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Replaced ECVT With Salvage Unit

stratosurfer

By stratosurfer,
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stratosurfer

stratosurfer

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Posted (edited)

All,

I just finished my Remove and Replace of my HF35 ECVT on my 2013 SEL C-Max Hybrid and will firstly report the effort appears successful on all parameters. I want to thank Snowstorm for his extensive posting of his journey to accomplish the same thing. Many things I mention are things I learned from Snowstorm's thread on his R&R, so please read his thread also.

My C-Max Hybrid SEL is 2013 now with 126,300 miles on the clock. I will break down this event in a few different aspects:

1) SOURCING A SALVAGE ECVT

I followed Snowstorms links to a site that show the actual donor vehicle pictures that you can have an idea what type of accident totalled the vehicle. You will have to read Snowstorms thread to find it, but it is critical that the vendor you buy from can provide with full authority the VIN of the donor vehicle. The ecvt was still in the donor vehicle when I bought/reserved it. I would be wary of buying a transmission with a picture of it on a shelf as those are stock photos and you must have the VIN or the donor car.

I chose to buy a 2016 vehicles ecvt as the TSB on the early hybrid drives seems to run into early 2015, the vehicle has 22K miles when rear-ended and totalled. I’m adding this point later, I recall it was from a Fusion.

Once you think you have a match, the Plug In ecvts are different, so you must be Hybrid to Hybrid, and Plug-In to Plug-In, then you get the VIN on the donor car and call your Ford Dealer and ask them to order a new transmission for both vehicles, your C-Max and the Donor vehicle. If the parts counter comes back with the same part number for both, then you can use the tranny out of the donor. This sounds strange, but the salvage sites software will -not- work like this, they will want your vin and will tell you that the 2016 unit will not fit, their software would want to sell you one of the defective designs of year models 2013 through 2014 and going into 2015. Like kind for Like Kind. So to trick the system into getting the upgraded and new design HF35 ecvt you must follow this method. I paid $1,600 shipped from their yard in WA state to the shop doing the work in League City Texas.

2) LABOR

This topic I found interesting. I found out quickly that Ford Dealership Service Departments can swap in salvage units if they desire. My local dealer did not desire and instead quoted me 7-8K for a new one put in. The dealer who sold me the car is small and never had a tech certified in high voltage so they could not do the swap, yet there were willing to swap in a salvage unit. So I began a rather extensive search to find a Ford Dealer, or anyone who would do this swap. Here's what I found:

1) Ford Dealer near one of my businesses in League City TX area: $2,400 labor.

2) Ford Dealer Abilene TX: $2,300 labor and 130 miles away.

3) Local and trusted transmission shop in San Angelo: $1,960 Labor

4) Local Ford Dealer in San Angelo: $1,960 Labor, requiring new HF 35 Ecvt at $5,000 plus 'Incidentals'

5) Transmission Shop in San Antonio claiming expertise in Hybrid Drivetrains, The manager said they maintain a fleet of C-Max hybrid taxis: $2,000.

5) What I settled on was a Transmission Shop in League City Texas, the town I grew up in and have a business I work once per month but 420 miles from where I live in San Angelo: $1,000 labor.

I also have a friend in this town that has a family auto mechanics shop there for nearly 40 years and asked him if this transmission shop would be OK to do this R&R, he said yes. He had another shop he would have recommended if an actual transmission rebuild was in order (which I contacted in person and they never got back to me), but for an R&R job Snider's in League City would be fine.

My takeaway is that this job is not that big of a deal for a transmission shop. They must have done a hybrid drive before and be comfortable with a tech who understands High Voltage and how to disable the battery, but outside of that, this job is apparently nothing special.

3) Timeframe

My ecvt was growling louder and louder on REGEN and EV Mode and loud in ICE Mode, but I drove about 4 months after recognizing I need to do the swap, I did change the Mercon LV and it was not discolored, but that was at the beginning of the 4 months I'm discussing, and the unit was getting progressively louder. All this well after 100,000 miles, if yours is making -any- noise and is under 100K miles, take it to the dealer and make them fix it under warranty. OTW, if you are after 100K and on your dime, then these ecvts don't seem to fail catastrophically.

