Transmission issues

[alphacharlie]

Hi all,

We bought a 2014 automatic Ford CMax in May last year from a dealer and have been having big problems with it throughout. We've been back and forth with them and had repairs and are now in discussion about a refund (they don't want to). I'm hoping to get some thoughts on the actual issue to help decide way forward. The story is:

1. Late May 2018, on day of purchase the hazard lights appeared while driving on the motorway after purchasing the vehicle. At the time, we assumed the driver had inadvertently triggered the lights
2. Mid June  2018 while driving to get the car serviced, the car seemed to go into neutral while driving - revving without going anywhere, but definitely was in drive. After pulling over and turning the car off and on again, it again ran normally. The mechanic wasn't able to identify the cause of this issue and no codes were found on computer. The car was also taken to an autoelectrician and a transmission specialist the next day, but neither could locate the issue or error codes in the system. Their advice was to return if the error reappeared as it was unclear if the issue was just electrical, or a genuine mechanical issue.
3.  Late June 2018, while driving on the motorway back from Cornwall, the car showed the message 'transmission malfunction, service now' and seemed to be jumping between gears. When shifting to manual gear shift in 'Sport' mode, the vehicle wouldn't allow selection of 4th gear. After stopping for petrol, the error message disappeared and the car again ran normally. We phoned the transmission specialist again on the same day, but they advised that not much could be done if the car was driving normally and no error message was present
4. July 2018, while driving locally, the vehicle behaved as if in neutral and would not move when in Drive or Reverse when the accelerator was applied. Roadside assistance was called and found the following error codes:

• • P2849/$07E9 Shift Fork 'A' Stuck
  • P284A/$07E9 Shift Fork 'B' Stuck
  • P284C/$07E9 Shift Fork 'D' Stuck
  • P0700/$07E8 Transmission Control System (ML Request)
  • U0415/$07E8 Invalid Data Received From Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS) Control Module
• On the same day, after towing the vehicle home, the tow truck driver noted that something was hanging off the bottom of the car. This appeared to be the heat shielding of the exhaust, but there seem to be cables or hoses nearby and I am noting this in case it helps in diagnosis.

5. The dealer took the car back and 'fixed' it, saying that a plastic component had broken within the transmission and pieces were stopping normal operation. He said he'd cleaned this all out. Car seemed to run ok. I stated at the time that I thought symptoms sounded partially electronic given lack of error codes and intermittent faults

6. August 2018, I noted to the dealer that the car still seemed clunky when changing gears and wasn't as responsive as expected when accelerating. It would sometimes clunk if accelerating reasonably quickly from stand still. He suggested it was due to clutch adaptation/learn and offered to pick up and make adjustments. Due to other commitments, we weren't able to take it back for repair at this time

7. January 2019 - the car again showed the behaviour of revving without engaging the gears. The message shown was "Transmission limited function. See manual". However, after turning off and on again, the car drove normally and no errors were shown on system check. However, the issue was more frequent after this. We offered the dealer a final chance to repair before asking for . refund and he took it for an extended time to repair. For a long time, this seemed to be better

8. August 2019, the car again showed the behaviour from #3 above and had to be driven home in 2nd gear (manually selected) and showed the message 'transmission malfunction, service now'. However, when I checked the car later, no error message was seen in system check nd borrowing . friends code reader showed no new codes - only confirmed ones. 

We do intend to pursue refund or claiming back for a 3rd party repair, though it's difficult with intermittent error (we have photos of error message and correspondence with dealer including history above though). My question is - does anyone recognise these symptoms, and have any idea why the errors and codes aren't persisting? Is it part of the electronics like the TCM maybe? Any idea what the cost of fixing this would be? 

Right now, we just want to get rid of the car , even if it means taking a significant loss (paid £6k but willing to live with £4.5k back). Any advice appreciated!