Transmission shudder

[Ford Motor Company]

I'm in the same boat here...I have a 2022 Lariat SCREW 4x4 with the 3.5 Ecoboost. I have put almost 21,000 miles on it since january and have a shudder at low speeds under light throttle, a rough shudder when rolling into throttle when merging onto the interstate and passing someone, and i have an pretty constant vibration felt in the steering wheel and seats at speeds above 75 mph. I've had four sets of tires on this truck including the stock pirellis. The three aftermarket sets have all been road force balanced. Two of the aftermarket sets had bad tires that were sent back and the reason i've had so many hoping that the tires were the vibration issue at interstate speeds. The current set of Yokohama's seem to balance out great and did improve the vibration some but i think what i'm feeling now at interstate speeds is in the drive train somewhere and not the tires. I've had TSB 22-2224 done about three weeks ago and it really didn't seem to help anything. I'm not really sure what to do at this point and really i'm just counting down the days until i put enough miles on my truck to justify it's time to trade and get something else. I don't have time to be running back and forth to the dealer several times because like most of us i have to work for a living! They all seem to be booked several weeks out which is a bad sign for Ford.

Hey there. I'd like to take a closer look at your F-150's transmission shudder and driving vibrations. Can you send over a private message with your VIN and the name/location of your local Ford dealer so I can look into this on my end?

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[jp1170]

Taking my truck into dealer in a little over a week to have them try to determine what is causing the high speed vibration? My assumption is the tires but the tire shop says the road force balance numbers aren’t high enough to file warranty claim for replacement. I disagree with them but I’m going to have the dealership look into it. The service manager said they have a high dollar analyzer that they can hook up and take it for a drive that will help them determine if the source of vibration is from the drivetrain or tires/wheels. He also said he had access to other sets of factory tires and wheels that they could try if needed. I’ve had good luck with this dealership and I know it’s not often people say this but I usually agree with and trust the service manager I deal with there. He seems to just genuinely care and tries to do everything they can to make things right. I also PM’d the Ford Rep on here with info and they started a case and I actually received a phone call today from a lady at Ford about my case that was opened concerning the transmission shudder. Not going to get my hopes up just yet but it’s a step in the right direction from Ford. The dealer is going to keep my truck for a couple of days most likely but I’ll try to give any updates when I get a diagnosis.

 

[jp1170]

So I took my truck to the dealer yesterday morning and left it with them for two days. Thankfully I was given a 2022 xlt sport as a loaner which was very nice. Nothing was really done about the transmission shudder but I didn’t ask them to do anything because I was more concerned with the high speed vibration. They hooked it up to the vibration analyzer which did not report anything to be concerned with so they started looking into the tires and wheels just to check. They found two of the tires to be out of spec on the road force balance. They said ford recommends 20 lbs or less. One of them was at 28 lbs and they were able to spin the tire on the wheel to better match the weighting and got that one down to 18 lbs. The other one went from right around 20 down to I think 13. I picked the truck up this evening. The dealership I used was about an hour drive from my house. The truck drove better on the way home than it has the entire 21,000+ miles that I’ve had it. Once again I have to speak highly of the technicians and service manager at Expressway Ford in Mt Vernon Indiana. They have always done everything thing can to correct any issue that I’ve had and just go that little extra to make sure I’m satisfied with the results. I’ve bought 5 new ford products (3 F150s and 2 Expeditions) from them over the past 10 years and I will continue to buy from them and use them for service if as long as I have a Ford vehicle. As for the transmission shudder it’s still there but seems to not be as often as it had been. Maybe it took a little while after the TSB for the transmission to go through the learning process again and settle out.

 

[BamaTruck06]

After several visits to my Ford dealer, I had TSB 22-2224 performed a couple of weeks ago. After 500 miles the shudder is, if anything, worse! Certainly not fixed! (2021 Lariat 501A FX4 Max Tow 3.5L Eco). Had to wait 6 weeks for the service appointment...
This really sucks, Ford!

I am having the same issue. Did your issue ever get resolved? If so, what worked?

 

[Chase]

I am having the same issue. Did your issue ever get resolved? If so, what worked?

Have a 21 3.5 with 16k and had the TSB update 2k miles ago. Still shudders but not as bad (90% good now which I can tolerate). Also running 89 fuel. 91 seems to make it near 100%. Seems the 91 doesn’t help everyone but worth a shot if you haven’t tried it yet. Going to be trading this in after the 3 year warranty is up for peace of mind in the long run

 

[dbtgt]

I am having the same issue. Did your issue ever get resolved? If so, what worked?

No, my shudder issue is not resolved. After the "online Ford social media rep" contacted my dealer in September, the dealer said that they could not get me back in to look at it again until after January, 2023... Total bullshit!

 

[Snakebitten]

No ONE dealership is going to determine my plight as a customer.
That doesn't guarantee me that ANY dealership that I'm willing to drive to will treat me as a valued customer, but I'm not a hostage to any of them.

