A10 / 10R80 Failed, Unsure Next Steps

[SMUAlien]

2018 GT Base, 55K Miles, 5.5 years old. (Under 60K powertrain, over calendar by 6 months).

Car worked great one day, the next I'm leaving my house, and it won't shift past 2nd gear, rapidly decelerates, shows wrench on display. I figure it's pretty bad, so I carefully limp the car home. There were no odd noises, no warnings whatsoever for the failure. I get home, hook up the ODBII reader and I see P0757 and P2701 codes. These seem to be standard codes indicating problems in the transmission (duh).

I have done every single service at the dealership I purchased the car at, at every interval suggested, and every service they suggested per the schedule. I start calling dealerships around, starting with the dealership I normally get service at. Nobody can even look at the car for 3-4 weeks. Eventually I find a dealership about 15 miles away that can look at it, so I have the car there the following Monday.

The dealership does a series of tests and ends up dropping the bottom pan off the transmission, where they see metal and debris. The fluid appears to be a bit dirty, but not too bad. Further inspection finds extensive damage and that the torque converter has failed. I get a text message a few days later from the service department indicating that the repair is $8997. I talk to my service advisor, and he applies for Ford financial assistance. Yesterday I received word that Ford has approved assistance up to 40%, but that now the repair cost is $10,330, my out of pocket would be $6310.

In some sense yes, I am happy that Ford is offering to cover part of the cost of a vehicle repair, that's out of warranty. In another sense I'm pretty irritated this happened to a car with low mileage, barely out of warranty only by calendar. A $6300 out of pocket repair seems unacceptable to me, and honestly there's no possible way I could afford to pay this. I can't get any credit right now as I am in the process of a divorce, and I'm already in debt from huge temporary support payments. The Mustang was the surviving fun "toy" I could at least have some outlet with after this big life change.

Anyway, that's my sad story. I'm not sure what to do about this. I've been running up my remaining credit card balance with rental car fees. My dealership is appealing for more assistance, but it's unlikely they will do more. The kicker is, I have roughly 10 more small payments until I own the car outright. I think I owe close to $4k on the car.

$10.3K seems excessive for a total repair cost on this. What do you all think about that? I figured if I go to an independent shop, maybe the cost is $6K for the repair, but of course I get no assistance there, so I may as well just do it at the dealership. It's almost as if Ford jacked up the repair cost just to say they are offering assistance, but the repair cost is overpriced anyway so they really aren't helping.

I know, some of you say I should have bought an extended warranty. Perhaps you're correct, but I never have bought one on any other automobile ever, and it's never once been a problem. I did have a car develop engine trouble that was costly, but that was at 140K miles, and my teenager abused that car. The cost of the extended warranty seemed excessive at the time presented to me, but in hindsight yes, it is less than the cost of this repair. Never figured I'd blow a transmission though. This is my first Ford purchase; I am very certain it will now be my last.

I babied this car, never once tracked it, just daily drove it. This really should not have happened. Any thoughts?

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[deanm11]

Thank you for sharing. That's really not what should happen, as you say with a modest amount of mileage and especially with your report of a mild driving style. At a dealer, I totally expect a $10k transmission job. At one point, I think new Ford transmissions could be bought discounted in the $3k area... But a dealer installation at a next cost of $6k, that's not a bad choice. We had some experience with the horrible Ford focus trans. But I'm not going to rule out Ford ownership.. they all have their stinkers at times. Again, sorry.. I never buy extended warrantys either.

 

[CrazyHippie]

2018 GT Base, 55K Miles, 5.5 years old. (Under 60K powertrain, over calendar by 6 months).

Car worked great one day, the next I'm leaving my house, and it won't shift past 2nd gear, rapidly decelerates, shows wrench on display. I figure it's pretty bad, so I carefully limp the car home. There were no odd noises, no warnings whatsoever for the failure. I get home, hook up the ODBII reader and I see P0757 and P2701 codes. These seem to be standard codes indicating problems in the transmission (duh).

