Post Your Transmission Experience

[tehzack]

34,289 Miles on my 2021 Truck (Nov '21 build date)

2.7 Liter Engine with Livernois tune since 8,000 miles or so.

Transmission Fluid and filter changed?
Yes @ 33,864 miles. Added Dorman replacement pan with drain plug


Issues Encountered:

• I've always been disappointed with the shifting strategy of this transmission. It's not as smooth shifting through 3-7 as i'd expect from a new vehicle. I've never liked that in highway traffic conditions it either takes too long to downshift in the normal drive modes, or drops 3-4 gears and gives you all of it. It's like there's no in-between. I prefer the RPM range and shift feel that the sport mode provides, but in my opinion it holds a gear for far too long after you're done accelerating before it will upshift back to a cruising gear. Picture you're on a country 2 lane road and you have an opportunity to pass a car. Say the truck is going 55mph in 7th gear, it'll downshift to 4th or 5th to pass, but then hold that gear forever after you're back to cruising before it will upshift back to where you were.
• I was hoping that a tune would fix the general clunkiness and eliminate the 1-3 skip shift. In my experience, the Livernois tune has made the truck much faster, but it still has every shifting gremlin that it had from new.
• The only solution i've found that makes the transmission smooth as silk is to do a trans re-learn/clear adaptive tables in ForScan. My problem is that even with the adaptive learning tables turned off the truck will still eventually creep back to harsher shifting than i'd prefer in the mid range gears. In order to make the truck drive what in my opinion is acceptably, I have to do a trans reset in Forscan about every 500 miles.

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[ValleyRides]

2024 Lariat 5.0

16,000mi

• Generally rough/inconsistent shifting, especially when slowing down to a stop through the lower gears.
• Shake/shudder at a stop while in drive or park, goes away while in neutral.
• Vehicle shudders/shakes while idling down after a cold start (idles high on start, then shakes on the way down to 800rpm or so)
• Two separate trips to the dealer. First one I was told "that's just how they are." Second trip they performed the PCM update, checked fluid levels, test drove, cleared shift tables, forced break in procedure. No change, still clunky and inconsistent.

Love the truck. Hate the transmission with a passion. Been considering a Livernois tune or the Next Gen Drivetrain billet upgrade kit to help, but not sure if I'm just spending money on an inherently clunky transmission.

 

[Savannah Power]

I bet this won't post due to "security issues"! Happens frequently, like some machine is scanning my posts.
2021 Build one Platinum PB, bought in Dec 2021 with 14,500 miles. Sales mgr had supposedly driven it months, no issues stated, alledgedly not a buy-back truck.
Within months trans was going nuts on highway, exact symptons of three State class action suits. Into dealer shop in total 5 of first 11 months of ownership, almost no loaners. Symptons never fixed. Then trans overheated pulling light loads twice in two months. Trans heat exchanger and solenoid changed. Did it a couple times more, but just before wnty hit 60K did a heavy load test and nothing happened. Bur did overheat with only passengers on mountain road. So about 1.5 years into ownership problems largely solved after an oil change where dealer said factory spec'd a re-program. Still made harsh shifts so I at 50K I paid 1000 to drop pan and was amazed to find no clutch, no metal at all. Changed filter and replaced fluid. Still bad shifts up down.
Just after hybrid extended wnty ended, clutch that connected engine to torque converter went out in an intersection. 8000 to fix. Now at 120K downshifts are occasionally harsh and jerky. I did all I could to complain to factory and get a replacement trans, to no avail. Was promised reimbursement for rentals and other expenses related to first problem, submitted 3000 and got...nothing. My experience seems extreme, and clutch should have been warrantied with the history of this trans, but nada. Going to be a hard time to stick with this brand at about 150K.

 

[Savannah Power]

Well it worked, I'll be watching for a take-down.

 

[Texas2022XLT]

18,900 miles on a 2022 XLT with the 3.5

Just like most on here terrible 1 - 3 especially when stopping 3rd is hard down.
When passing terrible downshifts.

Plan on clearing the tables, trying to decide if I should buy the Ford ESP as the transmission is my main worry.

 

[NickCu]

13,000 Miles on my 2024 XLT FX4

3.5 Liter Engine

Transmission Fluid changed?
No.

Issues Encountered:

3rd to 4th feels like a double shift

Initial driving from a “cold start” feels clunky

9th & 10th feels like shuddering.

