Wow, can’t believe this is happening! I’m glad I found this out before I purchased the ST I’ve been drooling over. I have a 2017 Ruby Red Explorer Sport and had a appointment today to trade it in for an Atlas Blue ST. But after reading about the numerous ST’s having tranny issues I canceled my appointment. Anyone know if Ford has fix this tranny issue with the current STs on the dealer lots? I’m thinking of waiting for the 2021 model with hopes that all the bugs get fixed by then.
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Transmission troubles
- Thread starter WorthyST
- Start date
@SleeperST is right @SVTLX , everyone with build dates in 2020 have been really good as far as we can tell. my late march build has been flawless.
I found this thread through a search because my transmission blew last week. We bought it in March 2020 and it now has a little more than 13k miles on it. For two days I experienced many of the same things jolting when shifting, hanging in a gear too long, etc. It was a couple days before Christmas so I figured I'd get it in after the holidays.
On the third day everything was amplified. It stayed in 2nd gear and jolted violently when it did shift. If I stopped at a light or sign it acted as though it wouldn't move then jolted into gear. Sometimes it wouldn't go in gear and I just revved the engine. It also began to smell like something was burning. The service light didn't come on until the third day when things were really bad.
I called the dealer and they instructed me to drive it there. as I turned into their parking lot the transmission completely died. (At least I made it there.) It wouldn't drive or go in gear at all. It wouldn't even let me put it in neutral or park.
The service manager was certain it ran out of transmission fluid. I told him I thought it was worse than that but what do I know? Yesterday he called back and confirmed the transmission was blown. It's getting a new one but who knows how long that will take with Covid. Thankfully they gave me a car to drive.
I LOVE my ST but this does concern me for future issues....
On the third day everything was amplified. It stayed in 2nd gear and jolted violently when it did shift. If I stopped at a light or sign it acted as though it wouldn't move then jolted into gear. Sometimes it wouldn't go in gear and I just revved the engine. It also began to smell like something was burning. The service light didn't come on until the third day when things were really bad.
I called the dealer and they instructed me to drive it there. as I turned into their parking lot the transmission completely died. (At least I made it there.) It wouldn't drive or go in gear at all. It wouldn't even let me put it in neutral or park.
The service manager was certain it ran out of transmission fluid. I told him I thought it was worse than that but what do I know? Yesterday he called back and confirmed the transmission was blown. It's getting a new one but who knows how long that will take with Covid. Thankfully they gave me a car to drive.
I LOVE my ST but this does concern me for future issues....
After reading some of these responses , I am starting to worry a little . Mine is good for 19k miles and now all of the sudden , issue . I drove to a location . After restarting the vehicle and attempting to u-turn in the street , I put it in drive and I hear a huge clunk and it basically wouldn't go anywhere , as if it wasn't getting any fuel or like it went into limp mode . It stays stuck in 2nd and I can't driver above 40 . After every stop , it won't accelerate at all and takes a while to get up to speed . Dealer is going to driver it today to see what is happening . I pray it's not a long drawn out process .
I'm having the upshifting issue that a few people on here have described. But it sounds like the downshifting problem is more common. My symptoms are a hard, violent upshift when taking off from a stop. It will get moving and then hit HARD (like being rear-ended) three times, and its always three times. This has happened twice now in the last 3 days. Prior to that it would have a mild "slipping" feeling when taking off from a dead stop when going from 1st to 2nd gear. I assume its 1st to 2nd but who knows with these transmissions, it could be 2nd to 3rd. This milder condition happened about a dozen or more times in since I've had it (bought in May '20). Never really thought much about it at first because it wasn't consistent or frequent. But lately the frequency has increased and now coupled with this "slamming" issue mentioned above I fear it might be on its way out.
Calling my dealership today. Will keep you all posted.
Calling my dealership today. Will keep you all posted.
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I talked to the sales guy (who is also a friend of mine) that I bought my ST from yesterday. Told him about the issue I was having. He asked if I was always driving it in Sport Mode which I am. He suggested driving it for a few days in Normal mode to see if I have the same issue as I mentioned above and that Sport Mode shifts harder than the other modes. I am going to try and do that over the next few days and see what happens but I cant imagine it would make a difference. I also don't think this is something that is inherent to sport mode or something that is normal. Does this make sense to anyone else?
From what I have read on here, it sounds like these transmission are as much about the programming as they are about the mechanical side. I am wondering if the suggestion about disconnecting the battery (mentioned above I think) might help my cause? Would that clear my computer and force the car to reprogram?
From what I have read on here, it sounds like these transmission are as much about the programming as they are about the mechanical side. I am wondering if the suggestion about disconnecting the battery (mentioned above I think) might help my cause? Would that clear my computer and force the car to reprogram?
Took mine into the dealership for two issues a bad sensor in the cross traffic collision system and the transmission. They wanted to fix the sensor first as they said it could screw up the computer when trying to diagnose the transmission. Ok, sounds somewhat logical. That took over a week to get the part and fix but it got done yesterday. Today they ran the computer check on the transmission and no codes. So the tech took it for a test drive and right at the end of the test drive "the transmission started acting very, very bad". The service writers words, not mine. So they had to email Ford with the issues and are awaiting a response. I will keep you all posted. But I may be without my car for a little while.
Well, seems like I also am suffering from the transmission issues. Mine seemed to hang up alot when hard on the throttle. Causing me to manually shift it into 6th. Well, over 2 weeks ago she was driving and it was down shifting extremely hard. Then it wouldnt accelerate at all. She was like a mile from the shop and was able to milk it into the dealership. Turns out the fluid was burnt and all the clutches burned up. Transmission was wiped out with only 12 thousand miles on it. Been waiting on Ford to make a decision on new or rebuilt tranny.
Really disappointed in it and the very slow process.
Really disappointed in it and the very slow process.
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