How widespread is the eCVT failure?

[Nervous but Excited]

On 1/14/2020 at 10:41 PM, plus 3 golfer said:

“Some 2013-2016 Fusion, MKZ and C-Max vehicles equipped with an HF35 transmission and built on or before 15-Aug-2015 may exhibit a thumping/rubbing or grinding noise coming from the transmission.” 

 

Am I right in understanding that many 2016 model year C-Maxes will have build dates in 2015 - and therefore be vulnerable to this issue?

Very frustrating little problem if you're trying to buy a second hand car!

[homestead]

The car build date is on the sticker inside the driver door.

[Austens39]

Our 2014 C-Max Transmission has gone bad at 127000 miles. We have taken this vehicle to be serviced at a ford Dealership since we bought it in 2018 with 70000 miles. The factory warranty was good until 100k miles (raised by Ford after the transmission issues came to light) and the extended warranty we purchased on the powertrain until 121000. Unlike Paul who commented above, we did not receive a replacement under warranty and are now looking at $13,000 transmission replacement on a vehicle barely worth $6000 and 7000 miles over warranty. 

Not buying another vehicle from these con artists. 

[jzchen]

I’m honestly not sure how you can blame Ford for not covering the transmission above the agreed on 121k mi though.

 

$13k seems steep IMHO for transmission replacement…

[homestead]

Agree with jzchen, Get some more quotes on the new transmission.  

Good luck!

[ptjones]

On 11/17/2022 at 3:56 PM, Austens39 said:

Our 2014 C-Max Transmission has gone bad at 127000 miles. We have taken this vehicle to be serviced at a ford Dealership since we bought it in 2018 with 70000 miles. The factory warranty was good until 100k miles (raised by Ford after the transmission issues came to light) and the extended warranty we purchased on the powertrain until 121000. Unlike Paul who commented above, we did not receive a replacement under warranty and are now looking at $13,000 transmission replacement on a vehicle barely worth $6000 and 7000 miles over warranty. 

Not buying another vehicle from these con artists. 

I don't think they are con artist, It is unfortunate your trans went out and I think you should be able to it done for under 6k if you search around. I got 174k mi out of my second trans before I traded it in.

 

Paul

[C-MaxA2]

Yes, you can own a '2016' that was built in 2015.  That was the case with my '2016' (I didn't know you could easily check the build date on the inside of the driver's door hinge then).

 

Fortunately, the important date is Aug. 15, 2015 ) 'on or before Aug. 15, 2015' means risk of transmission failure.  Our '2016 was built in Oct. of 2015 so it's 'safe'. 

[nogoodbum]

A few questions for those here with knowledge. After a good bit of research, the majority of the trans problems point to high heat as a big factor in the failures. Ford has a history of problems with press-on fittings [[bearings, gears] in the past mainly involving camshaft] in high temp situations. Fittings would heat up, expand, & loosen, resulting in damage. As a preventative measure could I add another trans cooler to the system? Could there be any problems with fluid being too cool for proper operation? What lines coming off trans are inlet or outlet? 2013SEL, fluid changed at 100k [fluid was only about 10% darker than new at the time], very rarely drive at high speed [above 65mph]. traffic jams are limited to mainly behind a school bus once or twice a week, I usually don't turn A/C on, prefer open windows. THANKS for the read & any responses.

[SnowStorm]

On 12/4/2022 at 6:25 AM, nogoodbum said:

Ford has a history of problems with press-on fittings [[bearings, gears] in the past

Interesting, as that appears to be the problem with the early transmissions with transfer shaft failures.  Mine failed, I tore down the old tranny and what appeared to be a pressed on ring had slipped which then allowed the shaft to move sideways causing the problems.  My 'pet' theory was that a software glitch caused a severe jolt after a long down hill run using engine braking and that jolt drove the ring out of place.  (It was quite an awful noise when it happened.)  Or, it was a design or manufacturing problem.  I suppose any of these could be aggravated by too much heat but I would doubt that heat is the root problem - if at all.  I think there are a number of posts where folks have tracked transmission temps under various conditions.  You can certainly get the data with Forscan.  For me, I'll never use engine braking again!

[nogoodbum]

My apology for not detailing Ford's past history on bearing/gear failures. Most of which either predate majority of posters or involved low volume models that few had dealings with. In the early/mid 1980s Ford produced a 2.3L inline 4 that was prone to cam failure/breakage. Cam would break in half in high heat/rev situations. Since the engine was a non-interference motor, very little damaged resulted except to the cam itself in the majority of cases, & the fix was just a relatively easy fix by replacing cam. Ford PR did a great job on the problem pointing to replacing the cam [past & future production] with a "new" hardened steel version. They did not point out that 99% of the cams failed at the center cam bearing point. Ford had an issue in the 1990s with the low volume SHO motors that had  a press-on cam gear that would slip & spin resulting in blowing up the motor. Again most failures came in high heat situations. Fix was a preventative of tack welding the cam gear in place before failure, but if welds weren't correctly done , they would fail in high heat. Based on my very limited [& I mean very, very] on-line research a lot of CVT failures, [not just Ford but industry wide] have happened in high heat/revs spots. As of today I don't have any CVT issues [2013 120k] & would like to keep it that way for the life of the car. As a cheap,[$100-$150] measure to hopefully extend the life of the CVT,  I was looking to add a cooler to the trans & would like to hear of any drawbacks & advice for & or against. Thanks for the read & I hope for all of the C-Max family a very MERRY CHRISTMAS.