I have the 5 speed and have had it from 9/96. I have had no problem with it. As long as you don't think its a hot performance car shifter and treat it with some respect it responds well. I don't have any shifting problems, (grinding,getting into gears) It could be smoother and i will agree Ford could have done better than madza?. I have over 85,000 miles and everything is oem (clutch, etc.. I would however like to change the shift **** to something else, any ideas?. As for buying a dodge or chevy its your choice but whinning here gets nothing accomplished and make's you sound somewhat silly/.

 

My 5-Speed had the 3rd gear grinding problem since day one. At about 42K, the shifter started to vibrate at certain rpm's!

Since we bought my Ford F150 and Honda Civic (Fuller Ford & Honda), and always had our cars serviced there, they gave me a break on my transmission repair even though I was out of warranty.

They put in a new 5-Speed tranny at 45K, and I haven't had a single problem since! I now have 55K miles on the old girl, and she shifts like my Civic, well almost.

The best part is I can shift as fast as I want to into 3rd gear, and not even a hint of grinding.

 

I agreee with you to a point. I was not whinning about it just voicing my opinion.I hate the ford 5 speed and i have had a couple of them. I have had the same problems with all of them.It does not matter how I shift it I can shift slow and easy it will grind,Or I can shift it fast and it will grind. I keep getting the 5 speeds because I don't like an automatic.Hopefully Ford will come up with a fix for this problem. My only question is can you get a 2004 in a stick? All the trucks and all the literature I have seen only show automatics. They don't even have a V6 or a 5 speed listed as an option.

 

dhouck,

No 5 speed nor V6with the 2004 new model. I beleive you can still get one with the Heritage edition models.

JMC

 

Thanks for the information on the heritage models. That is the only 5 speed V6 available.Does anybody know if ford makes a diffrent transmission than the Mazda one. Someone told me mine was not a mazda tranny,But a newer one.Is this possible? This was a transmission shop person I talked to.He said mine was not a mazda tranny,but a newer better one.But I have all of the problems that the mazda tranny has I was just wondering.This was a non ford shop when I get the time I'm gonna let them check mine out to see if they can fix it.Thanks for any help you can give.

 

ZF industries makes the Superduty tranny.
They are not available for the F-150.

JMC

 

I drive mine real hard from time to time and it has 70,000 on it and I have never had any problems with the tranny. I've diven both the auto and the 5 speed and I would take the 5speed for sure.

You made a wise desicion

Drew wolf