Strange Trans Behavior - Dealership "can't" duplicate

Have a 2014 SCREW that i bought used at 25k miles with a premium ESP plan. For the last couple years I have had an issue with the truck where:

1. During the hot months of the year, I get a terrible groan between shifts, where the truck feels like its falling on its face and then it grabs the next gear.

2. When the cold months comes, the groan disappears entirely, and then i start getting trans slipping between 4th and 5th. Its not constant, but typically shows up 10-20% throttle coming from a light.

I have been to the dealership on this several times and they "can't" reproduce it.

So I have been tolerating this for the better part of 30k miles. Now, at 57k miles, after driving the truck home 25 miles, I put the truck in park, got the mail, and put it back into drive. As I pull away, it goes from 1st...*rumbling and shifting side to side underneath* and then ends up LOCKED in 5th. No lights, no codes, nothing. Truck is stuck in 5th. I put the truck in P, then D, and now its locked in 1st. Not until I put it in P and shut the truck off, upon restart it shifts fine. It has done that to me twice in the last week.

The truck is now at the dealership again...and guess what...they can't reproduce shit.

I am being told, no codes, no lights are coming up, so they can't do anything. How is that possible? How is something mechanically failing, and yet there is no record of it? Do I have to get stranded on the side of the road before they fix something?

Does anyone have any insight on this? Ugh....

Any recent repairs (or a tune) on the truck or any service records for past trans work/service from the previous owner? If the history is unknown, it might not be a bad idea to get some fresh trans fluid in there and see what the stuff inside of it looks like...

If the shop can't replicate the issue, you could try to record a video (in a parking lot of course LOL) of the problem to help with troubleshooting as well. G'luck !

Sounds like a faulty Lead Frame. Was your truck built late in 2013 as a 14 model? The recall was up to 2013 model VINS, but it would not surprise me if some 14's end up with the issue.

Ford dealer warranty sucks. Its great if something obviously fails, but if it doesn't happen to them in the first 2 minutes of looking at your truck, then they claim nothing is wrong.

Do some google searching on this issue - 6R80 Lead Frame

COBRA90GT said:

Any recent repairs (or a tune) on the truck or any service records for past trans work/service from the previous owner? If the history is unknown, it might not be a bad idea to get some fresh trans fluid in there and see what the stuff inside of it looks like...

If the shop can't replicate the issue, you could try to record a video (in a parking lot of course LOL) of the problem to help with troubleshooting as well. G'luck !

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I do not have any specific details on work performed on the truck prior to getting it. The carfax did not elude to anything that stood out. I spent years looking for the right truck with the right paperwork, and everything looked good on this one. I asked the same question of the dealership to check if there was any tune modification that would have 'blanked' out certain lights, and they said 'that would have come up on our search'. I will wait to hear their final determination today, and depending on cost of everything so far I will probably have them flush the trans, see if that improves it.

Canuck714 said:

Sounds like a faulty Lead Frame. Was your truck built early in 2013 as a 14 model? The recall was up to 2013 model VINS, but it would not surprise me if some 14's end up with the issue.

Ford dealer warranty sucks. Its great if something obviously fails, but if it doesn't happen to them in the first 2 minutes of looking at your truck, then they claim nothing is wrong.

Do some google searching on this issue - 6R80 Lead Frame

Click to expand...

My truck is a 2014 build, and when I checked the recall site, it doesn't list my VIN there. And yeah, I have been chasing trans issues for the better part of 20k miles, and they won't work on me to just swap the trans and put all the problems to rest.

My only concern is that if it is the lead frame, and it fails with the 'default to 1st gear' problem, with our daughter in the truck, it won't be pretty.

Just buy the lead frame and swap it out yourself, it's not that hard.

EricM said:

Just buy the lead frame and swap it out yourself, it's not that hard.

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Is there a DYI anywhere? While I'm somewhat mechanically inclined, I'm not THAT great. Furthermore, this is my DD during the winter months, so it would have to be something I won't run into any road blocks along the way.

If you can turn a wrench, you can replace the lead frame.

Try and make friends at the Ford dealer and ask if they can reflash it just to make sure everything is good. play stupid and they might help you.

I have a 13 SCREW. At about 80k and 20k worth of "hmm, that's a weird shift" that were all unrepeatable for diagnosis, it was finally diagnosed as a lead wire that had vibrated through the housing and was sporadically shorting out on the frame causing transmission shifts. The problem culminated in a really bad one that was from 5th to 1st at about 45mph. Changed my shorts after that and had to drop the transmission pan to get to it. Fixed and noticably different after 30k Mike since.

Canuck714 said:

Try and make friends at the Ford dealer and ask if they can reflash it just to make sure everything is good. play stupid and they might help you.

Click to expand...

I asked for exactly that and got no where. This dealership usually takes good care of me, but with this trans its been a little bit of a struggle. So I hope for the best.