LongWayHome

What's the significance of the Gear displaying? Just curious.

Laminar

He mentioned the truck didn't shift or go into limp mode, but sometimes those things might be subtle, so I was wondering if he kept the gear display up to actually see what gear the truck thought it was in.

LongWayHome

Gotcha. Mine was on when it blew up recently and it did indeed jump up and down the number line until she went kaput.

mikeru

Yeah I didn't see the gear change at all. It stayed in 6th until I got to where I was going. Engine ran normally as well. The code hasn't come back since. I kind of wish it would since this would be covered under my warranty.

digitaltrucker

Any codes?

mikeru

As I mentioned in an earlier post, P0720. I also mentioned in that post that I had just bought the truck and the selling dealership agreed to adjust the speedometer because of oversize tires they installed, which they did. It was about 30 miles after that when the speedometer started acting up. The code was thrown on the way home, about 10 miles later. When I got home I cleared all codes and disconnected the battery. That was on Sunday. No codes have come back since then and I've driven the truck to work and back all week.

digitaltrucker

So sorry for asking!

korn7

Ok I have driven f150s for the last 16 years. I inherited my ‘12 eco boost from my grand dad who was the original owner. This truck isn’t what I’m used to for f150, I’m not a mechanic but have learned as I’ve gone with my past trucks this one is mind boggling with what I’ve had to accept as the way of the times. I’ve been having issues with jolting with shift changes but it’s done that since day one. I received the recall letter about the programming didn’t feel I had the issue but took it in because I believed that was me taking care of my truck, best thing to do. After the recall was taken care of everything has been down hill! I never considered or connected that to be the possible root cause and truthfully didn’t know what had been done with the fix I just knew it was a programming thing hoped for better mpg. I believe I was somewhere around 120000mi at recall and at 150000 miles I started thinking I was going to need new tie rod ends or something not really sure but floating issues came and kinda went. At around 165000mi I started noticing random gear slipping and knew what I was fixing to face but it was random and tried telling myself it didn’t really happen ,at about 170000mi my wrench light came on and I got home and parked it I haven’t driven it since couldn’t afford to deal with it my husband tried investigating and drained the transmission and took the pan off and we started looking for a filter, ended up having it towed to dealership to have them handle it. Upon arrival they cranked it up and called me to say there was an issue… the pan was missing and there was no trans fluid, also no coolant! They claimed upon starting it there was a rattling sound which clued them into look and discover the void in trans! Now they say trans is shot and suggests I have a third party take over and replace trans, also informed me they just sold one with similar issues for less than 1000$. I’m not certain I have the right to be however I’m pretty upset with them, now today I discover the CSP for the lead frame which was on the list of possibilities (starting with fixing cheapest first and hoping it wouldn’t reach that level of repair need) when we decided we just couldn’t put the time in so we trusted in the dealership. Anyone out there have any suggestions or details of what qualifies for CSP repair? Any clue what I can bring up with mechanic now that I see they know this is an issue? And sorry for the length of this post but can more damage come from them cranking it up with the trans drained and open? Please forgive my ignorance I just really need some advice here

mikeru

Just to follow up in case anyone is interested, the P0720 code hasn't come back in almost a month. No CEL or wrench symbol, truck drives and shifts just like it should. At this point I'm pretty much convinced it was caused by the speecometer calibration the selling dealership (non-Ford dealership) made for the oversize tires, and resetting the ecu cleared whatever issue was there (knock on wood).

Laminar

The programming fix only changed what the transmission would do if the lead frame failed. Before, if the transmission though the truck was going 0mph because the speed sensor flaked out, it would shift to first gear because that's what you do at 0mph. After the programming change, the ECU would recognize when the speed sensor was flaking out an instead of shifting to 1st gear at 70mph, it would go into a limp mode. This should have no effect on shift quality or efficiency or any normal behavior - it was to stop you from getting into an accident because of a flaky sensor.

What kind of maintenance records do you have on transmission fluid changes? Did you change it at 150,000 per the factory recommendations, or before that, or not at all?

If it was not broken when you sent it there, you have some kind of record of telling them the transmission is drained and they ran it anyway, then the failure is on them. They will disagree and it may mean anything from a firm talk with the service manager up to getting a lawyer (that might cost more than just replacing the transmission) but if they damaged it, it's on them.

Ford's lead frame Customer Satisfaction Program has specific requirements to qualify for the CSP - less than 10 years old, less than 150,000 miles, and specific check engine codes have to appear. If those don't appear, they cannot perform the recall. Random gear slipping like you noticed is not necessarily a symptom of lead frame failure, though it can be. But no matter what, if you didn't get the codes and wrench light until 170,000 miles, you're not covered, it's just the cost of owning an old, high mileage truck.

Running the engine with no fluid in the transmission would ruin it in short order. I would be mad. If it was just the lead frame before, it's more than that now.