Another Transmission Issue, Is This Unique?

[Rocketeer61]

That is pretty much any extended warranty. Best part is there isn't a single aftermarket tune(even the Ford Performance) that is technically considered Authorized since the only Authorized tune would be the Factory Tune

I wondered about this early on so I never did a tune on mine. I may have dodged a bullet there.

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[Frenchy]

I wondered about this early on so I never did a tune on mine. I may have dodged a bullet there.

It's also part of why I tell individuals to read the contract carefully on the Ford extended warranty. It's typically hit or miss if they will even approve any warranty work on the power train when you have the Ford performance tune

 

[Rocketeer61]

It's also part of why I tell individuals to read the contract carefully on the Ford extended warranty. It's typically hit or miss if they will even approve any warranty work on the power train when you have the Ford performance tune

Ouch. Good thing the EW is so inexpensive, right?

 

[Msfitoy]

I wondered about this early on so I never did a tune on mine. I may have dodged a bullet there.

Same here...even though I drive my truck like a "hyper miler"...it still blew up with TLC...imagine if I drove like I stole it? hmmm....maybe that should've been my strategy and blow it up before my warranty ran out?

 

[Jason B]

Interpret the following as you will.

 

[notsolinear]

2020 XLT with an Unleashed 93 tune, driven hard at times, but nothing crazy, no accidents, 34k miles, bought after my own lease.

Living in Michigan, have owned my truck for a few winters now and have experienced the clunky shifting in the early gears during colder months. I have had a 5 Star tune and as of about 8 months ago an Unleashed tune, so I have also experienced the difference between stock shifting and tuned shifting. As of about a month to two ago my transmission has been doing something compltely new and is missing(?) 2nd gear for the first 15 or so minutes of driving. When I shift into drive 1st gear opporates normally but when 2nd attempts to initiate the truck goes into a neutral state and revs with the throttle. The truck will eventually shift into 2nd gear after coasting roughly 0.5 to 2.5 seconds. I have learned to ease off the throttle as I anticiapte the truck is about to shift into 2nd and have found that to be beneficial in a more smooth shift when it finally engages into 2nd. Sometimes my residual throttle from accelerating through 1st will continue as the truck goes into neutral and the shift into 2nd will be slightly rough, but never anything that made me really worried.

As I mentioned earlier I have a tune on the truck and I have read through many threads on these forums about our transmission and the shifting, tunes and their impact on shifting, Misfitoy's transmission story, Torquerules tuning story. That being said I have tried removing the tune to stock, reset the adaptive learning, reset the keep alive memory, and tried reinstalling the tune to relearn shifting patterns. All of this with no measurable improvement. Am I missing anything related to the tuner to try?

I have let the truck warm up for quite some time before driving and also started driving immediately after starting it, finding similar results with possibly a slight improvement when it has been idling. The weirdest part about this to me is that the shift from 1st to 2nd will slowly improve back to completely normal after about 15 minutes. Once I feel it start to enage into 2nd more smoothly it only takes a couple more shifts, or maybe time (or temperature?), then it is opperating as if I never knew the problem existed. If I turn the engine off for a shorter amouint of time (have not tested this too much, but maybe up to an hour or so in the cold?) then turn it back on and start to drive, it will generally be just fine. All of this anecdotal information has led me to think temperature has something to do with it, but it just seems so extreme that it is quite worrisome.

Stock ‘21 Lariat no tune, used, 37k miles, my first winter with it: A couple weeks ago I had a similar issue about the time weather changed to 20’s and 30’s. Each time I started it cold and was turning left out of the driveway and begin accelerating I’d hear the RPMs spin up and then a lurch as it went into gear (but not so harsh that it wanted to chirp tires). Never happened after it warmed up. I used Trailer mode to force it to do 1-2 shift from every stop for a few drives to try and get it to adapt, and recently I have no longer had any issues with it even though I don’t think it’s any warmer out.