I have done every single service at the dealership I purchased the car at, at every interval suggested, and every service they suggested per the schedule. I start calling dealerships around, starting with the dealership I normally get service at. Nobody can even look at the car for 3-4 weeks. Eventually I find a dealership about 15 miles away that can look at it, so I have the car there the following Monday.

The dealership does a series of tests and ends up dropping the bottom pan off the transmission, where they see metal and debris. The fluid appears to be a bit dirty, but not too bad. Further inspection finds extensive damage and that the torque converter has failed. I get a text message a few days later from the service department indicating that the repair is $8997. I talk to my service advisor, and he applies for Ford financial assistance. Yesterday I received word that Ford has approved assistance up to 40%, but that now the repair cost is $10,330, my out of pocket would be $6310.

In some sense yes, I am happy that Ford is offering to cover part of the cost of a vehicle repair, that's out of warranty. In another sense I'm pretty irritated this happened to a car with low mileage, barely out of warranty only by calendar. A $6300 out of pocket repair seems unacceptable to me, and honestly there's no possible way I could afford to pay this. I can't get any credit right now as I am in the process of a divorce, and I'm already in debt from huge temporary support payments. The Mustang was the surviving fun "toy" I could at least have some outlet with after this big life change.

Anyway, that's my sad story. I'm not sure what to do about this. I've been running up my remaining credit card balance with rental car fees. My dealership is appealing for more assistance, but it's unlikely they will do more. The kicker is, I have roughly 10 more small payments until I own the car outright. I think I owe close to $4k on the car.

$10.3K seems excessive for a total repair cost on this. What do you all think about that? I figured if I go to an independent shop, maybe the cost is $6K for the repair, but of course I get no assistance there, so I may as well just do it at the dealership. It's almost as if Ford jacked up the repair cost just to say they are offering assistance, but the repair cost is overpriced anyway so they really aren't helping.

I know, some of you say I should have bought an extended warranty. Perhaps you're correct, but I never have bought one on any other automobile ever, and it's never once been a problem. I did have a car develop engine trouble that was costly, but that was at 140K miles, and my teenager abused that car. The cost of the extended warranty seemed excessive at the time presented to me, but in hindsight yes, it is less than the cost of this repair. Never figured I'd blow a transmission though. This is my first Ford purchase; I am very certain it will now be my last.

I babied this car, never once tracked it, just daily drove it. This really should not have happened. Any thoughts?

This truly is unfortunate. Any chance of finding a gently used transmission and swapping it in yourself, like we used to do growing up?

 

[SMUAlien]

This truly is unfortunate. Any chance of finding a gently used transmission and swapping it in yourself, like we used to do growing up?

Honestly my technical skillset does not include the capabilities to do that. I'm a great Engineer, but I am no mechanic. It's why I always brought my car to the dealership, let the experts work on it, and give a job to a good American worker. Oh well.

 

[CrazyHippie]

Honestly my technical skillset does not include the capabilities to do that. I'm a great Engineer, but I am no mechanic. It's why I always brought my car to the dealership, let the experts work on it, and give a job to a good American worker. Oh well.

Yeah, I understand. Growing up in the 70s, with very little funds, we just jumped in and did whatever we needed to do. I still have the knowledge, but my body can't do the physical part very well.

 

[SMUAlien]

Now that I deep think this, I did notice a few oddities in my car in the months prior to this, not sure if they are symptoms of the impending failure, but I figure I'd mention them here. Most of this I attributed to just the "uncooked' nature of car:

1. Driving with the windows down in my neighborhood, every time I let off the gas, I'd hear a clunk. I had figured it was more or less the car unloading its weight to the suspension on the change of acceleration. It was subtle but I noticed it.
2. This occurred a few times: sitting at a light the car would gently shake sometimes, as if it was potentially misfiring. I figured it was likely dirty spark plugs. It never shut off, just kind of shook from side to side slightly and the engine would slightly surge. I called the dealership about it, and they said they'd look at it at my next interval, but there was no code or dash warning, so it I figured things were fine.
3. Sometimes getting off the highway, I'd be sport mode so the engine would do that engine braking / downshifting routine. Seems that saves brakes a bit and honestly it has a cool feel to it. Recently that seemed to be a bit rough, where it would stay in 1 gear longer than normal before proceeding downward.

