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TSB 12B37 - New?

125K views 567 replies 136 participants last post by  ssn666hawkbill 
#1 ·
Etis shows a new outstanding field service action for my 2/12 build SEL and my wife's 9/11 build SE:

"12B37 - , AND THE ANTI-LOCK BRAKE SYSTEM (ABS) MODULE"

A search of FF turned up nothing for 12B37 and neither did a search of the web. I assume this is a new one as it wasn't showing on either vehicle the other day. It also doesn't show as a recall on the Ford Owners site.

Does anyone have any details on it?

Thanks
 
#199 ·
I got my Focus letters today

Received two letters from Ford on my 2012 Focus SEL. One is a Safety Recall (12S29) to check the seal on the passenger side wiper motor electrical connector. This is considered a safety RECALL because of the possibility of losing the wiper during a heavy rain situation.

The other letter in the same envelope is a Customer Satisfaction Program letter (12B37) where the concern is "rough or jerky automatic transmission shifts" and "roll back when the driver is transitioning from the brake pedal to the accelerator pedal while on a slight incline". The fix is to update (flash) the Powertrain Control Module (PCM), Transmission Control Module (TCM) and the Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS) Control Module. I am very happy to receive this letter, as my 2012 Focus was shifting erratically, sometimes not going into gear (freewheeling) and seemed to shift whenever it felt like it, regradless of accelerator pedal position. If you have a 2012 Focus, just mention the program numbers as shown here, and they will punch you into the computer and verify if your car is eligible. I dont see any reason why everybody doesnt get a letter in the mail, but hey, that would assume the USPS is batting 1000%. HAhahahaha![cheers]

PS for all of you complaining about slow kickdown, early-shifting, etc. Thats what the little up/down switch on the side of the gearshift lever is for!! Im just saying.....................................
 
#200 ·
PS for all of you complaining about slow kickdown, early-shifting, etc. Thats what the little up/down switch on the side of the gearshift lever is for!! Im just saying.....................................
That only works if your using manual "S" mode. If that was the only way I could get reasonable shifts, I would have just bought a Manual to begin with.
 
#205 ·
Well Mr Korn, although you claim the car runs great for you, the computers need to be updated to the latest programming so that your car will run better, last longer, and give you better fuel economy. Its free, takes an hour at the dealer, and if your trans drops out next year, they probably wont warranty it unless you have had this service performed. Go to the Dealer and tell him you need 12B37. Simple.
 
#206 ·
I had the reprogram done yesterday along with my first oil change. It seems to have helped one of the two issues I've always had with the trans.

#1 When coming to a right hand turn at an intersection with a green (not stopping completely) after the turn I hit the gas and wait too long for the trans to shift down to a gear that it should have been close to anyway. Now it seems to have a better idea what is necessary for this maneuver and I don't get as much lag.

#2 When passing on the highway I would hit the gas hard and wait too long for the trans to shift down and when it did it shifted to a gear too low and over revved. Then I had to wait for it to shift up one gear in order to actually get going. I haven't checked this yet. I will today during a highway drive, but I have hope.

So far the trans computer seems to be better after the reprogram. Not perfect by any means but better.

Chris
 
#212 ·
I had the reprogram done yesterday along with my first oil change. It seems to have helped one of the two issues I've always had with the trans.

#1 When coming to a right hand turn at an intersection with a green (not stopping completely) after the turn I hit the gas and wait too long for the trans to shift down to a gear that it should have been close to anyway. Now it seems to have a better idea what is necessary for this maneuver and I don't get as much lag.

#2 When passing on the highway I would hit the gas hard and wait too long for the trans to shift down and when it did it shifted to a gear too low and over revved. Then I had to wait for it to shift up one gear in order to actually get going. I haven't checked this yet. I will today during a highway drive, but I have hope.

So far the trans computer seems to be better after the reprogram. Not perfect by any means but better.

Chris
That's definitely encouraging. I've come closer than I'd like to another car saying hello to the side of mine on at least one occasion before where I expected some revving and got... nothing.
 
