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#61 ·
dan50 said:
That's mine as well. Is yours worse when the clutch is hot, like after considerable urban driving?
Click to expand...
It seems like that is the case.

Anyhow an update;

I got past 1000 miles so I took my car in to have them do whatever it is they wanted to do after 1000 miles. The dealership tried to get a Ford Engineer to come look at it, but Ford responded saying it would not be necessary because this is a well known problem with the cars and 1000 miles is a guideline but not a rule for clutch break in. I'm calling bs on this one.

What they are basically saying is that they don't have a fix for it yet so they want me to go away. I'm not going to drive a car around that shakes every time I take off, it's embarrassing and inconvenient.

I talked to a Lemon Law attorney and he thinks I have a case, but I don't want to go there yet. I hope someone from Ford is listening to this.
 
#62 ·
NWChris said:
It seems like that is the case.

Anyhow an update;

I got past 1000 miles so I took my car in to have them do whatever it is they wanted to do after 1000 miles. The dealership tried to get a Ford Engineer to come look at it, but Ford responded saying it would not be necessary because this is a well known problem with the cars and 1000 miles is a guideline but not a rule for clutch break in. I'm calling bs on this one.

What they are basically saying is that they don't have a fix for it yet so they want me to go away. I'm not going to drive a car around that shakes every time I take off, it's embarrassing and inconvenient.

I talked to a Lemon Law attorney and he thinks I have a case, but I don't want to go there yet. I hope someone from Ford is listening to this.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately they are not listening to this. Like all large manufacturers they carry liability insurance in case a product turns out to be defective and they get sued. So, if you do sue them and win, their insurance will pay you whatever you likely end up settling on, and it will cost them WAAAY less than addressing all of the complaints they get. However, the number of complaints is probably relatively low. It seems that this transmission has fewer problems than the auto F 250's....

I have never had an issue, ours is smooth and quick, built mid sept.
Hope you get some resolution that does not involve suing, cause that will take FOREVER.. Best of luck!
 
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#63 ·
NWChris said:
It seems like that is the case.

Anyhow an update;

I got past 1000 miles so I took my car in to have them do whatever it is they wanted to do after 1000 miles. The dealership tried to get a Ford Engineer to come look at it, but Ford responded saying it would not be necessary because this is a well known problem with the cars and 1000 miles is a guideline but not a rule for clutch break in. I'm calling bs on this one.

What they are basically saying is that they don't have a fix for it yet so they want me to go away. I'm not going to drive a car around that shakes every time I take off, it's embarrassing and inconvenient.

I talked to a Lemon Law attorney and he thinks I have a case, but I don't want to go there yet. I hope someone from Ford is listening to this.
Click to expand...
Given that many transmissions are working well, the fix would seem pretty simple: new clutch plates. May be reasonable for them to ask a bit more time for things to settle-in, but ultimately doesn't that have to be the solution?
 
#64 ·
st falcon said:
Unfortunately they are not listening to this. Like all large manufacturers they carry liability insurance in case a product turns out to be defective and they get sued. So, if you do sue them and win, their insurance will pay you whatever you likely end up settling on, and it will cost them WAAAY less than addressing all of the complaints they get. However, the number of complaints is probably relatively low. It seems that this transmission has fewer problems than the auto F 250's....

I have never had an issue, ours is smooth and quick, built mid sept.
Hope you get some resolution that does not involve suing, cause that will take FOREVER.. Best of luck!
Click to expand...
Lemon Law cases are pretty cut and dry. They don't take up a lot of time and the manufacture pays the attorney fees. It tends to go pretty speedy so that you don't put a whole bunch of miles on the car. I did it against a Chevy Cobalt SS that was a monster pile of [:)][:)][:)][:)][:)]
 
#65 ·
dan50 said:
Given that many transmissions are working well, the fix would seem pretty simple: new clutch plates. May be reasonable for them to ask a bit more time for things to settle-in, but ultimately doesn't that have to be the solution?
Click to expand...
Clutch's usually take 300 miles of average driving to break in, and the break-in period doesn't usually come with issues. A shake like my car is because of other issues. After a 1000 miles of spirited driving with a mix of highway and city including plenty of hills and stop/go, the clutch should be at very least approaching broken in. It just continues to shake and shake with no improvement. There could be a multitude of problems but since I have not been able to look at any technical info on the way the transmission operates, it's hard for me to speculate. What I can say for sure is that this isn't a "break in" issue. And if it does break in this way, it's wearing incorrectly causing longevity issues. The clutches will end up going early, they won't transfer power correctly, they could start making noise, heating up, shaking other parts loose etc. etc. They are blowing smoke up my ass right now.
 
#66 ·
There has been a fix, which took care of out-of-balance plates, if that was the case, and something about longer rivets or longer shouldered rivets, or something similar.

There were clutch issues on a run of vehicles, it stated.

I forget where I saw this. Take it with a grain of salt. I could be wrong.

Good luck!
 
#67 ·
So I took the problem into my own hands yesterday...

I wanted to test there theory that perhaps the clutch needed to break in farther, which still doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but they could be using some significantly different materials than standard clutches.

Anyhow, I took the car out and did 5 full throttle engagements from a stop in succession. I then drove the car around up shifting and downshifting at different speeds. I would also full throttle accelerate (including a downshift). I drove around like a clown for about 5-10 minutes until I was sure the clutch had reached a higher than normal operating temperature.

I've driven the car twice since then and the problem has pretty much been eradicated so far. I have noticed that the clutch makes a chattering noise going into second gear though.

What I think is that these clutches were tested in the harshest conditions but they forgot to see what happens when Grandma drives. I hope this means that the clutch is very durable (yeah right).

If the problem comes back, I'll be pretty positive it's a software issue.

Either way, I talked to some high-up friends at Ford and I guess the president of Ford Parts and Service operations knows about my problem. So we will see what they say.
 
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NWChris
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