Ford Factory Rebuilt Tranny Failure at 16K Miles

[Oldwolf]

About 2 years and 16000 miles ago I had my Ford Dealer install a factory rebuilt transmission in my 2002 Explorer. Last week, while on a road trip I lost overdrive and 5th gear. The dealer in the closest town said they would need to remove the transmission and go from there. I had my elderly parents in the car, no car rental agencies were available, it was late Saturday and the dealer was to close in one hour, so I opted to wait until I got it home, some 170 miles further. I parked the Explorer until we were to leave Sunday afternoon.

Sunday, I kept the speed at 55 mph, 4th gear at about 2500 rpm. Ran OK as long as I kept my speed steady. About 50 miles from home I could hear a loud whine when shifting 1 to 2, but the whine quit at higher speeds.
I knew I was running on borrowed time at this point.

I made it home, limping along and accelerating slowly.

The dealer has the car now, transmission out, and a new rebuilt unit waiting to go in.

He said the high gear band looks like it went out. It destroyed one of the fluid pumps, messed up the torque converter, and probably more which I will find out later.

Usually Ford does a cost analysis in a case like this, checking to see if repairing at the shop will be cheaper than installing fresh rebuilt unit. Ford told the dealer to install the new unit, and replace the oil cooler and lines too which is SOP.

All this is will be done under warranty I am pleased to say.

I never have mistreated my transmission or this Explorer, I drive it conservatively. I have towed a medium weight trailer a few times, maybe 1500 pounds total load. In 40 years of driving this is my first mechanical catastrophic failure.

When I find out more specifics I will report back if there is interest.

 

[Hdale85]

I would call 1500lbs light towing, that's generally still in the Class 1 hitch territory.

 

[Exproblems]

[QUOTE=Oldwolf;2930527Sunday, About 50 miles from home I could hear a loud whine when shifting 1 to 2, but the whine quit at higher speeds. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

He said the high gear band looks like it went out. It destroyed one of the fluid pumps, messed up the torque converter, >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Most likely when the tranny pump began to fail, you lost fluid pressure, which caused the torque converter whine. I had a similar issue with the tranny that was in my Explorer at the time I purchased it. The dealership tried a cheap fix first by installing a new pump and changing the tranny fluid in the pan. This stopped the torque converter whine, but other internal parts were damaged previously and the tranny needed to be replaced a week later with a rebuilt one, at dealer cost. I've made it a full year and 6,000 miles so far on the rebuilt one.

 

[Oldwolf]

My Explorer has the factory installed Class III hitch btw. I hope the new transmission resets the warranty...i.e.3 more years/100k miles. We will see.

Exproblems...I hope your tranny is trouble free. I had no warning at all. Cruising down the highway at 60 mph and then BANG!...no OD or 5th gear.

 

[Joe Dirt]

It does happen, my Dad lost the high band in his 2011 F150 at under 2,000 miles. Ugh...

 

[piercesean]

i had my tranny done at 80,000 by aamco and they rebuilt it and it made it 30,000 then had ford rebuild the next one made it 25,000. i believe they are a poor design and there is no cure for it. good luck!

 

[Exproblems]

My Explorer has the factory installed Class III hitch btw. I hope the new transmission resets the warranty...i.e.3 more years/100k miles. We will see.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Mine came with the Class 2 hitch trailer package. On the new tranny you are getting under warranty, I highly doubt they will give you another 3 year warranty with it. They most likely will cover it under warranty for how many months you have left on the original rebuilt warranty. The first rebuilt tranny I had installed into my Ex last Feb 2011, paid for by the dealership, was rebuilt by a national chain, local tranny shop and the solenoid package fried out after just 32 days. It came with a 1 year warranty. So back to the tranny shop it went and they installed another rebuilt tranny and that one is still running okay to this date, but my 1 year warranty on it from the tranny shop ran out on Feb 10th. I do have an after market warranty I bought on the whole vehicle that still has 1 year and 10 months left on it. FYI, if you have an after market warranty on your vehicle and you had to replace a tranny with a rebuilt one that was paid for by this warranty you have, you can't get another tranny rebuild paid for by them until after one year from the purchase date of the first rebuilt tranny. In other words, you have to wait a year to put in another claim for a transmission repair.

>>>>>>>>>>>Exroblems...I hope your tranny is trouble free. I had no warning at all. Cruising down the highway at 60 mph and then BANG!...no OD or 5th gear.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Yeah, no problems with it as of now, but who knows what the future holds. If this tranny does crap out way before it's time, the only "bang" I will hear will be the skull cracking on this tranny shop owner I got this thing from when I pay him a friendly visit. I truly believe he intentionally tampered with the first rebuilt tranny he installed just to screw with me, knowing it would fry out (solenoid pack) soon afterwards. It's a long story, but I had a hell of a time last year in dealing with this smart a$$, knucklehead. The guy is a liar, cheat and a shady businessman. Since the dealership had to pay for this rebuilt tranny, I didn't get to pick which tranny shop got the repair job. If I do wind up needing another rebuilt tranny for my Ex, it won't be getting done by him, thats for sure.

 

[Oldwolf]

Dealer put the new transmission my XLT. But there is something wrong with it, that is all the specifics I have at this time. Tomorrow I will learn if they corrected the problem or must but in transmission #3.