Hi,

I was driving on the motorway when my RPM just increased out of nowhere and I received a 'Transmission Malfunction' message. Then I went ahead and parked the car at the service station and all was okay when I closed the car and started it again, on the motorway the issue occurred but I controlled the rev's by taking my foot off the gas and the issue didn't happen and I didn't get the orange spanner icon with transmission malfunction message but if I didn't take my foot off the gas, the issue would have occurred again. 

This issue only occurs on the motorway and happens after 40mins of straight driving at 70mph, when I exceed to about 76-77mph that's when the issue happens but I need to take my foot off the gas to avoid the transmission from fully failing and giving the 'malfunction' message. The revs are stuck on 3.5rpm and I can't change any gears until I've stopped the car at a service stop and restart it again. The car usually stalls when I'm taking the exit to a slip road and braking.

I have taken the car to a garage where he plugged his computer in and said a valve is stuck but I'm not sure that is the case as he also said 'your car could completely fail if you take it on the motorway' - I then drove another 500 miles / 8 hours none stop with no issues as I was controlling the gas quite well and didn't allow for the transmission to fail.

I've driven 70k-80k miles on the motorway using the car in the span of 10 months last year and haven't really experienced any issues with the car.

Any suggestions as to what I can do?

Many thanks.

first off, are you sure that the transmittion has enough fluid, secondly it is actually possible for a valve to be stuck but only intermittently cause issues as it may be stiff rather than stuck and is just randomly sticking, the rpm suddnely increasing sounds like either the gear clutch within the transmittion is warn out or there isn't enough pressure getting to the clutch actuator in the transmission (possibly due to the sticking valve) causing the clutch to slip in the transmittion and a loss of power transmitted through it

20 hours ago, Neb_engineer said:

first off, are you sure that the transmittion has enough fluid, secondly it is actually possible for a valve to be stuck but only intermittently cause issues as it may be stiff rather than stuck and is just randomly sticking, the rpm suddnely increasing sounds like either the gear clutch within the transmittion is warn out or there isn't enough pressure getting to the clutch actuator in the transmission (possibly due to the sticking valve) causing the clutch to slip in the transmittion and a loss of power transmitted through it

Thanks for your reply.

1. I haven't checked the fluid / or changed it and my car's milage is now 109k. 

2. what would you suggest doing? The gearbox seems to work fine but it only fails after 40/50mins on the motorway continuously driving at more than 75mph. 

i would probably go and get a second opinion from a different garage, however based of the symptoms a sticking valve seems plausible

Just now, Neb_engineer said:

i would probably go and get a second opinion from a different garage, however based of the symptoms a sticking valve seems plausible

Would you happen to know how much a sticking valve would cost to replace or would it be worth replacing the whole gearbox?

My daughter just had similar problems with her 2010 Kuga AWD auto. She took it to a Ford main dealer who 'Serviced the Automatic Box" which seemed a fancy way of saying they changed the oil. It cost about £400 🙁 but on the plus side the auto box has worked fine since then, (3 months)

2 minutes ago, unofix said:

My daughter just had similar problems with her 2010 Kuga AWD auto. She took it to a Ford main dealer who 'Serviced the Automatic Box" which seemed a fancy way of saying they changed the oil. It cost about £400 🙁 but on the plus side the auto box has worked fine since then, (3 months)

Thanks for your reply.

Absolute daylight robbers!! Should've taken it to a private dealer!

I'm going to take it to a gearbox specialist next week but I definitely think the transmission fluid just needs changing