 

[YaBoiNewton]

2020 XLT with an Unleashed 93 tune, driven hard at times, but nothing crazy, no accidents, 34k miles, bought after my own lease.

Living in Michigan, have owned my truck for a few winters now and have experienced the clunky shifting in the early gears during colder months. I have had a 5 Star tune and as of about 8 months ago an Unleashed tune, so I have also experienced the difference between stock shifting and tuned shifting. As of about a month to two ago my transmission has been doing something compltely new and is missing(?) 2nd gear for the first 15 or so minutes of driving. When I shift into drive 1st gear opporates normally but when 2nd attempts to initiate the truck goes into a neutral state and revs with the throttle. The truck will eventually shift into 2nd gear after coasting roughly 0.5 to 2.5 seconds. I have learned to ease off the throttle as I anticiapte the truck is about to shift into 2nd and have found that to be beneficial in a more smooth shift when it finally engages into 2nd. Sometimes my residual throttle from accelerating through 1st will continue as the truck goes into neutral and the shift into 2nd will be slightly rough, but never anything that made me really worried.

As I mentioned earlier I have a tune on the truck and I have read through many threads on these forums about our transmission and the shifting, tunes and their impact on shifting, Misfitoy's transmission story, Torquerules tuning story. That being said I have tried removing the tune to stock, reset the adaptive learning, reset the keep alive memory, and tried reinstalling the tune to relearn shifting patterns. All of this with no measurable improvement. Am I missing anything related to the tuner to try?

I have let the truck warm up for quite some time before driving and also started driving immediately after starting it, finding similar results with possibly a slight improvement when it has been idling. The weirdest part about this to me is that the shift from 1st to 2nd will slowly improve back to completely normal after about 15 minutes. Once I feel it start to enage into 2nd more smoothly it only takes a couple more shifts, or maybe time (or temperature?), then it is opperating as if I never knew the problem existed. If I turn the engine off for a shorter amouint of time (have not tested this too much, but maybe up to an hour or so in the cold?) then turn it back on and start to drive, it will generally be just fine. All of this anecdotal information has led me to think temperature has something to do with it, but it just seems so extreme that it is quite worrisome.

The hard 1-2/1-3 shift has been present on my truck since it was new. Approaching 86k miles now and nothing has changed. Shifts rough then smooths out after a few minutes of driving.

 

[Dr_Strangelove]

I've noticed this phenomenon is the only strange thing about my transmission as well. When it's "cold" (I live in southern NV,) I notice my "first shift of the day" likes to hang. I have the luxury of a long roll-out from my parking space on the street so I typically give the truck very gentle gas and let the RPM's hang around 1,700-1,900; try to keep it below 2k RPM and it rolllllllllllls for about 150-200 feet and then shifts. Just a little bump when you're easy on it. Everything after that is gravy.

I chalk it up to "cold grease". I obviously have no clue.

 

[Vitis805]

I wondered about this early on so I never did a tune on mine. I may have dodged a bullet there.

It's also part of why I tell individuals to read the contract carefully on the Ford extended warranty. It's typically hit or miss if they will even approve any warranty work on the power train when you have the Ford performance tune

While I appreciate your clarification during our conversation about the Ford Performance Tune Warranty, Frenchy, it is not at all hit or miss when it comes to the official Ford Performance Tune. I implore you to find evidence of Ford ever blaming their own tune on any vehicle and subsequently denying warranty work. My research has shown that across Mustang, Focus, and F150 forums, Ford has never blamed their own tune for damage and denied warranty work based on their own product. Our resident Levittown Ford has also never heard of Ford doing so.

 

[Frenchy]

While I appreciate your clarification during our conversation about the Ford Performance Tune Warranty, Frenchy, it is not at all hit or miss when it comes to the official Ford Performance Tune. I implore you to find evidence of Ford ever blaming their own tune on any vehicle and subsequently denying warranty work. My research has shown that across Mustang, Focus, and F150 forums, Ford has never blamed their own tune for damage and denied warranty work based on their own product. Our resident Levittown Ford has also never heard of Ford doing so.

