Hi Folks my wife has a 2003 auto, which last year went into neutral and had to be towed home. the garage collected it and said it was an actuator fault. that was sent off and 400 quid later it was back on the car. the car worked fine then it started playing up. when you started the car it wouldn't run unless a little throttle was used. once it had run for a minute or two it would be fine, the problem then was when you moved off the car was reluctant to change gear especially third. it was better in manual than auto. the next day the car might be the same or it might be back to its old self and driving fine.

I put it back in the garage and they checked the wiring and set off the actuator again. no faults found!

last night it all went pear shaped again and the car kept going into neutral and the display on the dash would disappear.

any ideas anyone

The actuator has a sleeve on the shaft, it cannot be just cleaned and lubricated, the nylon sleeve has to be removed from the aluminium body casting and the swollen corrosion needs to be removed, then the nylon sleeve is refitted, actuator rebuilt / greased.

The internal diameter of the sleeve reduces as the aluminium corrosion expands causing friction on the shaft.

Sounds to me that the actuator hasn't been repaired correctly, however i have not had this issue personally as i have a manual, but i am on another forum and know a lad who had very similar problems caused by the corrosion and the sleeve, even after he had stripped it and lubricated he still had problems - but then addressed the cause not the symptom.

I think there is a video on youtube, i will have a search for it....

 

I cannot find the actual video i was refering to.

It's worth doing a search yourself, also the fiestas are the same so worth a look or a post in the fiesta forum.

After further reading, it maybe also be worth looking at transmission fluid/ gearbox oil subjects and i also found a reference to battery voltage being correct !

 

from the title am assuming [yes i know the old adage] its a durashift, the worst ever box made by ford. Seriously expensive to repair with no guarantee of success.