I'm the guy that wrote about having my Tranny flushed and 3 weeks later it failed. The Ford dealer I went to amd bought from did the work.

I talked to the service manager and said I would prefer a Ford factory rebuilt Trans rather than one rebuilt in house.

My salesman at the dealer agreed that would be the way to go citing the special tools needed to perform the repair and the fact that they probably don't have all of them wouldn't equal the quality of a factoery rebuild.

The salesman also said that in a case like this 2004 Expy 33K miles that ford would like to see the trans "as is" to determine the cause of failure.

When I called the dealer for Fords decision on rebuild at dealer verses rebuilt trans from factory they decided that rebuilding at the dealer was what was going to be done. At least that's what they told me

When I told my salesmen he wasn't happy about that but said he had no influence on sevice matters.

Could it be that the service manager knew something wasn't done right during the flushing and doesn'twant Ford to see it?

Also how reliable are inhouse rebuilds especially since I put 120 miles a day on it?

Please comment.

 

Ford has a cost cap system to determine whether something needs to be rebuilt or replaced. On transmissions, I believe that if the cost to repair exceeds $2100, labor and parts, then a reman or new unit is authorized. Often times this requires teardown and inspection, and depending on your dealer's status with Ford, Ford may send an inspector out to see. Rebuilds are as reliable as the rebuilder is skilled. Nowadays, rebuilds can get kinda iffy, because as the years pass, Ford reman units are assembled with the latest available updates to that transmission, be it valve body changes or upgraded clutches or whatever. This may not happen to your transmission, because it can be confusing and labor intensive to see that all available updates are applied to your transmission. And honestly, Ford may not pay to have all the available updates installed, Uncle Henry usually wants to do the bare *** minimum to get it back on the road.

 

Is there anything I could do to fight this for a replacement rather than repair or is it a lost cause?

Thanks for the reply---Bob

 

What kind of warranty are they placing on the rebuilt tranny?

 

I don't know but I will find out. I do have the Ford extended 75000 mile warranty so I'll be good for another 42000 miles through that.

I plan on trading it at 75000.

Bob

 

I have a 97 expedition that started shuddering abut a year ago, especially uphill or under a load. I was told to change the transmission fluid and filter, but to use Mercon V fluid. This fixed the problem, it shifts better and has no shudder. You may want to consider using Mercon V in whatever you wind up with.

 

Although it may or may not help, I would suggest you call and express your concerns to Ford's 1-800 customer service line. Several calls to the customer service number really seemed to help me when I had problems with my F-150.

 

I agree with that. I had problems with the dealer that I bought my navi at, and after 1 call to the lincoln service line, all of the sudden they were really interested in solving my problem. Sometimes, service does really still exist

 

Sue their ***. I sued Daimler/Chrysler for a similar issue and it cost them thousands more in legal fees than if they had just done what I wanted.
Its a little known fact that if you sue a big auto maker for a legit problem, you WILL WIN. Too many folks on jurys have been screwed by an auto maker at some point. There are lawyers out there who will jump at the chance to take your case on a contingency basis. It won't cost a dime and its just a matter of time before the automakers settle the case. They know they can't win. My lawyer said he had only lost 2 cases out of 6000. Since my vehicle was a work truck, my lawyer was going to ask for lost wages, business disruption expenses, etc. Just piled it on. They settled for the repair costs plus all the lawyer fees. My guess is that $2500 transmission job ended up costing them at least $8000, and probably more.
You just have to be patient. Mine took about a year.

 

Everybody wants to sue somebody nowadays.

Sue them for what? Fixing your vehicle under warranty?

Sometimes, Ford wants the unit repaired, sometimes, they'll authorize a replacement. That's just how the ball bounces.

 

Well, I got back the truck today and tried to put it through it's paces. It seems to work fine but only time will tell.

I'm not the sueing kind and it would have only delayed things.

I must admit that they returned the truck to me clean and working as it had before the tranny failure.

I've owned 4 Expys, 1997, 1999, 2000, and this 2004. This one was the only one to fail.

Bob