I have a small question, though new to forums I'm very familiar with my Ecoboost. Bought new 2012 I've always did little things to it and learned along the way. I programmed it with 5-star tuning, minor lift, 33s, catch cans, intake exhaust.. anyway, 113,000 miles it's at Ford because I read in forums people having issues with shifting into 3rd gear hard, got their truck reprogrammed and on their way.. well I am having that issue and thought it would be a simple reprogramming and I'd be on my way. Now when I tune the truck, it gets way worse, when its turned back to stock it's much more slight and harder to notice. But, if it was mechanical would this still happen? I'm taking it to another trans place near me (500 feet away) and see what they say. Only reason i didn't take it there 1st was because I thought Ford would just reprogram it. Should I tell Ford I had it tuned and it made it worse, and better untuned? Do they care, or anything? Would it hurt or help my case? It's not tuned now for a few weeks but i miss it tuned. Much more responsive.. any help is appreciated

 

If a tune makes it worse, that tells me its mechanical. Likely the boosted trans line pressure amplifies the issue. If its not slipping I would expect just a valve body rebuild and replacement of the 3rd gear solenoid should fix it. maybe you can explain better what you mean by shifting hard, like a slam into gear suddenly?

 

yes, like the other gears shift smoothly, I to 3rd (while tuned) feels like a bumper car hit me, without tune it's very minuscule kind of hard shift.. like shift a manual and dumping the clutch. It shifts on time and correct. Just harder.

also, by slipping how would I know its slipping? Does it make a higher pitch grinding noise, similar to when putting a manual into gear and letting off clutch before its fully in gear? If so, I may have heard that, but I wasn't sure if it was a grinding or someone's horn.. music on, truck exhaust. I want sure and it's never done it before.. couldn't replicate it either.

 

Or it could be that the years and miles it was driven with the tune has caused the problem. The transmission was not designed to run on your tune which may be why the problem gets worse when you put the tune back on.

 

I have no doubt it's part of the problem.. sped up the war and tear. I knew that going into it. Won't stop me! But the issue remains and I just want it fixed.. transmission shop won't take it out because it's not bad enough yet. Says it might need to be reprogrammed by a Ford IDS, that's my next step. They say there would be codes thrown if these things were going wrong, if the trans slips more than the threshold allowed it would throw a code as well. I've gotten none of those yet.

 

I ran tuned for about 45000 miles on my 14 eco and then it was shifting really hard into 3rd and then 4th and then when it downshifted. turns out it was toast. I spent 3500 on a rebuild that included a new 2nd gen valve body. My E clutch was metal on metal, toast. Don't bother having the valve body rebuilt, it's not worth it. A brand new 2nd gen is $659 straight from Ford dealer and Shops usually charge that much on a rebuild. If you are having to rebuild get some upgrades, exedy has a kit with some nice clutch packs,Steels and billet intermediate shaft that will last a long time. In the beginning the dealer wanted $750 to diagnose the issue. My transmission shop I went with charged me cost on the valve body plus labor and when that didn't work and they had to tear into it they deducted what they charged for the valve body replacement plus labor from the total cost of the rebuild. They usually start with the valve body because it's almost always the culprit. Obviously in my case the valve body was not it, but when they rebuild the valve body as part of it so it's a good place to start. I initially went to ford and had the update done on the pcm tcm to see if that was the harsh shifting issue and then went from there. It was an expensive lesson to learn. Ecos have a lot of low end torque and I think that some of the aggressive tunes I used just chewed it up. But it's pay to play and can be expensive.

 

Thank you! That's what I'm looking for. Did you truck send codes or totally take a **** when you were getting it checked out and all? If no codes than I won't wait long. If you were getting codes I might wait until I get something. It's not hard, just harder than smoother. Pretty light "bump" so it may be on it's way to toast.. I'm looking for another transmission place now. One with more modern set up.

 

So I went to another shop that seems much more promising. They have a guy that has done a few of these transmissions already, I go back Monday to talk about just rebuilding the trans and beefing it up for the power. Truck is on 34.6 tires, 3.55 gears (after I sheared a bolt in my 3.31 rear) so it is needed and I expected from the beginning. But tax return is in so that is helpful!

 

the shop i went to custom built a few items to beef the rebuild up.. but i would still look into exedy for their upgraded clutch packs, steels and billet shaft. They have a tear down youtube video showing wear on their kit and plenty of
reviews online.

 

That is the plan! Beef up the entire thing, not just what broke. He took the words out of my mouth. Hahaha as I started to say make it better, he said beef ir up for the increased power of the tune.