 

I had Snider Transmission in League City TX do the swap, I left it with them Monday morning 03JUN19 about 9AM, they had received the HF35 about 10 days earlier along with 6 qts of Amsoil Signature ATF for the HF 35 which had also been received. I picked up the C-Max Thursday about noon 06JUN19 and all has been well since. When I was paying she offered me $100 off for a good Google Recommendation, I agreed, so my total labor was $900.00 USD's.

 

So all in I bought an ecvt with 22K miles from a rear ended Fusion that I saw the pics of for $1,600 shipped inc TTL. I paid the shop I found $900 and about $100 for the Amsoil ATF. I did rent a car for 4 days for $140 which you could put in my math or not, my travel back and forth from San Angelo TX to League City TX is a monthly business expense for me that I cannot avoid. So $2,600 and I'm running great, drove the C-Max around the Houston Galveston area and then drove the 420 miles home yesterday: wonderful. I had my BlueDrive OBD2 Scanner pulling data to my iphone as I drove and all parameters, temp, %power, etc were nominal.

 

So my takeaway from all this is the early C-Max's affected by the TSB on the early HF35's are worth R&Ring the hybrid drive with a salvage unit if you are willing to search out a shop that will do it well and affordably. The variation on labor costs as I showed was wide. I don't know this for sure, but it seems possible that the transmission repair industry realize the hybrid drive is the future, and that the longer they wait in learning these units, the further behind they get. The shop I chose had done a number of Priuses before and seemed eager to do this R&R at a relatively great price. 

 

Thanks to Snowstorm to saving me some time and heading me to saving my C-Max, hopefully this info can help someone else.

Edited by stratosurfer
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  • 4 weeks later...
jorey

jorey

Posted
Posted

All,

I just finished my Remove and Replace of my HF35 ECVT on my 2013 SEL C-Max Hybrid and will firstly report the effort appears successful on all parameters. I want to thank Snowstorm for his extensive posting of his journey to accomplish the same thing. Many things I mention are things I learned from Snowstorm's thread on his R&R, so please read his thread also.

My C-Max Hybrid SEL is 2013 now with 126,300 miles on the clock. I will break down this event in a few different aspects:

1) SOURCING A SALVAGE ECVT

I followed Snowstorms links to a site that show the actual donor vehicle pictures that you can have an idea what type of accident totalled the vehicle. You will have to read Snowstorms thread to find it, but it is critical that the vendor you buy from can provide with full authority the VIN of the donor vehicle. The ecvt was still in the donor vehicle when I bought/reserved it. I would be wary of buying a transmission with a picture of it on a shelf as those are stock photos and you must have the VIN or the donor car.

I chose to buy a 2016 vehicles ecvt as the TSB on the early hybrid drives seems to run into early 2015, the vehicle has 22K miles when rear-ended and totalled.

Once you think you have a match, the Plug In ecvts are different, so you must be Hybrid to Hybrid, and Plug-In to Plug-In, then you get the VIN on the donor car and call your Ford Dealer and ask them to order a new transmission for both vehicles, your C-Max and the Donor vehicle. If the parts counter comes back with the same part number for both, then you can use the tranny out of the donor. This sounds strange, but the salvage sites software will -not- work like this, they will want your vin and will tell you that the 2016 unit will not fit, their software would want to sell you one of the defective designs of year models 2013 through 2014 and going into 2015. Like kind for Like Kind. So to trick the system into getting the upgraded and new design HF35 ecvt you must follow this method. I paid $1,600 shipped from their yard in WA state to the shop doing the work in League City Texas.

 

 

I hope you guys don't mind me posting here. I have a 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid with 105k and the transmission blew up. I am able to change the transmission my self. But, don't want to put in the same old defective design. Based on my research 2015-2016 cars have transmission  FG9Z-7000-C, but i just like to verify that that's the transmission model you put in your car. Could you send me the vin of the donor car to verify? 

 

FG9Z-7000-N is the latest revision and I know it fits my car and these are the various revisions ford has made :

 

Replaces: DM5Z-7000-C, DM5Z-7000-E, DM5Z-7000-K, DM5Z-7000-L, FG9Z-7000-C 

 

However, it seems like 2017 and above fords use a different type of transmission all together. 