#209 ·
I I shift my Focus manually, and keep the accelerator to the floor, I still get 25mpg. I would venture to say you have a problem, if all you can get is 22. Have you done a manual check at fillup, by dividing your mileage since last fillup by the number of gallons it took to fill it up? I would check it. Does it run well? or are you constantly on the go pedal trying to get somewhere?
 
#210 ·
I had the update done with an oil change on Monday and all is good! The only problem I had was on one certain spot coming into my apartment complex, I would have probably downshifted at least one if not two gears if I were driving a MT and the DCT wouldn't shift at all. It would sputter, I would have to let off on the gas and then give it gas again to get it in the right gear. This hasn't happened in the two days since the update.

I have noticed no difference with the hill assist but I had never had trouble with that before, it had always worked without problem. I originally test drove the car with 6 miles on the ODO, took delivery with 14 and that 8 were put there by my original test drive. My car now has 6,000 miles.

Regarding gas mileage, it took until around 5,000 on the ODO before I regularly got 30 MPG. Since Monday's update, I am up to 30.8 on the internal computer. I will be filling it up probably Thursday or Friday but will then be headed out on a 9 hour road trip so my mpg won't be typical of my normal local driving. The gas mileage definitely improved with increased mileage so if you're disappointed with what you're getting now, don't despair! If mine can go from 23 to 30 in 5,000 miles so can yours! Heck, driving around these mountains I know people in hybrids who can't get up to 40 mpg, much less the 50 and up that some drivers report! Personally, I don't hypermile and never will, it is what it is and it sure beats the heck out of the 17 mpg we got in our Jeep!
 
#213 ·
Regarding gas mileage, it took until around 5,000 on the ODO before I regularly got 30 MPG. Since Monday's update, I am up to 30.8 on the internal computer. I will be filling it up probably Thursday or Friday but will then be headed out on a 9 hour road trip so my mpg won't be typical of my normal local driving. The gas mileage definitely improved with increased mileage so if you're disappointed with what you're getting now, don't despair! If mine can go from 23 to 30 in 5,000 miles so can yours! Heck, driving around these mountains I know people in hybrids who can't get up to 40 mpg, much less the 50 and up that some drivers report! Personally, I don't hypermile and never will, it is what it is and it sure beats the heck out of the 17 mpg we got in our Jeep!
I'm with you... my car is nearing 5,000 miles as well and I'm finally starting to see the kind of mileage that I was expecting when I bought the car. The very extended break-in, plus warmer temperatures, definitely seems to impact overall MPGs.

My last tank was 60% city, 40% highway and I managed 32.6 MPG (hand-calc) over about 330 miles.
 
#211 ·
My transmission shifts smooth now, rollback has been eliminated - great update. I'm very happy. I've put about 50 miles on the car today, had it done this morning. Instantly noticed a difference.

I'm excited to drive it, now. Hopefully they've altered some of the transmission adaptive learning parameters and none of that "slop" comes back.

Chris
 
#214 ·
Had mine updated this morning, picked it up at lunch. Didn't get much chance to test it out -- but it seems smoother, and the rollback problem is definitely eliminated. Hope it stays that way.

Thanks to all as well for suggestions/opinions on my MPG issue. I am hand-calculating my mileage, and it is very close to the computer's numbers. I'll give it to a 1000 miles or so, another tank of gas, and then see what it looks like.

The salesman at my dealership drives this exact same vehicle, so if it continues to struggle, I'll compare notes with him and get him to talk to service about it.
 
#216 ·
Had ours done today after 2 1/2 hours at Dealer , does not roll back anymore, but so far still not happy with the way it shifts , 1st to 2nd still lags and a few hard shifts ,going to give it a week and see what happens
 
#217 ·
Give it time and don't baby it.
 
#218 ·
So, I am 400 miles post update now and had two instances of shift lugging between first and second today. First since the update.

