Why no clunk form park to reverse or neutral to drive then? Why doesnt it do it on every start?

 

 

I had a similar situation, it went like this: I'm taking my truck to Covert Ford dealership at 183 for the first time. I want to show the service advisor the clunk, but its not reproducing. So i show him a couple more clunk videos while we sit in the truck. When we finish watching the videos, i try again and it clunks loudly (yay!!). He says and i quote "oh man, i have to show my service manager, let me go get him". I show the service manager the videos too so he will know what to listen for in case we get a soft clunk. Well, it does a BIG clunk again! He says, and i quote again "oh, thats not normal". So i leave the truck there, they keep it for a day or two (i dont recall the time). When i go pick it up, they have me go meet with the service DIRECTOR, not the manager that said "its not normal". The director proceeds to tell me its normal, that they called Techline and they also said its normal. I told him his service manager said its not normal yesterday, but the Director said the manager didnt say that. Sigh. Anyway, the Director tells me he has had 2 demo trucks do the same noise, its normal. I have the whole conversation recorded.

 

So I took my truck in for a 3rd time. Service manager was on board with pulling the transmission and digging in further. He got back on their engineering forum and such. He got word back from ford saying the "clunk" is a normal operating characteristic for this transmission. He was extremely apologetic and doesn't necessarily agree with that statement and hope ford finds a fix because he doesn't feel that is normal. However, his hands are tired.

He did advise me, as another poster has, to create a case with FORD and get all of the 18 owners you can to complain about it and they will eventually dig into. So if you haven't called ford, speaking for all 18 10sp owners that have already, please do so. The number is 1-800-392-3673

So if this is a standard operating characteristic of the 10 sp, here are my questions:
Why doesn't it do it every start?
Why doesn't the noise sound the same every time? My truck makes a different noise every startup and sometimes none at all.
Does the severity of the clunk at startup impact the shifting during that drive until the truck is turned off?
Why does the truck not shift the same, every drive?

 

I've noticed that mine does it when the engine and transmission are at temperature, sitting for a little while and starting it back up. When it's cold, I don't get the clunk. It leads me to believe pressure in the transmission has not had sufficient time to bleed off somewhere. Otherwise, I can't make sense of it. My truck is still at the shop for the second time while they listen to it and talk to Ford about it.

 

Same here. Also have the clunk but its only if I shut off for a short period, (i.e. gassing up), and I crank up and get the clunk.

Doesn't bother me that much.

 

wchain, I hope you're only getting the small clunks, when you get the big ones, it may start bothering you then, and if it does, I hope you're not out of warranty at that point and unable to file a BBB/Lemon law case. I for one dont want to live with a clunk on a truck that stickers for 61K.

 

So I've been driving the truck this week, my wife usually drives it. What I have noticed is that the clunk is more inclined to occur if the truck sits for ~20-40 minutes. It does happen (for me) after sitting overnight too, but the shorter periods seem to be the larger clunks.
The arbitration hearing occurred yesterday, and while a decision hasnt been rendered yet, I'll do a write up of what was said and what I'll recommend to y'all based on what happened in the hearing.
Magma, the answers to your first two questions (based on what the Ford tech said yesterday), would be that the clunk can happen depending on the level of fluid remaining in the clutch packs and/or the position of the parking pawl in its slot/cog.

 

 

They ALWAYS transmit torque, but the parking pawl doesn't let it turn beyond the afforementioned slop. If you put the tranny in N and without wheels (the ones on F-150s are too heavy to be turned at idle), they'd slowly turn, just like it happens with a motorcycle on its center stand. That's perfectly normal, especially when cold, when oil is thicker. What is not normal is hearing a clunking noise, but the good news is it's not detrimental to the drivetrain. I just bought the truck listed below, and so far I haven't heard any clunk. And yes, if drivetrain is 'stressed', it won't clunk. If you engage the parking brake in neutral (which is the correct way), then put tranny in Park, the drivetrain won't be stressed, and it would be a matter of luck if the 'shaft' is resting against the differential gears the right way. Finally, to be honest, from the moment I drove the truck 10 miles, I knew the 10-speed tranny wasn't going to win any refinement awards, but as long as it wins a reliability one, I'd be happy. He he. If it happens to my truck, I wouldn't waste my sanity looking for a fix, since I understand that mechanically is normal; it just has a little bit too much slop, which is what causes the clunk. I wish Ford had done what Ram and others decided to do: Just go with what is proven. In their case, the very sophisticated ZF-8 tranny. And by building it in-house with license from ZF (what Ram does), you minimize the cost. And all you really need is 8 gears IMO. I wasn't amused by the gear whine of what I think is the transfer case at idle, but will just live with it. It's a freaking truck, not a Bentley. Ha ha. I used to be more **** than now, but at 56, I learned a while back to not let little things like that bother me, or I'd never be happy with any vehicle. Nowadays, ALL manufacturers' priority is MONEY, and quality is second, it at all. So we have to be a bit more tolerant if we want to keep our sanity. Have a graet weekend ahead gang .