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stratosurfer

stratosurfer

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On 9/15/2019 at 5:22 PM, jorey said:

I hope you guys don't mind me posting here. I have a 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid with 105k and the transmission blew up. I am able to change the transmission my self. But, don't want to put in the same old defective design. Based on my research 2015-2016 cars have transmission  FG9Z-7000-C, but i just like to verify that that's the transmission model you put in your car. Could you send me the vin of the donor car to verify? 

 

FG9Z-7000-N is the latest revision and I know it fits my car and these are the various revisions ford has made :

 

Replaces: DM5Z-7000-C, DM5Z-7000-E, DM5Z-7000-K, DM5Z-7000-L, FG9Z-7000-C 

 

However, it seems like 2017 and above fords use a different type of transmission all together. 

I don’t really understand your question. If you use the precise methodology I outlined in my purchase and R&R you will be good to go. Don’t think Fusion or C-Max, it is immaterial. The unit in my C-Max was pulled from a 2016 Fusion Hybrid and has been humming like a sewing machine for over 12,000 miles now.

Edited by stratosurfer
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dm.rusakov

dm.rusakov

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Posted
Thank you very much!

Please tell me what transmission number the dealer picked up for you, my dealer, unfortunately, refuses to tell me the part number so that I order a new one from him.

I checked through the site oemfordpart com, the part numbers for my and donor's car are the same FG9Z-7000-N. 

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stratosurfer

stratosurfer

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Thank you very much!
Please tell me what transmission number the dealer picked up for you, my dealer, unfortunately, refuses to tell me the part number so that I order a new one from him.
I checked through the site oemfordpart com, the part numbers for my and donor's car are the same FG9Z-7000-N. 

 

You need to call another dealer. You need a hybrid drive out of a 2016 or later Fusion or C-Max hybrid that ARE NOT PLUG IN Models. I’ll look for my paperwork.

Edited by stratosurfer
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dm.rusakov

dm.rusakov

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Hey I'm in the same situation. 

 

I'm having a really hard time finding a shop that will do the repair using the salvage transmission. 

 

The main supplier for these looks like LKQonline. I see a few on ebay for around $1500. 

 

Hi, I had a similar situation. As a result: $ 1,500 per box + delivery (bought for auto parts) and $ 1,000 for a replacement.
How to finish replacing the transmission, I will describe it in more detail.
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dm.rusakov

dm.rusakov

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Hello! And many thanks to stratosurfer for his detailed description. I did everything according to your instructions and now my new transmission works well on my car!

 

I had a lot of experience in selling car parts for BMW cars and I found out additional details and maybe they will help you.

 

1) Diagnosis of the problem: When the car brakes when the battery charge is turned on, the sound of metal friction is heard from the engine compartment, as from a damaged bearing in which there is no oil. Then I opened the hood (with the engine running), I heard the sound of metal friction in the transmission area (the right side of the engine compartment when you are not looking at it). When I showed this to an experienced mechanic, he immediately said that there was a problem with the transmission. The mechanic wanted to order a transmission from a 2013 car, but as I know from this forum this is a bad idea. And I decided to figure it out myself.

 

2) On the website www.oemfordpart.com I determined that the version of my transmission is part number FG9Z-7000-N. We go to www.oemfordpart.com -> Search by VIN # -> enter your VIN-> Automatic Transmission -> Automatic Transmission -> We look at the part number under number 1, for me it was FG9Z-7000-N.

 

2.1) On the website www.oemfordpart.com, I found out that these transmissions were placed on the following cars:

2018 Ford C-Max (Hybrid SE, Hybrid Titanium - 2.0L L4 - Electric/Gas)

2017 Ford C-Max (Hybrid SE, Hybrid Titanium - 2.0L L4 - Electric/Gas)

2016 Ford C-Max (Hybrid SE, Hybrid SEL - 2.0L L4 - Electric/Gas)

2015 Ford C-Max (Hybrid SE, Hybrid SEL - 2.0L L4 - Electric/Gas)

2014 Ford C-Max (Hybrid SE, Hybrid SEL - 2.0L L4 - Electric/Gas)

2013 Ford C-Max (Hybrid SE, Hybrid SEL - 2.0L L4 - Electric/Gas)

2016 Ford Fusion (S, S Hybrid, SE, SE Hybrid, Titanium, Titanium Hybrid - 1.5L L4 - Gas, 2.0L L4 - Electric/Gas, 2.0L L4 - Gas, 2.5L L4 – Gas)

