Super Crew F150 Truck owners with a 4R70W Transmission,

Well, I'm sad to report that I now have a transmission problem too. It’s in my 2001 Super Crew with 9,033 miles logged. I was on my way home from work today and my transmission made a strange noise when shifting from first to second pulling out from the parking lot at my work.

Shortly thereafter, I had no second gear and then it finally shifted into third and seemed okay but when I let off the gas it seemed like it was in neutral. After pressing the gas, the engine RPM increased but it seemed as if the transmission was not transmitting power.

I made a quick left turn to get off the road and came to a stop. Having a background in transmissions from many moons ago, I suspected that I'd have no reverse and sure enough there was no reverse.

Diagnosis, rear planetary sun gear is busted. I can almost guarantee you that if I disassembled the unit, the weld on the bottom of the sun gear driving shell would be cracked or broken so there can be no reverse in this condition. Also, since the driving shell is used to hold the intermediate overrunning clutch, second gear is not working either.

Okay, I'm calling the dealer in the morning and it looks like a new unit for my 2001 Super Crew that has been babied and pampered like a powder puff except for a few loads of lumber from Lowes. The really crappy part is I've only got 9,033 miles on the damn thing and that is totally unacceptable. Luckily, the damn thing is under warranty and I shouldn’t have to pay any money unless there is some tax or something. Paying taxes on parts seems to be prevalent nowadays.

Way back in the early eighties, I used to rebuild transmissions for a living and I started noticing a trend in the nineties where automotive transmissions were starting to look very cheap on the inside and casted parts of the early days are were being stamped from sheet steel. A lot of welds are now being done robotically with little to or no inspection from humans. Now I think I know why they put the little colored stickers on certain transmissions, it’s for tracking purposes. I think it's so they can track prototype parts that they are trying out on us and the ultimate goal is to make even cheaper made products so the they can make more profit.

It’s no wonder why they put a 4R100 transmission in the Lightnings and 7700# payload package F150s, the small unit can't handle the power. However, they expect it to be good enough for the everyday truck owner, bull crap...

I'm pissed...Even if it’s under warranty.

~DM~

 

sorry to hear about your truck, daveman!! it appears the posts about tranny problems with the 4r70w are mounting. wonder what bill ford has to say about that?!

what is happening is totally unacceptable...especially in a babied truck. i'm beginning to rethink my allegiance to ford and may defect to another brand. unfortunately i really like the s-crew...now if it only had the dodge hemi engine and a gm 4L80e tranny i'd be set...

 

Troy,

Thanks for the sympathy. I don't think anyone has the perfect truck yet. Now, if Ford would just get off their butts and at least install the 4R100 unit in every F150 then maybe we'd have a unit that would last like it should.

I think the perfect truck is somewhere in the Super Crew style truck and Ford should take this 4R70W transmission failure issue very very seriously. I'm not talking about a light switch or a blown tire, it's the most complicated part of any car or truck. Bullet proof transmissions have been built for years and years by almost every one of the major automakers. The Torque Flight 727 from Chrysler was one, the GM Turbo 400 is another, The C6 from Ford and Allison and ZF have made some rock crushers too.

Ford, do something now before you lose some seriously loyal customers.

~DM~

 

well, hopefully the 4r75w and 5r110 will be great units when they debut on the '04s! but until then it appears ford is gonna be takin' some heat over failed trannies. something you wouldn't think they'd want right now given all the focus/explorer recalls, etc...

 

That truly blows. Did you have any other signs or symptoms before it crapped out?
BD

 

Bronco,

Yeah, your right, it blows big time and it doesn't feel good either...

The only sign I had was the infamous Thunk. Other than that I drove to work today and wouldn't have given it a second thought to come to visit you. Now I'm leary about driving it in forward to work in the morning so a damn rollback can come and scoop it up.

~DM~

 

Well getting it fixed under warrenty is nice, but I am over 23,000 miles and so far no issues, most of the time it dosent even thunk. My big worry is if the transmission (or anything for that matter) fails when I am offroading in the desert.

Hopefully the new tranies in the 2004s will be much better. At least the first year they may be inspected more as it's a new design, unlike Microsoft where you don't want to use there products untill version 2, maybe transmissions are better at version first as they are "screw"tinized more...

 

Sorry Dave. That sucks man.

RP

 

I find it absurd that the SuperCrew is experiencing so many 4R70W transmission failures You have to imagine that at some point, there was a meeting when the SC was developed and someone at Ford decided that the same transmission used in the Mustang would also work in a 4x4 Crew-Cab truck with a 5.4L engine

The problem isn't a bad transmission design. The problem is that the transmission just isn't strong enough for a truck with that much weight and such a powerful engine. If you look around at www.flatratetech.com you'll see that there are a lot of failures related to mating the 4R70W with the 5.4L engine. Sometimes 5-6 a week come in. The techs are very busy replacing these transmissions in SuperCrews.

To protect yourself I'd suggest that owners have their transmission serviced at the Ford dealer where the truck was purchased, at the designated intervals and hold onto the receipts. If a problem does come up, then you can hold the dealer accountable under the Implied Warranty of Merchantability Act, after the bumper to bumper warranty has expired. It basically states that a product must perform as expected for the average life of such a product. For a truck, this is 4 years in most states and covers vital items that make it a truck. Things like the engine, transmission, paint, body panels, etc..... What is so simple about it is that it's not only a Ford warranty, but also a warranty that the dealer is legally obligated to honor and it's automatic by law.

Of course, every owner with a problem should file a complaint at the NHTSA as well as every other consumer site they can find and give Ford hell over this till they change. Until then, people should stop buying F-150 SuperCrews.

 

ajragno,

the supercew isn't much heavier than a supercab, is it? seems to me that since most other 5.4l equipped f150s use the 4r70w, that they should also be experiencing failures...and not just the supercrew. unless the 4r70w in the crew is made in a different location than the regular cab and supercab 4r70ws...

 

I beat on my 4r70w and it is fine...

 

Daveman:

This sounds similar to a problem I had at around the 9k mile mark. I went to back out of the garage one morning and the truck would not go into reverse. It was like it was in neutral since I could rev the engine. Suddenly it went into reverse. I backed out of the garage and put the truck in drive. Since a Ford dealer is only about 6 miles from my house, I thought I would drive there. I get as far as the end of my driveway and the entire drivetrain locked up. While I could shift into neutral, the car would not roll.

I called Ford and they dispatched a local tow service with a flatbed. They had to drag the truck up onto the flatbed as it would not roll.

My truck needed a whole new transmission and this truck does not get rough treatment. Ford was good about the whole thing. They paid for the tow and a loaner car (the dealer also rents cars) while my truck was being repaired.

I have almost 24k miles on the truck now and have not experienced any additional problems. If there are problems with this transmission, it cannot be related to the 5.4L engine since I have a 4.6.

 

My Bronco had it's first and only tranny failure at 140k miles... IT was the E4OD which I still believe it light years ahead of the newer models in both longevity and toughness...

Sorry to hear that... Good luck and maybe they'll drop a 4R100 in there! LOL

Best Wishes,
Chris (ReelWork)

 

I found these specs for the 2000 year models...

F-150 Super Cab SuperCrew
4x2 Base Curb Weight (lbs.) 3,923 4,204 4,581
4x4 Base Curb Weight (lbs.) 4,299 4,611 4,914

The tranny in our trucks is just over burdened and the 3.55 gears dosen't help much either.

 

300lb difference between a supercab and a supercrew...that's only a difference of say one fat girlfriend! that shouldn't be enough to cause excessive tranny failures...but in the meantime i'll tell debbie she can't ride with me...!