Talked to my local dealer and they said it’s all normal with the 10r80, I’m very sensitive to the transmission shifting so it could just be me.

Getting the axles replaced Friday, I may ask them to reset the tables and check the fluid levels

 

[dmac]

13,000 Miles on my 2024 XLT FX4

3.5 Liter Engine

Transmission Fluid changed?
No.

Issues Encountered:

3rd to 4th feels like a double shift

Initial driving from a “cold start” feels clunky

9th & 10th feels like shuddering.

Talked to my local dealer and they said it’s all normal with the 10r80, I’m very sensitive to the transmission shifting so it could just be me.

Getting the axles replaced Friday, I may ask them to reset the tables and check the fluid levels

Clunkiness and shuddering is not normal. Hopefully they sort that out.

However in 3rd gear, ford programming locks the torque converter so it feels like there is an extra shift in there. That's actually normal.

 

[NickCu]

Clunkiness and shuddering is not normal. Hopefully they sort that out.

However in 3rd gear, ford programming locks the torque converter so it feels like there is an extra shift in there. That's actually normal.

Thank you for your response!

 

[XLT22]

It's easy for these transmission to learn bad habits. My new STX had 31 miles on it and bucked/thumped from too many dealer test drives I guess. I reset all the adaptives, did a drive cycle and it's perfect now.

When I worked for Ford 9 times out of 10 if there wasn't anything mechanically wrong with the unit, these learned behaviors were the result of the driver. Left foot brakers being the worst at confusing the adaptive learning in my experience.

 

[Savannah Power]

Well it worked, I'll be watching for a take-down.

 

[Savannah Power]

Well lo and behold, Ford just replied to someone and asked for a reply on the Private Channel. Problem is, it doesn't exist as best I can tell.
So Ford, I'm looking to hear from you. I'm angry with your lack of response, broken promises and an otherwise nice truck spoiled by a defective transmission. Man up.

 

[MJG44]

66k miles.
No fluid change.
No towing.
Livernois tune.
Has been good so far.

 

[My 2ND Ford]

41,000 miles on my 2021
3.5
No fluid change, maybe I will do it at 50,000 miles.
No real problems to speak of.

 

[NickCu]

It's easy for these transmission to learn bad habits. My new STX had 31 miles on it and bucked/thumped from too many dealer test drives I guess. I reset all the adaptives, did a drive cycle and it's perfect now.

When I worked for Ford 9 times out of 10 if there wasn't anything mechanically wrong with the unit, these learned behaviors were the result of the driver. Left foot brakers being the worst at confusing the adaptive learning in my experience.

That’s a really good point, I bought it from the dealership as a loaner with about 1,500 miles on it. That could explain everything

 

[Old Hat]

It's easy for these transmission to learn bad habits. My new STX had 31 miles on it and bucked/thumped from too many dealer test drives I guess. I reset all the adaptives, did a drive cycle and it's perfect now.

When I worked for Ford 9 times out of 10 if there wasn't anything mechanically wrong with the unit, these learned behaviors were the result of the driver. Left foot brakers being the worst at confusing the adaptive learning in my experience.

As a consistently conservative driver who is genuinely impressed with the shifting performance of his 10 speed, I always suspected the above may be the case.

I bought mine used with 4,600 miles. It operated fine then and still does at 17,000 miles.

I have noticed that if my braking level is sharply increased in the final few feet of a stop the drivetrain will clunk on the 2-1 downshift. I suspect the engine rpm’s do not drop quickly enough to match the vehicle speed and that I could replicate this at will.. but have never tried. In two years of normal driving, it’s only happened a handful of times since this is far outside of my normal braking behavior. Not a problem in my view.

 

[My 2ND Ford]

It's easy for these transmission to learn bad habits. My new STX had 31 miles on it and bucked/thumped from too many dealer test drives I guess. I reset all the adaptives, did a drive cycle and it's perfect now.

When I worked for Ford 9 times out of 10 if there wasn't anything mechanically wrong with the unit, these learned behaviors were the result of the driver. Left foot brakers being the worst at confusing the adaptive learning in my experience.

Here now, you leave us former SCCA Autocrossers, ambulance drivers and long time left foot braker's out of this! No need to point fingers and throw stones! Lol
P.S. maybe the adaptive learning is broken on my truck because it was smooth when I brought it home and its still smooth 4 years and 41,000 miles later.

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