AAA membership benefits and had it towed to a dealer some 50 miles away in Jackson, TN.

The dealer told me this was the fourth F150 "full-size 4 door" model he had in the last month with a transmission failure. The symptoms I described to him were consistent with the problems found in the other three failures.

I have looked for any TSB or recall data on this particular defect, but have been unable to locate any specifics. The truck has been in the possession of my friend for about 6 months now, so I presume it was manufactured in the latter part of 2000 or the first quarter of 2001.

Are there any other readers of this forum experiencing this kind of problem, or are you aware of any other failures of this nature? I cannot believe that the only dealer in Jackson, TN would have four failures in 30 days without this being a widespread matter for discussion.

If you have any information that might be helpful on this failure, I'd like to hear from you so I can forward the information to the owner of the truck. He does not have computer access, or I would forward his name and e-mail information to the message board. Please contact me with any particulars you may be able to offer.

Jonathan Case
19469 Stone Mountain Road
Abingdon, VA 24210
sycase@naxs.com

2001 F150 Transmission/Transfer Case Problems