The following happened twice. Orange wrench popped up on dash. First time went into limp mode and the fan was running. This lasted approx 3-5 minutes and the fan and wrench light went off. Truck ran normal for the rest of trip. The next morning noticed wet spot under front driver side. Did not feel like oil , pressed paper towel into wet spot did not smell like coolant or show color. Brought into shop, no codes showed, did pressure check of cooling system - everything ok. Happened again the next day, however limp mode was not as pronounced and fan was running. Lasted 3-5 minutes again and then went back to normal. Planning to bring to dealer tomorrow. Any ideas what this could be??

 

Check all your under-hood ground cables making sure they are clean and tight. CHT (Cylinder Head Temperature) sensors have been the source of many "hot" engines. They are inexpensive to buy. Ford considers them a throw-away item so they can't be that well built or durable.

 

The wrench light usually indicates a problem with the transmission or 4WD system, not the engine.

 

Throttle body

 

Dealer says it is the transmission and the cost for for a new transmission is $5500. There is only 85k miles mostly highway. Anyone have an early failure like this?

 

Did you ask what exactly is wrong and how they came to that conclusion? The wrench light indicates some type of powertrain failure and restricts usage. If there is a serious issue then there will be some type of Diagnostic Trouble Code(DTC) relating to it if has completely failed. I have seen quite often power shortage occur to the transmission and this causes the Powertrain MIL, to which it typically resolves itself and creates no DTC's.

 

I would get a second or third opinion on that transmission.

I once had a rough idle problem on my Corvette. Took to shop, drove it with mechanic to prove it. They kept the car for a day and later diagnosed it with a busted cylinder head gasket leaking coolant into the cylinders. $1500 to fix. Mmmmm......car wasn't low on coolant. So I took the car back in. Checked the sparkplugs....guess what? The previous visit to the dealership to replace the spark plugs revealed they only replaced one bank of plugs!! I replaced all 8 and rough idle solved.

 

My 15 went into the limp mode one time. Shut it off and cleared on restart. It then started running rough on occasion, almost like a miss. About a week later the battery went dead and left me set in a shopping center parking lot. Installed new battery and all problems went away. That was about a month ago.

 

It was the transmission. Took truck to two transmission shops and had scanned for codes. Many codes popped up indicating transmission issues. Ended up getting a rebuild for $850. In my original post I mentioned a leak. That ended up to be a coolant hose. Everything good now.

 

You got your transmission removed, rebuilt, and reinstalled for 850 bux???