I may go on a bit of a highway trip this weekend, some interstate some rural roads. Any tips on not making it worse during this interval?
 
#219 ·
I just received my recall letter in the mail yesterday, and I will be taking my car into the dealership either on Friday or Saturday to get this work done. It seems as though, the people on here who have had the new updates applied have had good luck with them which gives me hopeful thoughts. I have noticed these issues, but since our transmissions our part automatic and part manual I always thought it was fairly normal for them to act this way, but I am glad I am wrong because it is fairly annoying.

I bought my SE Sedan this past March, and it also had a built time of early March 2012, so I will keep you all posted on what happens after I get the updates applied to my car.
 
#220 ·
Hello All,

I would like to thank those who have periodically informed fellow posters the details of the program, and your post-update driving experience. It's appreciated, and helpful. [:)]

The Customer Satisfaction Program has been initiated to address the transmission shift quality and hill-start concerns. Your local Ford dealer has been authorized to calibrate the Powertrain Control Module, Transmission Control Module, and Anti-Lock Brake module.

If you have received a letter, please make an appointment as soon as possible. The repair time is estimated to take less than one-half day, but may be extended due to the dealerships prior commitments.

Thanks for your patience, and loyalty; we appreciate you!

Noemi
 
#221 ·
Got mine done today, initial observation is good. It doesn't stutter when i turn right and go up a hill, around 10 mph. Before it would stutter like crazy. Less low speed unexpected acceleration, around 5 mph, parking lot. However it still has some vibration at low speed. Still gives me problems when I try to catch the throttle after coasting for a bit. I try slowly finding the speed then it just drops a gear and accelerates, not what i wanted it to do. Same thing with a hill, i feel like it waits to long to down shift when climbing a hill at less than 45mph. It keeps losing speed so i slowly give it more and more throttle with no increase or stabilization in speed. Then BAM it drop a gear and my foot is already like 3/4 of the way down and then the speed shoots way up. Its really frustrating as i live in a hilly city that this happens. In my opinion this is a safety concern. It has 6 speeds it should be able to find a gear that works better.
 
#222 ·
Sounds like you need to take yours back to the service department. I wonder if they have to take the vehicle though that reset drive sequence posted somewhere on here to get everything set properly after this update. Mine definitely doesn't act like this. (Even before the update)

Chris
 
#225 ·
After having FSA 12B37 completed on my SEL last week (back on page 16), I took my wife's SE in yesterday to have that and the wiper motor recall completed. Total time was about two hours to complete both and an oil change.

Afterwards I took the SE out for an extended drive and found the same improvements that I found on my SEL - improved shifting (up and down), improved low speed performance in lower gears and reverse, slightly improved fuel economy, and elimination of rollback.

Prior to the update, the rollback on the SE was more pronounced than on the SEL. It would roll backwards on an incline just like a manual transmission unless the brake pedal was depressed to a certain point, where the ABS module was apparently taking over and preventing the rollback. After the update, any braking movement on the brake pedal appears to engage this and prevents rollback even if your remove your foot from the brake. (Not that I'm suggesting anyone try that, of course.)

I've completed a full tank on the SEL since the mod and the improvement of about 2 MPG over the previous tanks is confirmed by actual fuel/distance calculations. It seems that the MPG computed by the car for the same tank was just .1 MPG lower than actual. Of course, one tank is still a little too small a sample to declare a trend, but if an improvement of about 20 miles per tank holds I'll be pretty happy with it. The improvements in shifting and everything else are still going strong as well.

As I said before, we've been fortunate to have experienced no issues with the transmission on either car up to this point - particularly fortunate in light of what others have experienced. While it is obviously not a complete solution to all of the issues with the DCT on the 2012 Focus for everyone, it appears to be a significant improvement to some of the issues for many of us.
 
#226 ·
I had the service done about 2 weeks ago. It did make a difference in the shifting. But...

