transmission "popping out of gear"

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MarkR

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2021 Ford Expedition Platinum 4WD
Stock, 15k miles, under warranty.
Same issue - randomly and seldomly there is no power on attempted acceleration while the vehicle is in motion. Yesterday, traveling about 45MPH, I accelerated and it was as-if the trans shifted to neutral. Then, a very loud banging, sounds like “bam/bam/bam/bam” as if trying to shift into gear, but being rejected. Then eventually it shifts into gear. This has happened twice before on the highway. This Vehicle will be at the dealer next week. Worried about transmission damage at this point.
 

AmeriKEN

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I've had the same exact issues twice under 25,000 miles; had the valve body and spacer swapped out under warranty. It no longer goes bang, loses power or gets lost searching for the right gear, but does make some vocal, albeit gentle shifts on occasion. Outside of the 10-speed woes, the truck has been a dream. Outside of oil changes, I 've only needed new tires and brakes at 41,000 miles.

I'm very interested to see how the class action nets out!
 

BP 09

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This issue has been beat to death on every Ford forum. With your mileage, expect the CDF drum bushing to be slid out of place and needing replaced.

For everyone else with lower mileage, get a tune from Gearhead, ZFG, or MPT and watch all your transmission issues disappear! Also check your trans fluid levels and service it every 50k at a minimum.

I’m on my 2nd 10r80 vehicle. Both have made it over 100k miles with no issues. And any quirks and crap shifting in both was fixed with a custom tune.
 

Rezolution

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So I just noticed this issue on a trip to Baltimore last night when trying to get out from in between two tractor trailers. I have never noticed this issue before. It is pretty easily reproducible. The car used to run and drive completely fine. The cam phasers went bad in 2020 and the dealer replaced them and did a bunch of updates. After the cam phaser replacement and flashings, the car drove like crap and would shift or "pulse" into 3rd gear 4 or 5 times. After months of them telling me I needed to have the fluids serviced etc, I finally found the "customer satisfaction" reflash Ford offers and after driving it 3 or 4 days, it seemed to be resolved (or at least similar to when I first bought the car).

Now it has 72,000 miles on it and is totally out of warranty. Here we are again, but this time an actually dangerous issue. If you floor it at 60 or more, the car somehow shifts into neutral while still showing it's in drive and then will continuously redline and rev limit until you take your foot completely off the gas. Then the car downshifts into first gear while you're doing 60, makes a super loud bang, then shifts to 3 or 4 different gears, flashes a warning to read the manual in orange, and sometimes a red warning. No error codes are present after this.

So does anyone (including Ford) actually understand what is happening?

Is it a programming issue? Is it a neutral out tsb? Is it a problem or error with the learned table values?

Can it be cured by just resetting your computer and relearning? Will a reflash from someone like gearheads cure it? Will the tsb cure it? Everyone seems to have a different opinion on what will fix the issue and what won't.

I can spend 1000 on a tune, 2,000 at the dealer to try the tsb, or trade the car in. None of these are guaranteed solutions and I don't like rolling the dice for thousands of dollars.

It's paid off, has a 5 star crash rating, and I was hoping to keep it for 10 years...
 

BMW2FORD

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I really feel for you. This transmission left me stranded due to the C D F drum issue 1000 miles from home. Sounds like your problem relates to this TSB which I can't believe isn't a recall considering the safety aspect of how these transmissions can surprise you in a bad way.


If yours was doing the weird 3rd gear shift especially cold - that's usually the C D F bushing has partially shifted. The problem you mention about the neutral out on hard accel sounds like a bad valve body.
 

Rezolution

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I tried purchasing a tune to see if it would resolve the natural out issue. The vehicle does shift better and drive better but it didn't solve the neutral out issue.

The dealer says it will be between 900 and 6000 dollars to perform the tsb and they are decently confident that will solve the issue. They said they want 150 dollars to inspect it to be able to give me a more accurate quote. This doesn't seem right that I should have to pay for all this and from what I read, it doesn't work all of the time anyway. I think I've taken my car in probably 10 times under warranty for transmission issues but it's out of warranty now.
 

99WhiteC5Coupe

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I tried purchasing a tune to see if it would resolve the natural out issue. The vehicle does shift better and drive better but it didn't solve the neutral out issue.

The dealer says it will be between 900 and 6000 dollars to perform the tsb and they are decently confident that will solve the issue. They said they want 150 dollars to inspect it to be able to give me a more accurate quote. This doesn't seem right that I should have to pay for all this and from what I read, it doesn't work all of the time anyway. I think I've taken my car in probably 10 times under warranty for transmission issues but it's out of warranty now.


During the ten times you had warranty work performed on the transmission, did you receive a repair invoice? Did you keep them? What type of repair work was performed?

If so, I would contact Ford and request that the warranty work that began with your ten visits be continued, so that the transmission is repaired correctly.

The aftermarket tune may present a problem, as Ford may claim the tune affected the transmission.
 

Rezolution

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I just called up ford, they wont extend the warranty or apply the TSB at no cost. They offered to give up to 40% of the TSB repair cost back if they deemed that the TSB would in fact repair the issue, I had it diagnosed within 72 hours, etc etc. They also said "we aren't promising anything though, it might not work out". It's sort of just odd how they're being about this. It clearly say in the TSB that they have an improved part that they put in so they must know it's an issue. The lady kept saying "its not attached to your vin" even though it clear says in the TSB all 10 speed expeditions manufactured before whatever date range and my car would fall into the range.

As far as services go, I don't have the paperwork saved in a pile or anything, the dealership has that all on record in the system.

All of the times I took it in, it was for odd shifting issues and the transmission pulsing. I had the cam phasers replaced and the new program made the transmission worse. It would vibrate and shake when I'd be coasting at 15 or 20mph. I took it in 3 or 4 times for that, each time i had to pay to have different fluid replaced, none of which helped. Then they had a "customer satisfaction" tsb or something for shifting and that elimated the shaking at low speeds and the thumping into 3rd gear. Now I found this neutral out issue when you mash the pedal at high speeds... It's not something i probably would normally notice as it only happens when you're trying to pass someone on an interstate (for me anyway, i see some people have it when towing and at lower speeds).

The dealership say "there is nothing we can do, call ford". Ford says "the dealerships are owned independently and could fix it under warranty if they wanted to". I feel like it's the finger pointing game.

At the end of the day, I've read both positives and negatives about the TSB actually fixing the neutral out issue. I'm only 50% confident that it would actually solve the issue though at this point.

I was 50% confident that a tune would solve the problem, I gambled $600 on that and rolled craps.

I'm not sure I want to roll the dice on this vehicle any more. It's 6 months from being paid off, what a shame.
 

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