Virginia is the state?
Who has fought a manufacture? Wisdom please. I have got conflicting information.
- Thread starter Mtnbiker
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One flaw I see in the OP’s desires is the interest in a transmission which is built up / repaired with non-oem parts / build specs. The probably goes beyond what their warranty itself is able to provide, because they certainly can’t gaurantee the work done at that point - they probably can’t even authorize the work at the dealership - no way to authorize or purchase the 3rd party components in their warranty pipeline/processes. Independent shops will have more flexibility, but if they’ve been burned by non-standard repairs before they could also be hesitant.
If the dealer is refusing to acknowledge the problem, contacting ford corporate is probably a good next logical step. Some of it could be as simple as laziness, a bad employee, or their interpretation of the owner’s nature - is this a legitimate complaint or is the expectation too high? I’m not saying the OP’s expectation is too high, but if the clerk thinks the OP is asking for something they simply can’t provide, it’s more likely to get blown off as “outside of what we do here.” My ford dealer was of little help with my 10r80, saying “they all do this.” “They all go into neutral 3 times a week at a green light?” “Uh, yes.”
I could have started a serious dispute with that, but instead because i really liked the truck, decided I’d try a few things myself and eventually got it reasonably driveable with the additives and adaptive reset, and regular repeats. It’s up to me now when I decide to part with it, ideally before this transmission fails, but I’m approaching 80k and so it’s made it that far.
You might consider doing what I did. Try lubegaurd red, don’t tell anyone, just see if it makes a difference. If it does, maybe you’ll enjoy the car. If it helps but you are burned, it’s easier to trade a running vehicle than a bad one. Consider the cost of the loss in a trade vs the aggravation of a legal battle.
If the dealer is refusing to acknowledge the problem, contacting ford corporate is probably a good next logical step. Some of it could be as simple as laziness, a bad employee, or their interpretation of the owner’s nature - is this a legitimate complaint or is the expectation too high? I’m not saying the OP’s expectation is too high, but if the clerk thinks the OP is asking for something they simply can’t provide, it’s more likely to get blown off as “outside of what we do here.” My ford dealer was of little help with my 10r80, saying “they all do this.” “They all go into neutral 3 times a week at a green light?” “Uh, yes.”
I could have started a serious dispute with that, but instead because i really liked the truck, decided I’d try a few things myself and eventually got it reasonably driveable with the additives and adaptive reset, and regular repeats. It’s up to me now when I decide to part with it, ideally before this transmission fails, but I’m approaching 80k and so it’s made it that far.
You might consider doing what I did. Try lubegaurd red, don’t tell anyone, just see if it makes a difference. If it does, maybe you’ll enjoy the car. If it helps but you are burned, it’s easier to trade a running vehicle than a bad one. Consider the cost of the loss in a trade vs the aggravation of a legal battle.
This x1000
No manufacturer will ever do this. Maybe .01% of dealerships will do this if you're a long time customer and they're some extremely performance-oriented dealer selling upfitter models like Shelby or AEV, and then the owner of the dealership knows it's 100% on him and there will be no other backing.
The path of least resistance here is get out from under the car however you can, OR fix it yourself with a quality built transmission out-of-pocket. It ain't fair, but life ain't fair. You can try to make Ford do what they should do because of the principle of it, but you just have to weigh that against your time, money and mental well-being (they'll just drag you down to their level and beat you with experience)
The main cause of not being able to fix some of these transmissions, is because so many are breaking that parts are not available.
Doesn't do much to just replace them, like the one person said in this thread they have done so just to have them only last a month or so.
Doesn't do much to just replace them, like the one person said in this thread they have done so just to have them only last a month or so.
Va.
In cases when parts are on backorder, we can use aftermarket parts under warranty. However we are talking like NapOreillyZone type parts, not a full compliment of billet goodies from whoever builds 10R80s. So fun fact, if a vehicle is on the lot for 30 days in California, you can start the lemon law process.
Not car related, but we got a broken display case that we ordered for my wife Vonnie’s bakery. Inspected it upon arrival and refused shipment. The retailer wanted to charge a huge “restocking “ fee.
I wrote a scathing Yelp review and posted a link to it on his Facebook page. He deleted it and blocked me. I had several friends log onto Facebook and post the review and in parentheses a note that said “posted by an FOV. Friend of Vonnie. We are legion!”. After about 10 posts his wife called me begging me to remove the review and promised to send a full refund that day.
I wrote a scathing Yelp review and posted a link to it on his Facebook page. He deleted it and blocked me. I had several friends log onto Facebook and post the review and in parentheses a note that said “posted by an FOV. Friend of Vonnie. We are legion!”. After about 10 posts his wife called me begging me to remove the review and promised to send a full refund that day.
