Memorial Day weekend trip ruined - Rant

[InSearchOfLight]

2023 PB Platinum with just over 10K miles on it. We spent most of the day packing up, getting the trailer from storage, shopping, finishing up work, etc. I got onto the freeway, and the transmission was making loud whining noises and hard shifting up & down, especially loud in between shifts. Has already been in the shop twice for transmission problems (last time they replaced the auxiliary transmission oil pump). Noise is mostly gone when not pulling the trailer. I couldn't risk getting stuck 450 miles from home with a trailer, so had to turn around. Luckily we were only 1/2 hour into the trip. Very pissed, though; this transmission is junk. My wife and I tried doing some video and audio recordings of the noise, but it's tough to hear with the background noise. Thinking torque converter??

Waiting for my service advisor to call me back to get this thing in the shop again... I am losing all faith in this company.


Edit: I've uploaded both the original video and another with the background noise muted. Has anyone heard this noise before?

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[fordhouston]

i have no plans of buying another Ford vehicle after all i have been through.. lol

 

[Trailrated]

2023 PB Platinum with just over 10K miles on it. We spent most of the day packing up, getting the trailer from storage, shopping, finishing up work, etc. I got onto the freeway, and the transmission was making loud whining noises and hard shifting up & down, especially loud in between shifts. Has already been in the shop twice for transmission problems (last time they replaced the auxiliary transmission oil pump). Noise is mostly gone when not pulling the trailer. I couldn't risk getting stuck 450 miles from home with a trailer, so had to turn around. Luckily we were only 1/2 hour into the trip. Very pissed, though; this transmission is junk. My wife and I tried doing some video and audio recordings of the noise, but it's tough to hear with the background noise. Thinking torque converter??

Waiting for my service advisor to call me back to get this thing in the shop again... I am losing all faith in this company.

I'd dump that truck.

 

[jhelrey]

Unlike you, I would have continued on the trip and nuked whatever was the issue.

 

[wessermgm]

There seem to be multiple threads that are very similar right now. They all seem to be around the hybrid engine. It is damn cool and can do awesome things. However, it certainly seems to be more lemon prone than the other Ford engines. I don't see a ton of threads about the 2.7L or the 5.0L getting bought back.

Sounds like with the PB, If you get a good one, looks like you will love it. The feature, power and PPO are awesome.

You get a bad one, trade it. (full disclaimer, I do have a PB on order, so this is a touch concerning to me).

 

[Hfyvr]

There seem to be multiple threads that are very similar right now. They all seem to be around the hybrid engine. It is damn cool and can do awesome things. However, it certainly seems to be more lemon prone than the other Ford engines. I don't see a ton of threads about the 2.7L or the 5.0L getting bought back.

Sounds like with the PB, If you get a good one, looks like you will love it. The feature, power and PPO are awesome.

You get a bad one, trade it. (full disclaimer, I do have a PB on order, so this is a touch concerning to me).

I’ve had my PB since late September and I’ve pretty much touched on every issue that comes up on these forums but I still love the truck and the fact that it is a PB.

To the OP as I mentioned on your Reddit post - this truck is more like a computer and is clearly very software based. The rough transmission shifting is likely due to that last OTA update a couple of week ago. Myself and a bunch of other are all experiencing rough shifts. Prior to the update my truck shifted so well, I’d say 95%+ of the time seamlessly. Now I get rough shifts 6-5-4 and 10-9 once in awhile. Since it just ‘happened’ after the OTA update it’s clearly something that can get undone or revised if enough people speak out. Since the update I’ve done almost 4,000km and it’s gotten slightly better but still not to the point it was prior to that. I have faith Ford can fix this if they want to because the 10R80 is a good transmission IF the software lets it be good.

I also would have just driven it. You’re under warranty and need to put mileage on the truck. Like I mentioned I’ve touched on all the well known issues - CAT failure, heat exchanger squeak, transmission pan leak, trailer brake controller, ‘stop safely now’, main 12v battery replacement… I’ve had all that stuff replaced under warranty. If you don’t push it and drive the thing a lot that stuff will inevitably fail outside of warranty.