2015 Ford Fusion (S, S Hybrid, SE, SE Hybrid, Titanium, Titanium Hybrid - 1.5L L4 - Gas, 2.0L L4 - Electric/Gas, 2.0L L4 - Gas, 2.5L L4 – Gas)

2014 Ford Fusion (S, S Hybrid, SE, SE Hybrid, Titanium, Titanium Hybrid - 1.5L L4 - Gas, 1.6L L4 - Gas, 2.0L L4 - Electric/Gas, 2.0L L4 - Gas, 2.5L L4 – Gas)

2013 Ford Fusion (S, SE, SE Hybrid, Titanium, Titanium Hybrid - 1.6L L4 - Gas, 2.0L L4 - Electric/Gas, 2.0L L4 - Gas, 2.5L L4 – Gas)

 

3) I used this link http://www.car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?userSearch=int&userPID=1000&userLocation=All+States&userIMS=&userInterchange=B%3F%3EB&userSide=&userDate=2016&userDate2=2016&dbModel=27.51.1.1&userModel=Ford%20C-Max&dbPart=400.1&userPart=Transmission&sessionID=12000000101207983&userPreference=miles&userZip=24401&userLat=38.1221000&userLong=-79.0825000&userIntSelect=384837&userUID=0&userBroker=&userPage=1&iKey=

 (which I found on this forum) for the transmission. There I find a car of 2018, with damage to the rear of the car. Checked by VIN (similar to paragraph 2), it was identical (FG9Z-7000-N).

 

4) I went to my mechanic, he checked and said that I found a suitable transmission and everything should work!

 

5) He ordered a transmission, it cost me $ 1,500 with delivery to New York

 

6) Installation work for me cost $ 1,700, including additional parts and oil change in the transmission. (the cost of the work is very high, due to the fact that I carried out work in New York, as I think the normal price is about $ 1000 - $ 1500)

 

PS: The problem was that the transmission had a low oil level and this destroyed the bearings and made a hole in the transmission housing. Buy yourself one can of gear oil and top up with every maintenance (lots of videos on how to do this on the You Tube)

 

PS2: I apologize for my poor English, I recently moved to the USA, I hope I wrote everything clearly. And I will try to track this forum, if there are questions, I will try to answer.

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SnowStorm

SnowStorm

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Your write-up is excellent - thanks for sharing the details and glad you car is running again!  Yours is only the second one (to mine) that I have heard of where a hole was worn through the side.  The transfer shaft fails and is allowed to shift sideways which wears the hole.  At that point oil comes out.  I believe the bad shaft caused the hole and loss of oil, not the other way around.

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dm.rusakov

dm.rusakov

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Your write-up is excellent - thanks for sharing the details and glad you car is running again!  Yours is only the second one (to mine) that I have heard of where a hole was worn through the side.  The transfer shaft fails and is allowed to shift sideways which wears the hole.  At that point oil comes out.  I believe the bad shaft caused the hole and loss of oil, not the other way around.

 

The hole in my transmission was exactly the same as in the photographs you took. My mechanic said that he sees this for the first time =). I think you're right, I will try to track the oil level, according to the results I will write here. Thank you very much for your posts on the forum, they also helped me a lot!

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  • 2 months later...
plus 3 golfer

plus 3 golfer

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Although the Energis are not specifically listed, the parts list shows a transfer shaft kit for both Hybrid and Energis (different gear ratios). AIso, the thread that lists owner's transmission failures has both listed.  I believe the issue is in both.  

 

One will likely want to install the latest transmission strategy to the TCM.  So, the installation program requires the info from the tag on transmission (strategy number and ID number) to be entered so that the latest program is installed.  Your guess is as good as mine if one installs a brand new transmission into a 2013 MY or a 2014 used transmission into a 2016 MY car without the "correct" strategy - probably nothing significant.

 

Edited by Plus 3 Golfer
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