I still get the shaking when I remove my foot from the brake and let the car accelerate on its own power (not stepping on the gas). I dropped it off last night for the dealer to look at it today. The service manager told me he felt it when test driving it, but according to their service, it is normal behavior for this transmission.

I find it hard to believe that the shaking/shuddering like the car is going to stall (the RPM's don't drop, so I don't think it is stalling - but that's what it feels like) is normal. [???:)]
 
#236 ·
That might be normal.

I went on my road trip tonight...

On one occasion, in the car park, I had to accelerate on its own power as you described. There was a brief sensation like the one you described. It could be normal (I need to re-read the stuff I found on manual transmissions as the DCT is effectively a manual ran by computer, but it might not be abnormal...)

The acceleration-from-idle rough jerkiness did happen, and I was fairly consistent with how much pressure I applied to the accelerator pedal (per the mechanic). Though I did try a couple of slower accelerations and for those times there was no rough acceleration from idle. [eek] I didn't expect that, given previous events where being firm with acceleration took care of it. The rough jerkiness happened at maybe 75% of the times I accelerated from a stop. Even then, the roughness isn't anywhere as bad as it was before the 12B37 update. But the fact it still seems intermittent; I'm out of things to try - except to keep applying firm pressure while accelerating to prevent the gear 1->2 noise from happening in the first place.

But the rough idle is still gone (yay!)

Again, it's a matter of time and I likely won't have updates for a few weeks... 12B37 is a vast improvement but a couple hiccups remain. I just can't isolate them yet and most of those might just be specific to me and not everyone with the DCT...
 
#228 ·
I just had the update installed, but it's too early for me to pass any judgement on the performance changes except to say that it does accelerate better off the line.

However, it really screwed up MFT, and mine had been fairly stable after the 3.0 update. Now the navigation quadrant refuses to show which street I'm on, it randomly decides which media source to play when I restart the car (I usually listen to a USB drive, but MFT decided that I was listening to the radio when I restarted the car), and the radio stations don't always display in entertainment quadrant unless visit the entertainment screen and select a different band.

All of these MFT glitches, which I RARELY experienced before, happened during the 10 mile trip back from the dealer, during which I made two stops.

I'll never understand why MFT has to be so tightly integrated with the transmission software. It's like gambling now... Do I get an update for the transmission and risk screwing up MFT?

I may be forced to do a hard reset of MFT. We shall see.
 
#229 ·
Now the navigation quadrant refuses to show which street I'm on
Try setting and activating a route, driving it for a couple of minutes, and then cancelling it. That is what I have to do when my street info disappears from the Nav quad every 2-3 weeks or so. This workaround has always brought it back for me though.
 
#234 ·
My dealer just phoned me saying I need to bring in my car coz there was a recall and the computer needed to be flashed. I asked what was the recall for but he didn't know. He just knows that I needed something flashed. ETIS doesn't say anything though. Anyone know about this?
 
#239 ·
Had the update and wiper recall done yesterday. Took only an hour!

DEFINITE improvement from the last update. I like the DCT over a conventional automatic now. Good job, Ford!

I also have a gap in the center console between the black and gray part by the temperature controls. I told the service guy about it and showed him.. they couldn't close the 'gap' so they have to order a new center console. Insane! I wouldn't care but I'm noticing the 'gap' increasing, so might as well take care of it while I can.
 
#240 ·
I took mine into the dealership yesterday to have the recall done, it took all day, but they did give me a loaner which was very nice. After I picked up my car I drove it for about 50 miles and it drove significantly different than before the update was applied. I am talking in regards to gears 2 and 3, before the update I noticed lag and, and at times the transmission would feel like it was "lost" trying to find 2nd or 3rd gear depending upon wether it was downshifting or upshifting. I am sure you all know what I am talking about.

Since the update, and the few miles I have driven since picking up my car, I have noticed that this issues has been much better, and the jerky shifting that I would feel at times also is much improved.

I hopes this helps everyone, and those that have yet to take there cars in.

Happy Memorial Weekend!
 
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