Transmission Woes

[Friday yet?]

Yep. Just read this entire thread.

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[AzScorpion]

Ok, so explain it for us slow learners. (Assuming I'm not the only one. ) What has Ford changed in the transmissions of a later vintage? Obviously being the owner of a '23 I am really hoping the transmission in my truck has had an injection of some magical transmission fixer.

I'm not sure they actually changed anything but there have been some TSB's through the years. These have been used for years in several different vehicles. I'd say it was getting parts from cheaper vendors but this is happening to 2019's so that's not it. Unless that's when they started and that's why the previous ones held up well?

 

[Markubis]

Low fluid level could cause the burnt clutches I suspect. Not enough fluid causes clutch plates run bare or with poor coating.

Side note, I have about 30k on my Ranger and for the past couple weeks I have had a few instances of backing out of the driveway and putting it in gear only to have it just sit there for awhile before clunking into gear. After that it's fine.
My first thought was it felt like low fluid and the valve body being starved for fluid pressure.
There is a longe ported shaft in the valve body that gets its position changed based on the location of the shift handle. The change in position redirects fluid pressure down different channels in the valve body.

Anyways, to prove my theory, I have started doing a test. I remote start my truck from inside the house to warm it up. Then when I get in I Rev the engine a couple times, put my foot on the brake and move the shifter through each position...pausing at each detent. Then back to park.
Since doing that, I haven't had the clunk. I suspect by cycling through the shift points I'm prepping the valve body with fluid.

 

[VAMike]

Ok, so explain it for us slow learners. (Assuming I'm not the only one. ) What has Ford changed in the transmissions of a later vintage? Obviously being the owner of a '23 I am really hoping the transmission in my truck has had an injection of some magical transmission fixer.

I have no idea what changed on the F150. There's a good chance that they'll update the TSB to include MY 23 as they did for MY 22, unless something changed on the other models as well. You won't know for a couple of years. There was a refresh on the F150 for MY 21, so maybe whatever they did there will be done on the MY 24 ranger? Who knows.

(The idiotic loose seat TSB is a good example--for years they reissued the same TSB, just extending the applicable model years. NFI why they couldn't just fix it at the factory or supplier.)

 

[MagnetiK]

Low fluid level could cause the burnt clutches I suspect. Not enough fluid causes clutch plates run bare or with poor coating.

Side note, I have about 30k on my Ranger and for the past couple weeks I have had a few instances of backing out of the driveway and putting it in gear only to have it just sit there for awhile before clunking into gear. After that it's fine.
My first thought was it felt like low fluid and the valve body being starved for fluid pressure.
There is a longe ported shaft in the valve body that gets its position changed based on the location of the shift handle. The change in position redirects fluid pressure down different channels in the valve body.

Anyways, to prove my theory, I have started doing a test. I remote start my truck from inside the house to warm it up. Then when I get in I Rev the engine a couple times, put my foot on the brake and move the shifter through each position...pausing at each detent. Then back to park.
Since doing that, I haven't had the clunk. I suspect by cycling through the shift points I'm prepping the valve body with fluid.

I was doing that at first before mine got worse

 

[Rocketeer61]

threads like this are almost having me second-guess modern cars/trucks overall. This technology and over-engineering is useless if nothing works.

It's useless anyway. Companies seem to forget that the automobile wasn't just invented yesterday and that it worked for decades without the latest in faulty tech.

 

[TORQUERULES]

It blows my mind how Ford can send a truck out with low transmission fluid levels straight from the factory. Completely unacceptable. That’s one of the few things that has to be correct. Can’t be good for the transmission but maybe they don’t care. More money in service fees for them.

It is not just the Ranger. Mustangs, F-150s, etc. They all commonly suffer from low fluid right off the assembly line. Has been like this since this transmission came out.

I have no idea why they choose to do nothing about making it better. For the 1-3 transmissions that are fine for people, there are 10 that are not. Even Mustang guys I know who love it for drag racing, etc. still have the same drivability issues as us.

 

[TORQUERULES]

So, I just turned 1000 miles since my last tune revision where I worked with Torrie at Unleashed more on the shifting (This is the latest revision that many of you are trying I believe. Basically normal mode has tow mode shift points and sport mode firmness and quickness without the excessive engine braking of the two. The sport mode firmness/quickness are across the board with all modes as well.). I have been very diligent with how I drive during that time to try to overcome Ford's adaptive strategy of picking the worst of our driving habits to base its shift strategy on instead of the best. I ran it with traction control/advance trac off as this seems to make a difference and I locked out any gears I did not need in given situations to force it to learn my way.

I can report that for two weeks now, with weather patterns ranging from 70 degree days to 30's and snowing, that I have not had any abnormal cold/first shifts in any gears, especially the ones that cause people the most trouble (3-4 and 4-5). This with varying warm up times from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. Shifting up and down in all situations have been perfect.

I am not sure if this is something that actually worked or not, but in my experience my process helped. It may have worked with me just driving normally and it is all attributed to the tune revision I worked on with Torrie. I just thought, for experimentation's sake, that I would try to do things differently to get the adaptive algorithm to follow my lead for once.

