hard transmission shift

[kathiannw]

Hi - I'm new to this site & was hoping someone could help. We purchased a 2008 Ford Edge SEL FWD new in February 2008 (loyal Ford owners - also own a 1997 Expedition, 2006 Mustang GT & my daughter's 1997 Mustang). The car has been shifting hard occasionally at low speeds (car has 56,000 miles on it) since new. I just thought it was the way it shifted but yesterday on our way home from a 100 miles trip all the sudden the air bag light & the check engine light came on & the display said "no odometer available" . The car was running fine but when we stopped at the traffic light & went to proceed, the car would not move - it was like it was in neutral then all the sudden the transmission engaged with a loud clunk & the car moved & all the lights went out & everything worked fine after that. I tried calling the dealer but they told me that it wouldn't be covered under warranty. Has anyone else experienced something similiar? I love my Edge & haven't really had any other problems but this is scary! Thanks

[bbf2530]

Hi - I'm new to this site & was hoping someone could help. We purchased a 2008 Ford Edge SEL FWD new in February 2008 (loyal Ford owners - also own a 1997 Expedition, 2006 Mustang GT & my daughter's 1997 Mustang). The car has been shifting hard occasionally at low speeds (car has 56,000 miles on it) since new. I just thought it was the way it shifted but yesterday on our way home from a 100 miles trip all the sudden the air bag light & the check engine light came on & the display said "no odometer available" . The car was running fine but when we stopped at the traffic light & went to proceed, the car would not move - it was like it was in neutral then all the sudden the transmission engaged with a loud clunk & the car moved & all the lights went out & everything worked fine after that. I tried calling the dealer but they told me that it wouldn't be covered under warranty. Has anyone else experienced something similiar? I love my Edge & haven't really had any other problems but this is scary! Thanks

 

Hi Kathiann. :D Almost impossible to diagnose a problem like this over the Internet.

 

However, you state you have a 2008 model. That means you have a 5 year/60,000 mile Powertrain Warranty on your vehicle. Therefore, if you only have 56,000 miles, I have no idea why your "Dealer" told you the issue would not be covered under Warranty. Most engine and transmission issues would certainly be covered under the Powertrain Warranty.

 

You need to bring your Edge in and inform your "Dealer" that you are aware your vehicle has a 5 year/60,000 mile Powertrain Warranty, have them diagnosis the cause of the issue and then determine the Warranty coverage.

 

Keep us updated.

 

Good luck. :beerchug:

[kathiannw]

Hi - that's what I tried to tell them but they told me that it sounded like an electrical problem or a module that would not be covered under the powertrain warranty & they wanted a $144 just to diagnose - unfortunately they moved the service manager that I know over to the Subaru dealership. My concern is that I am getting close to the warranty expiration & don't want this to happen again after the warranty. Any one know if the tsb 7-5-2 would have anything to do with this? I'm going to try to call the dealership again today. Thanks again for your help!

[mcr67]

Yes. My 2008 Ford Edge, which has about 54k miles on it has had random very hard shifts... usually under light acceleration. It is at the dealer right now as they are trying to diagnose this issue.

 

For me, I have noticed a few key indicators... 1. When I begin my morning commute under light acceleration at ~40mph i can hear a whinning noise coming from what I believe is the transmission. After driving it for a bit, I dont hear it, then when I stop (like at a drive through) and then take off under normal or light acceleration, i have had it shift very hard, so hard it felt like I was rear ended. But it doesn't happen all the time, its actually very infrequent.

 

When I took it in the first time to have them look at it, they said the shift points needed to be adjusted per a tech bulletin. They did that and it seemed to drive home fine. Then the next day I heard the same noise coming from the transmission, and had a few more random hard shifts before I decided to take it back to another dealer to see if they could fix it. Unfortunately, the problem is so random, when I took it for a test drive with the dealer it performed fine, so they are probably thinking that I have nothing better to do but bug them with some trivial or imagined problem.

 

One other similar issue that I noticed which led me to think something was wrong with the tranny was that I had an instance when I was driving it at freeway speeds (65mph), it seemed as if the car was slightly "lunging" and the speedometer was bouncing between 60-70 mph... That was on a long drive though (had been driving the car for about 1.5hours on the freeway).

