2020 Transmission Issues.

[kierobi]

Just wondering if anyone has had any luck in fighting Ford on the costs of replacing a transmission? We have a 2020 Expedition XLT with close to 81k, bought it used at 61k and we've had transmission issues a couple of times now. Started off as lurching when selecting drive from park and releasing the brake pedal, then rough shift between 4th and 5th and then again 7th to 8th. Took it into a local Ford dealership and they ran diagnostics and determined that it needed a software update. Ran well for maybe a month and then started having issues again. Took it in this week and now they've called to say that the CDF drum has failed/is failing and it needs to be replaced. Have given us the option of overhauling the CDF drum or replacing the entire transmission. Overhauling CDF is $4200 and replacing the trans is $7200 plus taxes on both.
Feel as though it's ridiculous that when I look online there are a TON of people having the same issues with these transmissions and Ford refuses to acknowledge or recall. Talking to the tech today they acknowledged that it's a VERY common issue and that they have seen these transmission in time and again but there's nothing they can do about it.

 

[DieselMonk]

Maybe reset the transmission so it has to do a relearn. Maybe it goes away for another month.

 

[kierobi]

We've done this in the past and it did go away for a month or so and now it's back. Not as bad as it was before in some areas but worse in others.

So frustrating that we have to keep shelling out for repairs to these transmissions.

 

[Pmm150]

I totally hear your frustrations. Same here... Spent 18 months of dealership service calls RE: transmission resets\reprogramming to no good outcome. Sadly, we JUST replaced our 2020 Expedition Plat Max transmission two weeks ago with 100k miles on it. We barely were able to crawl the vehicle back to the dealership. Reverse gear did not work. Fighting same cost\offset battle. Paid about 7,400 + taxes for brand new replacement. The new unit has a three year unlimited mileage warranty.

 

[ROBERT BONNER]

I just had the Transmission in my 2020 rebuilt under warranty. It banged on up and downshifts in the higher gears since new, sporadically. Sometimes there were thousands of miles between events, sometimes only minutes.

Looking at the parts list, the dealer replaced much of the transmission. New valve body, CDF drum, and all related clutch packs along with another 2 pages of parts. At 52K miles and 4.5 years, I took my chances with a dealer warranty rebuild. It runs fine so far, no harsh shifts. If it goes another 50K I'll be happy (sad statement on how I've learned to expect less....considering that my last F150 with a 4 speed auto went 215K with nothing more than fluid and filter changes).

My dealer has 4 technicians who do NOTHING but rebuild 10 speeds full time on the bench. They don't even remove and install them, they use other technicians for that.

It would seem that it would be a lot easier to simply design/develop them so that they work. But, I'm just a retired automotive engineer, what do I know.

 

[kierobi]

I just had the Transmission in my 2020 rebuilt under warranty. It banged on up and downshifts in the higher gears since new, sporadically. Sometimes there were thousands of miles between events, sometimes only minutes.

Looking at the parts list, the dealer replaced much of the transmission. New valve body, CDF drum, and all related clutch packs along with another 2 pages of parts. At 52K miles and 4.5 years, I took my chances with a dealer warranty rebuild. It runs fine so far, no harsh shifts. If it goes another 50K I'll be happy (sad statement on how I've learned to expect less....considering that my last F150 with a 4 speed auto went 215K with nothing more than fluid and filter changes).

My dealer has 4 technicians who do NOTHING but rebuild 10 speeds full time on the bench. They don't even remove and install them, they use other technicians for that.

It would seem that it would be a lot easier to simply design/develop them so that they work. But, I'm just a retired automotive engineer, what do I know.

It's wild isn't it and in speaking with the Service Tech at the dealership we've taken the Expedition to, he's all too aware of this and kept telling me their hands are tied. Just think that it's a crock that it's been "rectified" for the 24 and newer models but they won't do anything to sort out the older models that are now going through this.

Just think on this. How much money do you think has been made by Ford from these transmissions failing out of warranty and having to be replaced?

 

[bocabimmer]

It's a shame. I'm on my second rebuild and still having issues. My SA asked Ford last time for a crate transmission and corporate declined and said do a second rebuild. Now we're back here again. What's the definition of insanity?

I do wonder whether the revisions to the 24 models will be effective... I mean, we're not that far into 2025 yet. I think we'll have to wait a bit longer for the results to come back.

 

[ROBERT BONNER]

It's wild isn't it and in speaking with the Service Tech at the dealership we've taken the Expedition to, he's all too aware of this and kept telling me their hands are tied. Just think that it's a crock that it's been "rectified" for the 24 and newer models but they won't do anything to sort out the older models that are now going through this.

Just think on this. How much money do you think has been made by Ford from these transmissions failing out of warranty and having to be replaced?

Less than you might think. The parts side of the business is only marginally profitable due to a variety of reasons; but, mostly due to very low inventory turns. The warranty is killing them, though. The difference in how GM is handling this compared to Ford would make for an interesting Harvard Business Review Case Study. If my vehicle was a Suburban, Yukon, or Escalade, the dealer would have told me to call when it leaves me on the side of the road, whether that was before or after the Powertrain Warranty expired.

Ford repeated the hard shift and rebuilt my transmission. If I was still at Ford, I would have recommended overbuilding Transmissions to send new replacements for the warranty work, return the cores for in-house reman (because of the enormous volume) to cycle out plant direct ship via dealer order, because different years and different applications make for a lot of complexity, to dealers for out of warranty replacement, then it could have been done at lower cost to customer and higher profit to the company.

Meanwhile, the powertrain engineers responsible would have been given about 24 hrs to find and fix the design issues, if they failed, I would have called Trump (before '20 when the problems were first discovered) and requested they be taken to Gitmo. This process would have been revisited with a new set of Powertrain engineers every 24 hrs until the problem was fixed, or Gitmo was filled, whichever came first. Apparently, it's a kinder, gentler time at Ford now.