 

[InSearchOfLight]

I’ve had my PB since late September and I’ve pretty much touched on every issue that comes up on these forums but I still love the truck and the fact that it is a PB.

To the OP as I mentioned on your Reddit post - this truck is more like a computer and is clearly very software based. The rough transmission shifting is likely due to that last OTA update a couple of week ago. Myself and a bunch of other are all experiencing rough shifts. Prior to the update my truck shifted so well, I’d say 95%+ of the time seamlessly. Now I get rough shifts 6-5-4 and 10-9 once in awhile. Since it just ‘happened’ after the OTA update it’s clearly something that can get undone or revised if enough people speak out. Since the update I’ve done almost 4,000km and it’s gotten slightly better but still not to the point it was prior to that. I have faith Ford can fix this if they want to because the 10R80 is a good transmission IF the software lets it be good.

I also would have just driven it. You’re under warranty and need to put mileage on the truck. Like I mentioned I’ve touched on all the well known issues - CAT failure, heat exchanger squeak, transmission pan leak, trailer brake controller, ‘stop safely now’, main 12v battery replacement… I’ve had all that stuff replaced under warranty. If you don’t push it and drive the thing a lot that stuff will inevitably fail outside of warranty.

Thanks again for your reply. I appreciate your input and balanced advice.

That said, I still can't help but feel disappointed with my experience with this truck so far. On the plus side, we've used the generator to power our and our friend's RVs overnight multiple times, and that has worked great. Now, we don't have to lug our noise generator around anymore; it's a very cool feature and the only reason I went with the PB (over non-PB).

On the other hand, the only other time I have had issues like this with a new vehicle was my 2012 Ford Focus transmission. That was a well-known issue that Ford never fixed despite countless lawsuits and class actions. Luckily, I sold that. My sister got rid of her (and her son's) focus for the same reason.

My relationship with Ford runs deep. I was born in Dearborn, where my dad dedicated 25+ years of his life to Ford. I have fond memories of spending Saturdays at Ford HQ with him. We even moved to Brazil for three years for Ford. Our family had the privilege of driving two new Ford lease cars each year during my childhood. I have always been a staunch defender and supporter of Ford products, owning and cherishing many over the years. I'm a true Ford enthusiast. My first car was a 92 Escort GT, followed by a 1999 F150, an early 2000's Mustang GT, a 2002 Lightning, 2004 F150, 2006 Expedition, and a 2012 Focus.

The only problem I had with any of those vehicles (other than the focus transmission) was that the F150 blew the spark plug out of the head.

Unfortunately, my experience with the 2023 PB has been far from satisfactory. With just 10K miles on the clock, we've encountered the Low 12V warning multiple times. On one occasion, the truck even refused to start during an RV trip in Montana, only deciding to fix itself after a prolonged wait. We've also had two instances of the CEL lighting up, both related to the transmission, accompanied by jerking and lunging from a stop, and both times required bringing the truck into the dealership. The last time, the auxiliary transmission oil pump had to be replaced. The truck has spent close to 3 weeks in the shop already, and there's more to come.

On this last attempted trip, no reasonable person would have decided to continue driving 450 miles with the noises it was making and how the transmission was shifting. It was like the transmission was drunk, randomly hard shifting up and down, and felt like we were losing power when trying to accelerate. The noise it was making was not right. If I were to have gotten stranded that far from home, I would still be dealing with how to get the truck back home, along with our travel trailer.

While I understand that there can always be one-off situations, a quick online search will reveal that the issues with this transmission are very common. I love the truck when it's functioning properly, and I intend to get many years of use out of it. However, I can no longer make excuses for Ford's quality control.

 

[Matisse70]

There seem to be multiple threads that are very similar right now. They all seem to be around the hybrid engine. It is damn cool and can do awesome things. However, it certainly seems to be more lemon prone than the other Ford engines. I don't see a ton of threads about the 2.7L or the 5.0L getting bought back.

Sounds like with the PB, If you get a good one, looks like you will love it. The feature, power and PPO are awesome.

You get a bad one, trade it. (full disclaimer, I do have a PB on order, so this is a touch concerning to me).

So do I and I'm getting concerned.

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