[marvinj31]

Hi - I'm new to this site & was hoping someone could help. We purchased a 2008 Ford Edge SEL FWD new in February 2008 (loyal Ford owners - also own a 1997 Expedition, 2006 Mustang GT & my daughter's 1997 Mustang). The car has been shifting hard occasionally at low speeds (car has 56,000 miles on it) since new. I just thought it was the way it shifted but yesterday on our way home from a 100 miles trip all the sudden the air bag light & the check engine light came on & the display said "no odometer available" . The car was running fine but when we stopped at the traffic light & went to proceed, the car would not move - it was like it was in neutral then all the sudden the transmission engaged with a loud clunk & the car moved & all the lights went out & everything worked fine after that. I tried calling the dealer but they told me that it wouldn't be covered under warranty. Has anyone else experienced something similiar? I love my Edge & haven't really had any other problems but this is scary! Thanks

[vengeance1]

We had the same problem with our 2008 edge limited. We had a 2007 edge no problems what so ever. Been to the dealer 3 times and they said the can't find anything wrong with it of course.Every now and them when you drive it hard like getting off the interstate when you take off again we feel a hard jerk in the transmission. Great car but this has soured our experience with Ford.

[Blackcoog]

Anyone ever get their dealer to fix this shifting issue? My wife's car is at the dealer now getting this looked at. I don't believe they will do anything unless they actually witness the hard shift. There is little to no chance that will happen and our warranty will probably be up in the next few months. Ours seems to do it when coming off of a coast and getting on to the gas lightly. It does it maybe once or twice a week.

 

We have a 2008 MKX AWD.

Edited January 25, 2011 by Blackcoog

[ablb]

Anyone ever get their dealer to fix this shifting issue? My wife's car is at the dealer now getting this looked at. I don't believe they will do anything unless they actually witness the hard shift. There is little to no chance that will happen and our warranty will probably be up in the next few months. Ours seems to do it when coming off of a coast and getting on to the gas lightly. It does it maybe once or twice a week.

 

We have a 2008 MKX AWD.

We told our dealer, as he was happily taking our $’s for the extended warranty.

“By the way the transmission is still shifting hard at times, SO it’s still your transmission for the next 50K.”

 

He didn’t act like it bothered him much; they’ll just bill Ford if/when it breaks.

 

I do sympathize with them, “If it AIN’T broke (at times) you can’t fix it."

 

ab

[Chucker]

My '08 Edge Limited AWD does shift with a bang sometimes. I've narrowed it down to when it's cold, and I pull ahead slowly, let off the gas, and then give it some gas, like entering an intersection to make a left, pausing and then accelerating. It has probably done it 20 times in 90,000 kms. Of course, it won't do it for the dealer. I'm just hoping it is a quirk, and not something serious. It's never gotten worse or increased in frequency, so fingers crossed....

[JOEHIO]

We had the same problem with my wife's 09 MKS. Turns out, thet had to replace trans sensors, now all is well. When it did bang into gear, it felt as if we were jsut rear ended.

Here is a list of replaced sensors:

AA5Z-7M101-B SENSOR 538-295

7T4Z-7B210-A PIN - R 231298

AA5Z-7H103-A SENSOR 479975

9E9Z-7H557-B SENSOR 446858

I realize that this is for a MKS, not a Edge oe MKX, but if you pass this info on to service, it might give them a heads up.

Hope it helps.

Joe

[hlgruber]

I have a 2008 Edge SEL AWD was bought used at a Ford dealer. From the day we bought it we were having tranny problems. We are having problems at 10 and 30 mph when it shifts to a higher gear. A Ford tech. drove it one time that it was in for this problem and it did it many times for him. The dealership contacted Ford and was told they are aware of the problem with no fix. Every time we take it for service we have them document on our paperwork that it is still an issue.

[LCEdge]

I recently had this issue over the weekend. I have a 2008 Ford Edge that we bought Certified Pre-Owned. It has about 45K miles. I stopped at a 4 way stop. A wrench appeared on the dashboard and the screen read ODO error with dashes. I could not go. It was as if my car was stuck in neutral. Even after turning the car off and on several times it did not remedy the problem. It also was shifting hard from Park to Drive, etc. I ended up having the car towed as it was not driveable. The dealer just called me to tell me that IT IS covered under the power trane warranty. It was two electronic sensors that had gone out and needed replacing. Hope this helps!