Remember that even the Ford Performance Tune is technically still a Aftermarket Tune no matter how you look at it. Being Ford Performance it is considered approved by Ford, but not necessarily approved by Ford Extended warranty. If you read the fine print of the extended warranty then it will tell you if it will cover the powertrain or not with an Aftermarket Tune (yes that means the Ford Performance Tune as well).

Even the Ford Performance Tune states the Factory Powertrain warranty is Downgraded(not to be confused with VOID) to 3/36 instead of the 5/60 going off of the original purchase date of the vehicle(first owner of vehicle).

 

[GhostStrykre]

The hard 1-2/1-3 shift has been present on my truck since it was new. Approaching 86k miles now and nothing has changed. Shifts rough then smooths out after a few minutes of driving.

I bought my 2019 used with 22k miles on it, certified, and it also has always had that cold engine bump when going into 2nd or 3rd. It also cures up after it warms up.

This is actually the basis of why I always remote start in cold months to let the truck warm up. I always remote start the truck in warm months, but just for a couple minutes. Once the powertrain gets some warmth in it my truck runs fabulously. I actually once asked in a thread if remote starting could promote longevity and got doo doo’d on for asking, lol. Perhaps it doesn’t promote longevity, but it enhances the driving experience (for some of us, not all).

To the OP, I can tell you my transmission behaves similar to yours, and I’m coming up on 64k miles. Still goin fine. Formulate your strategy as you see fit, but it ain’t broke til it’s broke.

 

[Vitis805]

Remember that even the Ford Performance Tune is technically still a Aftermarket Tune no matter how you look at it. Being Ford Performance it is considered approved by Ford, but not necessarily approved by Ford Extended warranty. If you read the fine print of the extended warranty then it will tell you if it will cover the powertrain or not with an Aftermarket Tune (yes that means the Ford Performance Tune as well).

Even the Ford Performance Tune states the Factory Powertrain warranty is Downgraded(not to be confused with VOID) to 3/36 instead of the 5/60 going off of the original purchase date of the vehicle(first owner of vehicle).

Totally, 100%, the warranty language states that Ford can deny warranty work based on their tune, but it has never actually happened in real life. They have denied other vendors' tunes all day, but they have yet to blame their own tune for damage on any vehicle that I or Levittown Ford has seen.

 

[Frenchy]

Totally, 100%, the warranty language states that Ford can deny warranty work based on their tune, but it has never actually happened in real life. They have denied other vendors' tunes all day, but they have yet to blame their own tune for damage on any vehicle that I or Levittown Ford has seen.

Give it time as it can and will happen. I have seen the Ford Extended warranty deny a claim for an engine replacement due to a spark plug breaking. They claimed that it is a maintenance part. The vehicle wasn't even at the time or mileage for the plugs to be changed and one of the plugs broke causing the failure. If they do that I'm sure they can blame the tune all they want

 

[Vitis805]

Denying an extended warranty claim because of a spark plug is bogus, but I can see the argument where they could blame the owner for possibly uninstalling and reinstalling and then not torquing them down correctly, etc. In a "denied because of FPP tune" scenario however, Ford would have to blame their own product for the damage, which they have never done.

We have been selling Ford Performance power packs to the Mustang community since 2015 at a much higher rate of volume than the Ranger. I personally have never come across an engine or driveline failure in which a dealership denied repair and blamed it on the FPPP.

-Benny

 

[Frenchy]

Denying an extended warranty claim because of a spark plug is bogus, but I can see the argument where they could blame the owner for possibly uninstalling and reinstalling and then not torquing them down correctly, etc. In a "denied because of FPP tune" scenario however, Ford would have to blame their own product for the damage, which they have never done.

To simply put a stop to the argument, Ford and Ford Extended warranty can chose to Deny any Warranty Claim based on what they find even if they feel the Tune is the Cause. Like it or not that is the truth. It does not matter if you are not aware of a claim where it has happened. Ford has more than enough to back themselves in the event they decided to if needed.

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