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Transmission broken?

3K views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  PratoN 
#1 ·
I know we have all had issues with the transmission jerking/shuddering sucking in general, but has anyone's actually broke and left them stranded?

I have heard and experienced several stories about the issues with the DCT but I want to know if its going to blow up in some catastrophic highway incident? Or is this thing going to last forever and just feel and act horrible?

Just curious?
 
#2 ·
There have been reports of people being almost stranded because the software controlling the DCT gets confused. Usually, a redraft seems to cure the issue. Of course, there are many stories about bad DCT behavior, but these are annoying rather than debilitating.

The good news is that the DCT itself should be as reliable as a typical manual gearbox, provided the clutch behaves. It doesn't have a torque converter to heat up the fluid, so none of the worries that attach to that in mountain or city driving. The clutch itself is a different issue: hard to say how long they will last.
 
#4 ·
There's a video on Youtube of a Focus that has an overheating transmission. The computer basically asks you to stop the car and wait XX minutes before resuming.

I seem to remember someone on this forum posting a story of the car basically shutting itself down when the transmission overheated. That, to me would be the same as being stranded.

In regard to longevity, I don't know how a transmission that makes such horrible grinding noises could last very long. Mine isn't doing it (yet)...I'm referring to some of the videos that people have posted. I'm imagining a lot of metal shavings sitting in the bottom of some of those gearboxes, and once the gear teeth wear down to a certain point and begin slipping past one-another, game over. I think we'll be seeing some failures on this forum or on YouTube when the miles start racking up on the cars that are making noise.
 
#5 ·
In regard to longevity, I don't know how a transmission that makes such horrible grinding noises could last very long. Mine isn't doing it (yet)...I'm referring to some of the videos that people have posted. I'm imagining a lot of metal shavings sitting in the bottom of some of those gearboxes, and once the gear teeth wear down to a certain point and begin slipping past one-another, game over. I think we'll be seeing some failures on this forum or on YouTube when the miles start racking up on the cars that are making noise.
I think the gears themselves are pretty much bullet-proof. Germans know their stuff. The only things I am worried about are the clutch plates (obviously), actuators, solenoids, and synchros.

There was one owner who said the technician said their clutch wasn't only saturated with oil, but that it actually broke... I trust the gears will be fine, but I bet those synchros and shifting solenoids are getting all kinds of beat up/extra work because my clutch can slip for 3+ seconds. I just don't know if that means the "shift" itself is lasting 5+ seconds or not.
 
#9 ·
In regard to longevity, I don't know how a transmission that makes such horrible grinding noises could last very long. Mine isn't doing it (yet)...I'm referring to some of the videos that people have posted. I'm imagining a lot of metal shavings sitting in the bottom of some of those gearboxes, and once the gear teeth wear down to a certain point and begin slipping past one-another, game over. I think we'll be seeing some failures on this forum or on YouTube when the miles start racking up on the cars that are making noise.
I don't understand...

The so called "grinding" noise is not made by the transmission (this has been confirmed *many* times) so how could the gears possibly "wear down"?
 
#7 ·
I know we have all had issues with the transmission jerking/shuddering sucking in general, but has anyone's actually broke and left them stranded?
Based on everything that I have read in these forums, I would say that transmission problems are extremely rare.

To my way of thinking, the transmission and clutch(es) are separate items.
 
#13 ·
I had one tranny failure that occured while engaging in a busy intersection back in March 2012. That was the only tranny failure I had and the only way I had to move the damn thing out of the way was to switch from N to D to limp out of the way. Got back home, parked the car and brought it in at the shop the next morning.

Tranny worked fine going to the shop, dealer told me the car produced an error code, they reflashed the DCT software. Beside the bad DCT behavior, no other tranny errors occured since then.
 
#15 ·
Couple of thoughts...
1. The clutches should last about 150,000 miles, depending on usage. Ford published it somewhere, but you'd have to do a little searching. It's based on a statiscal approach, something like Ford expects at least 70% of will make at least that many miles (which accounts for the track users vs the grannies, etc...) Don't quote me on the percentage though...

2. A few folks threads and various searches have found the grinding/chattering is due to an oil seal leaking the tranny fluid (yes, it has tranny fluid) onto the clutches. Rumor is if the fluid leaks enough to show up outside the bellhousing, it's an easy warranty claim.
 
#16 ·
Rumor is if the fluid leaks enough to show up outside the bellhousing, it's an easy warranty claim.
Maybe I should start parking my car on a hill with the left wheel raised to get more oil to leak... think that'll work?
 
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