I would like to add......
Performance Builds don't necessarily add reliability/longevity over a stock transmission at stock power levels.
I may be mistaken?.....But I thought the dealer denied warranty on this car in a different thread after throwing a Valve Body at it?
1. Ford is not going to give you any money. Maybe a gift card for their overpriced accessories, that’s about it.
2. What do you mean by “fully built transmission”? If it means built by a third party specialist, no way they’re going to agree to that.
Those aren’t reasonable expectations IMO.
My car sat in the hail, snow,etc since Nov. 19 at the dealer. So after not answering my calls or returning any of my six or seven messages I left I finally drove out and in person tried address management there I did find one manager spoke with him. He never apologize for not returning my phone calls. The only thing he said was that they fired my service writer. So I asked why didn’t somebody go through his paperwork and listen to his phone messages so that they could help his customers, he had no answer! The Service Manager and my new Service writer said that Ford agreed to rebuild my 10R80 automatic transmission under warranty. Yes, they in the first week or two tried putting a new throttlebody on it and said that that did not fix it that there his internal transmission damage. So then after 2 1/2 months or so I said Ford changed their minds and said they were gonna put a full new transmission in instead of rebuilding it with known faulty parts.
On February 10 2025 I got a call from the dealer at 17:19 saying my car was done and for me to come pick it up by 19:00. I was happy, but at the same time salt and sand was all over the streets and more snow and ice was coming. I did not want to drive my car in the car, eating salt or drive it on the cold roads with the summer high-performance tires.
But at the same time, the weather was only gonna get worse so I figured I better try to hustle out there in rush-hour traffic and see if I could pick it up and drive it home.
On the way home, there was a very strong burning smell. I don’t know if it was at first the brakes or clutches in the transmission or what? My buddy followed me home and he said even in his vehicle he could smell a strong burning smell.
I’m hoping it was just careless fluids spilled on the engine and or transmission that were burning off. It didn’t seem like the normal oil burning off the engine smell.
So I parked my car outside instead of in the garage since it has salt all over it, and the worst thing you can do is park your car in a garage because then due to the warmth, the corrosion really starts on your car. So it’s been sitting out covered in snow Since.
It was hard to tell if the transmission was functioning properly due to the really cold roads, salt sand etc and the high-performance summer tires.
When a new transmission is put in is the STRONG, I guess I would describe it as acrid burning smell normal?
Thank you.
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Techs are not trained to do in depth troubleshooting. The factory computer tells the tech to change a specific module and retest. If the problem isn't solved, the computer tells the tech the replace another module.
I am so bloody gosh darn tired of having to read thread after thread after thread of people losing money by the bucketful because of our INSANE CAFE standards forcing insane technology on our cars that make the engines disassemble themselves and make transmissions into rube goldberg devices.
The test drive to learn the clutch pack volumes should've burnt off any spilled ATF on the exhaust, Might want to take it back & have it checked over.
Or take it to a independent garage to make sure nothing is leaking/touching the exhaust.
Va. Is my state if you where asking me.
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Different scenario. BMW dealer ripped my brake sensor wire doing the rear alignment. Tech denied. To my surprise they said it was like that.
Reported to BBB and their rating went from A+ to C-. Phone rang what can we do. I said reimburse me $12 for the sensor. Director laughed surely we can do more. I wanted to make a point. You broke it. I’m not trying to pull one over. I diy last time and I diy again. It was fcp so they sent me a new one.
Service director again said we’ll do more. So I said replace my water pump ($1200 job). He said we’ll do it and also free oil change. I said ok (but in my mind it’s like sending food back at a restaurant). I never set foot in that dealer again. My point is only the BBB could get them to respond.
Atty general was in the 80s. I put $5000 down on a MR2 and dealer refused to give it back and there was no car. They got my money back in < a week.
Good luck.
Reported to BBB and their rating went from A+ to C-. Phone rang what can we do. I said reimburse me $12 for the sensor. Director laughed surely we can do more. I wanted to make a point. You broke it. I’m not trying to pull one over. I diy last time and I diy again. It was fcp so they sent me a new one.
Service director again said we’ll do more. So I said replace my water pump ($1200 job). He said we’ll do it and also free oil change. I said ok (but in my mind it’s like sending food back at a restaurant). I never set foot in that dealer again. My point is only the BBB could get them to respond.
Atty general was in the 80s. I put $5000 down on a MR2 and dealer refused to give it back and there was no car. They got my money back in < a week.
Good luck.
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