[Wesley]

Our 2008 Edge Limited has this very hard 1-2 upsift at very light throttle and fits exactly the same conditions as described. If I am pulling from a stop at very slow speeds and low throttle opening, it feels like I was bumped from behind. In my old racing days, I would say the transmission has a manual shift kit installed or if my foot slipped off the clutch pedal.

 

A little more throttle opening cures the harsh shift but is not appropriate for all driving conditions.

[Wesley]

An update to my above post:

 

I had the transmission sensors replaced due to the wrench light and no shifting. My above mentioned problem existed prior to the transmission repair, but only occasionally, maybe once or twice a month, never predictable.

 

However, as I rack up the miles (now at 155,000), the problem surfaces almost daily. The problem almost always occurs at slow speed parking lot driving, or while driving slowly in heavy traffic. It is ALWAYS in the 1 to 2 shift, never in other gears. If I am at highway speeds and brake heavily, then accelerate to speed, and if it dropped to 2nd gear, the downshift is harsh, way to harsh to be normal. Increased throttle pressure seems to improve the shift feel while gentle pressure makes it much worse. If anyone wants a comparison, its like driving over a 2X4 at 5 mph or being hit from behind at the same speed.

 

I did a search on this and other forums and I once found a valve-body mod to resolve this problem. For some reason, I cant find it again. The dealer wants big bucks to try and fix but I dont want to create other problems. My engineering mind tells me that a shuttle valve in the trans is either stuck or if it had a spring, the spring is either broken or missing. In my old racing days, again, it feels like it has a manual shift valve body.

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

The valve body fix I have seen has been on the 6F55 trans, not the 6F50. Might still apply though.

http://www.revbase.com/BBBMotor/TSb/DownloadPdf?id=176597

[omar302]

The valve body fix I have seen has been on the 6F55 trans, not the 6F50. Might still apply though.

http://www.revbase.com/BBBMotor/TSb/DownloadPdf?id=176597

The TSB does list both 6F55 & 6F50. But it is only for those built between May 4, 2009 and April 15, 2015.

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

Yeah, Mercon LV based transmissions ...

[Wesley]

Not sure why Mercon has any effect on the trans unless it is specific to the design. My 08 Edge doesnt use Mercon so I am very wary about doing this TSB. I have a few contacts with the Automatic Transmission Rebuilders Association, so I might run this question through their experts and get their input. This problem cant be that unusual.

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

Whaaa ...? Your 2008, like my 2007, uses Mercon V for trans fluid. But yeah, it is unclear to me what has changed other than fuel economy stuff as far as the trans is concerned. Since these transmissions are heavily dependent on electronic controls, it's very possible that the programming plays a role in this as well. Let's see what ATRA experts have to say ...

Edited August 12, 2016 by WWWPerfA_ZN0W

[akirby]

I'm guessing it's a different version of the tranny and Mercon LV is the simplest way to identify that version.

[Wesley]

Well, I guess I have to first own up to a mistake. My 08 Edge does indeed use Mercon. I have no idea why I had it in my thick head it didnt. The tech expert at ATRA was a great help. I guess it helped that I used to be a member, but MANY years ago.

 

He said my problem was most likely in two areas:

• Programming with the adaptive learn;
• Too much clutch pack clearance.

 

I can see either problem applicable in my case. The issue occurs sporadically, BUT, thinking back, speed was certainly a common factor. If the clutches are worn or there is too much clearance, the oil film doesnt have a chance to wick between the clutch plates when they are disengaged, it simply slings off. The clearance (about .035") is there for a reason. My Edge has 155,000 miles, mostly trouble-free. I'm keeping a cautious eye on shift quality now and checking the fluid color almost daily. Any darkening or bad smell indicates clutch flaking. I changed the oil at around 125,000, just because I felt it was time.

[Pitbull04_22]

Just bought mine used with 59,500 in January. First 6 months everything was good. Now last 2 months had this hard shift into reverse and 2 times it just seemed you had to mash pedal to get it to move. Then i turned it off and stsrted it back up, everything was fine.

I did the typical things like ad transmission fluid and talk to a few mechanics.

Now I am suspecting it's computer software upgrade, maybe a shift linkage problem or a sensor ....any ideas?

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

Very possibly a TSS/OSS sensor issue. Always replace in pairs.