Anyway that's all.

 

[CrazyHippie]

Now that I deep think this, I did notice a few oddities in my car in the months prior to this, not sure if they are symptoms of the impending failure, but I figure I'd mention them here. Most of this I attributed to just the "uncooked' nature of car:

1. Driving with the windows down in my neighborhood, every time I let off the gas, I'd hear a clunk. I had figured it was more or less the car unloading its weight to the suspension on the change of acceleration. It was subtle but I noticed it.
2. This occurred a few times: sitting at a light the car would gently shake sometimes, as if it was potentially misfiring. I figured it was likely dirty spark plugs. It never shut off, just kind of shook from side to side slightly and the engine would slightly surge. I called the dealership about it, and they said they'd look at it at my next interval, but there was no code or dash warning, so it I figured things were fine.
3. Sometimes getting off the highway, I'd be sport mode so the engine would do that engine braking / downshifting routine. Seems that saves brakes a bit and honestly it has a cool feel to it. Recently that seemed to be a bit rough, where it would stay in 1 gear longer than normal before proceeding downward.

Anyway that's all.

The 10R80 is a very complex machine and it seems to be very tempermental. The Forum says that a custom tune can really improve transmission behavior but I'm gun-shy about voiding my warranty. I have a close friend who suggested that a tune may actually help avoid transmission problems, implying that somehow Ford's programming may not be up to par. Your retrospective notes of subtle abnormalities are interesting. All the best - hope it works out for you.

 

[SheepDog]

Now that I deep think this, I did notice a few oddities in my car in the months prior to this, not sure if they are symptoms of the impending failure, but I figure I'd mention them here. Most of this I attributed to just the "uncooked' nature of car:

1. Driving with the windows down in my neighborhood, every time I let off the gas, I'd hear a clunk. I had figured it was more or less the car unloading its weight to the suspension on the change of acceleration. It was subtle but I noticed it.
2. This occurred a few times: sitting at a light the car would gently shake sometimes, as if it was potentially misfiring. I figured it was likely dirty spark plugs. It never shut off, just kind of shook from side to side slightly and the engine would slightly surge. I called the dealership about it, and they said they'd look at it at my next interval, but there was no code or dash warning, so it I figured things were fine.
3. Sometimes getting off the highway, I'd be sport mode so the engine would do that engine braking / downshifting routine. Seems that saves brakes a bit and honestly it has a cool feel to it. Recently that seemed to be a bit rough, where it would stay in 1 gear longer than normal before proceeding downward.

Anyway that's all.

I'd be asking them what portion of that cost is labor. Looks like you can get a new unit for around 4400 bucks. Obviously, the dealership is going to jack up the price on the part, but 10k seems crazy. Your only choice is to fix it, since you cant sell it or drive it without the repair. Put it on a credit card, then do a balance transfer to another card that offers 0% interest on balance transfers for 12-18 months

https://www.fordpartsgiant.com/parts/ford-automatic-transmission-asy_jr3z-7000-b.html

 

[SMUAlien]

Ford is saying I do qualify for a buyback. What would that look like do you think? They are offering no details at this point, and are saying my service advisor would have to speak to me about it next week.

