Guidance with Ford Corporate, bad transmission?

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Nospell

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Thanks for the replies. Update from dealer is that the parts are back ordered for a month, so they have requested from Ford a new transmission. I also contacted the Ford Customer Support Line and they seemed willing to help. I'm going to supposedly be connected with the Ford Customer Support Regional Rep.

In the mean time I have sent Ford corporate a certified copy of the note below, which includes some of the ideas mentioned by others above.

Dear Ford Motor Company:
I’m writing this letter to bring to your attention the issues I have with my 2018 Ford Raptor. On June 30th, my transmission spontaneously broke, without notice, leaving me stranded while out of town over the 4th of July weekend. The truck was towed to the nearest dealer where it remains. Their first effort made was to replace to the valve body, but this was not affective and resulted in one week of lost time. After further tear down and transmission removal it was explained to me that a gear in the front section of the transmission was improperly installed by the factory which littered the transmission with debris causing the clutches to slip, overheat, and warp.

According to the dealer, the decision to repair vs replace the transmission as a single unit was made by Ford. As a mechanical engineer, and lawyer, I feel this is the wrong decision. If metal debris was the cause of the clutch failure, and most likely caused the restriction in the valve body, the rest of the contact surfaces and bearings in the transmission were exposed to the same harmful containments. Moreover, having a dealer rebuilt transmission in a nearly brand-new truck is unacceptable. Dealers have a hard time changing oil and brakes without forgetting bolts and following procedure, they are not experienced enough to successfully complete a complicated transmission rebuild without repeat problems.

The most frustrating thing to me is that I have driven Japanese cars my whole life and decided to do the good American thing and buy American. Seeing as FORD is the originator of the American automobile as it’s known today, I went against the warnings of many family and friends and bought a Ford. Now I’m left in a compromised position that many warned me of.

In addition, me and a group of friends are scheduled to go on an Elk hunt in October driving from Texas to Colorado. My truck, the new truck, was the elected means of transportation, but after this incident the group is now leaning towards taking a 2008 (10 year old) Tundra with 175k miles based on reliability. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t set well with me.

The proper way for Ford to handle this issue is for Ford to instruct Maxwell Ford of Austin Tx to replace the damage transmission with a new unit and return me to the road quickly and reliably.

If this issue isn’t resolved expediently I will exercise my full rights under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and Motor Vehicle Warranty Performance Obligation (Texas Lemon Laws).

Please note that at this point in time I remain open minded and Ford can still gain a new loyal customer and brand champion if this matter is given the right level of attention and the right outcome is achieved.
 
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Nospell

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The section about the Tundra is what I lamented about most....I really don't want this to become a Ford vs other topic because I really love the design of the Raptor. When buying the Raptor I was given plenty of nudges towards the Tundra, but I knew that if I bought a Tundra I'd always want for a Raptor....also, I've driven a Land Cruiser for the last 20 years. I've had an 80, 2x 100's, and still have my 200...they run an keep running, but going from the Raptor back into the 200 is hard. I'm 6'4" and have to fold up to get back into the landy plus I'm now addicted to having a truck bed.

My wife has had a BMW x5 and Gwagon and those two cars defined the word lemon....I have a guy that exports US SUVs to Russia and event at that I felt bad turning them over to another poor soul.
 

jaz13

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Ford will probably ignore the letter, but I've seen people get speedy responses from a company's marketing department using social media. Post a link to this thread and the Tundra portion to their facebook and twitter accounts. Even hit up the CEO. Legal and maintenance ignore stuff like this all the time, but the marketing people are really sensitive to these things.
 

smurfslayer

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I mean, if you’re going all official on them, get a picture of the old, hopefully beat up Tundra and ask them via the book of face why you have to take this on your trip instead of your brand new Raptor?

Don’t waste keystrokes on CxO types, they couldn’t care less about reputation hit due to a defect. You’re actually better off finding the right person in the C/S chain for this. I can’t tell you what level you need to be at, but if your story rings the right bells, someone will stop what they’re doing and give your incident their undivided attention, for at least a little while.

I’ve seen this happen more than once, but it is rare.

I hope they’ve got you back underway soon.
 

FINRPTR

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You won’t get a new one. Dealers have a cost cap, meaning if the cost of rebuilding yours reaches a certain limit it will get replaced with a black box unit. These are rebuilt by ford authorized shops. Very good quality, usually. New transmissions go to the factory for production only.
 
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Nospell

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Slow update, but I was out of the country for a while.

After contacting Ford Corp and being assigned a regional rep the parts for the trans showed up in a few days vs the month I was originally told. Within two weeks of dropping the truck off, I got it back.

The dealers story of what happened seemed to change over time. the last story I was given was that a front pump wasn't working right and that caused the clutches to slip and warp. I was given the clutches to inspect. they were very visibly overheated and warped about 1" out of plane. Ford never agreed to replace the trans as I had asked, but when I was shown the clutches I couldn't feel any metallic grit, so I wasn't so worried that this was caused by debris contamination. Even though, I couldn't make heads or tells out of their explanation. sounded like BS to my engineering brain.

once I got the truck back I drove it from Austin to Houston and then took it directly to a mechanic I trust to put it on the rack and have a look. as I feared I could see the trans leaking from several places and I also had engine oil accumulation between the engine and trans leading me to believe they damaged the rear main seal. I cleaned all the oil shows several times and every time they reappeared after a short drive. while I was out of town I dropped the truck off in Galveston where I bought it. when I returned they told me that it never leaked a drop and no repair was needed.....I find that hard to believe, but since then I have probably put another 2k miles on it, with no leaks.

VERY INTERESTING, my truck is way faster than it ever was. It seems that transmission has always been slipping up top, and I always felt like the truck was fairly gutless up top which is very atypical for a turbo motor. I don't believe the pump story by the dealer....If I had to guess, it could have been a factory tuning issue. guys I know who built the early high power CTSVs had a similar tuning issue. the factory tune only applied full hydraulic pressure to the clutches when at WOT, but once heavily modified cars were making similar power at half throttle this was burning clutches until the trans tuning issue was identified. I heard from Whipple that Ford is updating the trans tuning on a monthly basis...bound to be errors. I don't have any mods, but would like to do the Whipple tune once I get some confidence in the truck.

My other ride is a 1600hp (1300RWHP) Supra, so I kind of know turbo cars, and fast turbo cars.

now that my trans is fixed, I can say that the Raptor is fast. Ya, it's not 1600hp fast, but given the high stance, soft suspension, and truck brakes, it still has a certain pucker factor when bearing down on slower traffic.

I was hours away from trading the Raptor in on a new supercharged Tundra, but I just couldn't do it....I really like the Raptor and want to give it another chance....fingers crossed....I'm trying to become an American car guy very badly.

all in all, Ford has done a pretty good job addressing my issues and getting me back on the road as quick as possible. I wouldn't expect much better from any other manufacture out there.
 

Hdscreens

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As of today, I’m singing the transmission blues as well. Hopefully, it’s a quick fix. Shifter was shifting but wouldn’t drive foward and when shifted into park there was a slight grinding noise.
 
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Nospell

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Hope you are back on the road quickly. Looking forward to hearing the diagnosis.

To answer my own original question, I would call the 1800 Ford Customer Service number and open a case with a regional rep who can help push things along. This saved me at least 2 weeks of down time and placed a higher level of attention than just dealing with the dealer alone.
 
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