Fingers crossed. Worked hard on this...

 

[VAMike]

It is not just the Ranger. Mustangs, F-150s, etc. They all commonly suffer from low fluid right off the assembly line. Has been like this since this transmission came out.

I have no idea why they choose to do nothing about making it better. For the 1-3 transmissions that are fine for people, there are 10 that are not. Even Mustang guys I know who love it for drag racing, etc. still have the same drivability issues as us.

does anybody actually believe that 90% of 10R80s have issues or is this just a dramatic rhetorical position?

 

[TORQUERULES]

does anybody actually believe that 90% of 10R80s have issues or is this just a dramatic rhetorical position?

Well, if you look around, visit forums of the different vehicles with them in there, then the percentage is high. Not sure 90%, but much higher than what should even be close to acceptable. Acceptable meaning there are always issues that can pop up with mass produced mechanical systems. That is a given and can be expected, just nowhere near this level.

 

[Msfitoy]

Yep. Just read this entire thread.

Haha...So you thought...keep reading...

https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/threads/list-of-10r80-transmission-threads-so-far.23823/

 

[VAMike]

Well, if you look around, visit forums of the different vehicles with them in there, then the percentage is high. Not sure 90%, but much higher than what should even be close to acceptable. Acceptable meaning there are always issues that can pop up with mass produced mechanical systems. That is a given and can be expected, just nowhere near this level.

ok, so just an overly dramatic rhetorical position

 

[Friday yet?]

ok, so just an overly dramatic rhetorical position

I don't think it's anywhere near that high. People on these type forums are the exception, not the rule. People like us find the fly shit in the pepper because we love and are very anal about our vehicles. Average consumers are driving on down the road with little to no issues. Meanwhile we come to this forum to complain that our truck is missing a wing nut for the optional fluxcapaciter. Just the way we enthusiasts roll.

I think the trans is solid. Mileage targets are forcing Ford's hand a bit with the programing. I can change that via
1) Heavier foot
2) Trailer tow
3) Sport mode

or after market tunes.

I'll be living with mine and assuming the best until proven otherwise. Hopefully I don't eat my words going forward.

Just my 2 cents. No need to pile on telling me I'm wrong, transmission sucks, piece if shit, can't believe Ford sells it, etc. and so on. I get it. I've read the complaints and gauged the unhappiness. And NOT discounting anyone's opinions or experiences!!!!

In the interest of full disclosure, I do have an upcoming appointment for the transmission in my truck. Gonna have that bad boy painted blue!

 

[TORQUERULES]

ok, so just an overly dramatic rhetorical position

I guess tell that to the many Ford owners who have had to get transmission replacements or repairs and not just folks on here. I have always been a Ford loyalist and they used to make very good automatics, but this is a fail IMHO. Everyone can have their opinion on the issue though and I respect that. If you have had no weird shifts or other issues with your truck then I am truly happy for you. You got a good one.

 

[VAMike]

I guess tell that to the many Ford owners who have had to get transmission replacements or repairs and not just folks on here. I have always been a Ford loyalist and they used to make very good automatics, but this is a fail IMHO. Everyone can have their opinion on the issue though and I respect that. If you have had no weird shifts or other issues with your truck then I am truly happy for you. You got a good one.

If ford was replacing 90% of their transmissions they'd be out of business. The numbers simply don't support that.

I did recently get a TSB performed when I felt it wasn't shifting as smoothly as it had been, and it's settled in pretty well. I asked them to take a look at it because when it's at its best it's really nice to drive, and it seemed a bit off. If the TSB fixes things for good, then great. If it doesn't, I'll deal with it when it's an issue. But again, could most of the 10R80s be getting TSB service? No way, ford would be out of business. How many is it? We'll never know.

In general I hate all automatics, but I've been pretty happy with this one. Are there times when it might make a weird decision? Sure...but that's true of all automatics. So "it doesn't always do exactly what I think it should" isn't really a thing I worry about. It has its own characteristics, and when you learn them you can make it do what you want. A lot of the complaints seem to be along the lines of "it shifts more than the 3 speed hydramatic I'm used to so it must be broken", or "it doesn't use every one of the gears", both of which seem silly--it's got 10 gears and it's going to use them as it needs to. They seem to have (for the most part) achieved good efficiency when cruising light while maintaining the ability to work hard in the low range when that's what you need.

What is a valid concern (vs subjective disagreements about how it works) is whether the transmission will last. In modern times I've had a honda transmission start crapping out around 100k, and had problems years ago with a subaru transmission. Mostly I've driven manuals and haven't had such problems. Dramatic rhetoric aside, I don't think there's any evidence that the transmission that's been in one of the best selling vehicles on the road for more than 5 years has massive failure rates. Will some of them fail? For sure. Is it something that people need to be worrying about? Doesn't seem like it. So yeah, it's a valid concern, but one that people should consider once, note that things seem ok, and then just not lose sleep over it.

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