 

[Teezlr]

Now that I deep think this, I did notice a few oddities in my car in the months prior to this, not sure if they are symptoms of the impending failure, but I figure I'd mention them here. Most of this I attributed to just the "uncooked' nature of car:

1. Driving with the windows down in my neighborhood, every time I let off the gas, I'd hear a clunk. I had figured it was more or less the car unloading its weight to the suspension on the change of acceleration. It was subtle but I noticed it.
2. This occurred a few times: sitting at a light the car would gently shake sometimes, as if it was potentially misfiring. I figured it was likely dirty spark plugs. It never shut off, just kind of shook from side to side slightly and the engine would slightly surge. I called the dealership about it, and they said they'd look at it at my next interval, but there was no code or dash warning, so it I figured things were fine.
3. Sometimes getting off the highway, I'd be sport mode so the engine would do that engine braking / downshifting routine. Seems that saves brakes a bit and honestly it has a cool feel to it. Recently that seemed to be a bit rough, where it would stay in 1 gear longer than normal before proceeding downward.

Anyway that's all.

Did you ever notice on remote start that the vehicle will rock forward?

I've gotten such a hard downshift on braking that it has locked up the rear tires

Yes, the clunk also when letting off the gas and then it upshifts

I really want it fixed but I don't trust to let them drive the car, the front spoiler is 6 inches from the ground etc.

 

[SMUAlien]

Did you ever notice on remote start that the vehicle will rock forward?

I've gotten such a hard downshift on braking that it has locked up the rear tires

Yes, the clunk also when letting off the gas and then it upshifts

I really want it fixed but I don't trust to let them drive the car, the front spoiler is 6 inches from the ground etc.

I did not notice the remote start behavior you mention. I rarely if ever remote started. I'd usually start it, sit for 30 seconds, then drive off carefully for the first 5 minutes or so. Figured it was cold and I shouldn't put much load on it.

The deceleration clunk was very noticeable though.

 

[C-WOODS-70]

Are there any independent transmission repair shops around you? If so, call and see if they are familiar with your transmission. I've rebuilt a few old "non-electronic" transmissions, but I'll be the first to admit I have no experience with the modern stuff. The torque convertor is a means of allowing the car to stop without a clutch disconnecting the trans from the engine. If the car will move forward, I wouldn't think the TC would be my first suspect. Sounds like more of a shifting problem. Did they show you what was in the pan?

 

[SMUAlien]

Are there any independent transmission repair shops around you? If so, call and see if they are familiar with your transmission. I've rebuilt a few old "non-electronic" transmissions, but I'll be the first to admit I have no experience with the modern stuff. The torque convertor is a means of allowing the car to stop without a clutch disconnecting the trans from the engine. If the car will move forward, I wouldn't think the TC would be my first suspect. Sounds like more of a shifting problem. Did they show you what was in the pan?

I haven't seen the pieces in the pan, this was the report read to me over the phone.
I can call around local transmission shops.

At this point the transmission is out of the car and ready for work at the dealership, I hope to have some sense of what to do with it early next week.

On a side note, beyond the theme of this discussion: I ended up renting a Tesla for $33 a day. The Tesla is the type of car is the exact opposite of what I like (it has no cool mechanical sounds, seems super sterile), but for some reason I think I get it now why people might like these. The car is athletic as heck, and I've spent a total of $25 charging in the past 2 weeks. In that time, I'd have spent roughly $200 in gas for the Mustang. Kinda makes you think a little bit...

 

[C-WOODS-70]

I see. Didn't realize they had taken trans out at dealer.

 

[Cobra Jet]

Ford is saying I do qualify for a buyback. What would that look like do you think? They are offering no details at this point, and are saying my service advisor would have to speak to me about it next week.

Curious…. How is Ford Corp saying the vehicle qualifies for a Buy Back at this stage? It’s out of the 3/36, it’s out of the 5/60 and we’re talking 55k accrued miles on it as well, let alone it is now 5, almost 6 years old.

Ford follows the State Laws for vehicle Buy Backs and/or Lemon Laws. In many States, you‘ve exceeded the limitations to start a claim, not only by years from the vehicle’s original invoiced date, but also accrued mileage.

I’m really interested in hearing more about this and the “how”, because it’s very unusual. This is also coming from someone who’s been through the Ford RAV Buy Back process and has posted quite a bit of tech/tips on the Ford Buy Back process here as well.

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