Having said that, I hope I don't have to find out how good/bad the ones close by are.

 

[dbtgt]

No ONE dealership is going to determine my plight as a customer.
That doesn't guarantee me that ANY dealership that I'm willing to drive to will treat me as a valued customer, but I'm not a hostage to any of them.

Having said that, I hope I don't have to find out how good/bad the ones close by are.

Unfortunately, after having tried them all in my town, the one I use is the pick of the litter. The situation is pathetic.

 

[thebigdu]

Unfortunately, after having tried them all in my town, the one I use is the pick of the litter. The situation is pathetic.

I'm with ya. I'm in north Jersey... We've got plenty of dealerships to choose from. Unfortunately, my main dealer left me feeling very discouraged regarding this issue, and I haven't bothered to try another yet. I'm tired of dealer service coordinators looking at me like I have three heads simply because I want my truck to drive smoothly.

And I will add, this is not exclusive to Ford. I had similar issues with area GMC dealers when my new 2015 Canyon had a bunch of issues early on.

 

[dbtgt]

It seems to me, at this point, having read and re-read this entire thread, that while there seems to be multiple causes for "the shudder" (driveshaft, tires, torque converter, spark plugs, etc.) the most common occurrence is the 8, 9 &10th gear shudder under light throttle and slightly uphill along with shudder occurring under load at highway speeds. This is the symptom my truck has and has had from around 2000 miles to currently at 24,500 miles. I think many of us have been chasing a transmission cause but I now believe it is more likely an engine issue having to do with misfires under certain conditions. This would explain the intermittent nature of the problem as it doesn't seem to be easily duplicated at will. Ford OBVIOUSLY knows about it and likely knows what is causing it. Lets hope they ultimately figure out a remedy and pass it along to us before their F-150 reputation gets destroyed by this issue.

 

[thebigdu]

Has anybody here tried Shudder Fixx for this issue?

https://www.lubegard.com/products/isf/

 

[Genoz]

It seems to me, at this point, having read and re-read this entire thread, that while there seems to be multiple causes for "the shudder" (driveshaft, tires, torque converter, spark plugs, etc.) the most common occurrence is the 8, 9 &10th gear shudder under light throttle and slightly uphill along with shudder occurring under load at highway speeds. This is the symptom my truck has and has had from around 2000 miles to currently at 24,500 miles. I think many of us have been chasing a transmission cause but I now believe it is more likely an engine issue having to do with misfires under certain conditions. This would explain the intermittent nature of the problem as it doesn't seem to be easily duplicated at will. Ford OBVIOUSLY knows about it and likely knows what is causing it. Lets hope they ultimately figure out a remedy and pass it along to us before their F-150 reputation gets destroyed by this issue.

I have the same issues. I had the dealer apply the alleged fix with no discernable change. I am tending to believe you may be on the right track. I plan to try running a few tanks of premium fuel to see if anything changes.

 

[dbtgt]

Has anybody here tried Shudder Fixx for this issue?

https://www.lubegard.com/products/isf/

I haven't.
I don't think mine is the torque converter.

 

[BamaTruck06]

I took my truck to the dealer, they said I should be more worried about some noise they were hearing at low speeds. I told them to look into it. They said one of my tires was out of balance. They replaced it and did a road force balance. It was still shaking. They did the TSB 22-2224 update. When I went to pick it up, they had not fixed the noise at low speeds and the service guy told me I should just trade it in. I really don't want to do that. I am going to give another dealer a chance to fix it. After I drove it back home, I noticed the update made the shudder worse. I am regretting not buying a Ram.

 

[Snakebitten]

What's sad is everything is fixable.
Everything.
There's nothing that's unfixable.
It's a mechanical assembly.

But the system is broken for getting the mechanical assembly (truck) properly diagnosed and thus repaired.

Large part apathy
Considerable part lack of skill
No small part arrogance

And it's not a single brand phenomenon.
This is a Forum for Ford's F150. So the broken system is discussed here as Ford centric.

And it's not just an automotive industry issue. It's widespread across multiple industries. In fact the current modern consumer is surprised, and will share praise, for any enterprise that actually treats them as a valued customer if/when service or warranty is required.


I wish I knew what the solution was for someone who is unfortunate enough to have an F150 with a defective torque converter, or auxiliary pump, or cylinder miss, or........ whatever is the real source of the problem with their truck.
If it were mine, I am fortunate enough to have tools and some basic understanding/skill, along with some measure of tenacity, to possibly identify exactly what's the source. At least at that point I would only be facing the challenge of getting the dealership to facilitate the acquisition of necessary parts and the replacement procedure.

I'm afraid the days that you can just drive up to your Ford/Ram/Chevy service department and tell them something isn't right, hand them the keys, and go home believing that your truck and plight matters to another human being?........ Is in rare supply.

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