3 minutes ago, Ajay Just said:

Battery tested with multi-meter after being parked all day at work - 12.46v

Good, but give it an overnight charge if you want to get it above 80%

I'll dig out my battery charger 👌 

So I had to just bite the bullet and put the car into a transmission specialist for diagnostic. 

On 10/20/2023 at 7:41 AM, DaveT70 said:

This will be either two faults, both relatively easy:

1: Your battery is on the way out or you have a poor earth. Check your battery performance and if it is low, replace the battery. Check all the earth points are good, especially the transmission earth on the chassis rail. Remove the earth bolt, clean the paint away from the body at the eyelet point, grease and refit.

2: You have a broken or breaking down wire from the TCM to the gearbox. The main culprit on S-Max/Galaxy is the main connector block in the LH front wheel arch, the wires at the connector are stretched and can break or corroded and can stop transmitting signals.

DON'T spend any money stripping the gearbox until you have proved out both of these issues

 

So garage are quoting £2900 plus vat for gearbox rebuild. 

It's your money

@Ajay Just, like wot @DaveT70  & @unofix said above and I said on 21 Sep post above?
What did thy diagnose it as, on what evidence and what exactly are they going to do and what guarantee are they offering - if it's a stupid wiring or other fault a rebuild won't fix it.

Here's the print out of the diagnostic. 

Mechanic said that solenoid flagging indicates gearbox breaking down and fouling the solenoid. 

 

Tbh seeing the battery voltage flag makes me feel like it's electrical like you have all said. 

And I took the car home. Didn't leave it there so I can do the further tests or sell it as is if it comes to that. 

Whilst the solenoid issue is worrying and may imply plastics break up, I'd change the filter and rip it apart to confirm there are plastics in it.
If so then a rebuild may be necessary.
I'd still do all of the electrical checks external because the cost of the rebuilds is a couple of orders of magnitude more.
However at 2016 if you bite the bullet on a repair (with a solid warranty on their work of course)  you can hopefully get many more years out of it and it will likely cost thousands to change the car - up to you of course.

Here is today's filter after a further 3 years, now at 120k with changes every 3 years from new (the last one looked identical i.e. no particles, just the smooth black "paste" trapped in the filter which I assume is normal detritus from the clutch plates?)
The oil was what I'd call slightly dirty (nowhere near engine oil):
 

Eidt: Also, in our Forscan, you can get actual and measured solenoid values that may give further information.

And here's the oil (larger jar 2024, smaller 2025):

 

Is there any images of the cables/earths I should look at? 

2 hours ago, Ajay Just said:

Is there any images of the cables/earths I should look at? 

I'd do all the ones (4?) under the air filter on the nearside front chassis rail. Plus there's a big earth lead from body to transmission on ours, just in case.

Remember to reset the transmission every time you disconnect the power.

Try to disconnect the battery and do all the earths before you reconnect

Really odd, after the diagnostic the transmission has not had any problems or fault codes appear 🤷🏻 

So... when was the oil and filter last changed (just change?)
If anything comes back, as said above do everything possible external and all Forscan codes and PIDs before succumbing to any estimates for rebuild?

19 hours ago, Shearers said:

So... when was the oil and filter last changed (just change?)
If anything comes back, as said above do everything possible external and all Forscan codes and PIDs before succumbing to any estimates for rebuild?

Oil and filter was around 25k ago so would probably do with a change 

On 9/5/2025 at 2:04 PM, Ajay Just said:

Oil and filter was around 25k ago so would probably do with a change 

That is the only thing you can do  (eBay, about £90) that looks at the internals of the box without taking it apart and  ripping apart and inspecting the filter is a crucial test.

On 9/7/2025 at 10:34 PM, Shearers said:

That is the only thing you can do  (eBay, about £90) that looks at the internals of the box without taking it apart and  ripping apart and inspecting the filter is a crucial test.

I'll defo look at doing that soon, luckily I have a van for work now so don't need car full time anymore 

Hi everyone I have a 2012 Ford S-max Powershift 2.0tdci.

start engine dash displays transmission limited function sometimes can reverse or drive forward most times don’t move at all when it does drive it will go into second gear then just rev up until drop back into 1st.

Plugged in diagnostic,

Fault code: P284B-00 shift fork C stuck in the powershift transmission.

P0949-00 trouble code indicates the auto shift manual adaptive learning not complete.

I have since dropped the gearbox oil and changed oil and filter. 

Does anyone have any knowledge of these fault codes and symptoms before I end up spending a fortune at a garage.

thanks

16 hours ago, Darren18 said:

P284B-00 shift fork C stuck in the powershift transmission.

That's the issue, best to check and clean the solenoids first, if you're struggling for funds, in case it's just a sticking/faulty solenoid.

But it sounds like an internal failure though

16 hours ago, Darren18 said:

P0949-00 trouble code indicates the auto shift manual adaptive learning not complete.

That code is due to it not being able to select gears properly

Just also make sure battery voltage performance is excellent and all earths are in good condition

Check wiring under LHF wheel arch, main block connector, for broken/breaking down wires too

On 10/8/2025 at 7:55 AM, DaveT70 said:

That's the issue, best to check and clean the solenoids first, if you're struggling for funds, in case it's just a sticking/faulty solenoid.

But it sounds like an internal failure though

That code is due to it not being able to select gears properly

Just also make sure battery voltage performance is excellent and all earths are in good condition

Check wiring under LHF wheel arch, main block connector, for broken/breaking down wires too

 

On 10/8/2025 at 7:55 AM, DaveT70 said:

That's the issue, best to check and clean the solenoids first, if you're struggling for funds, in case it's just a sticking/faulty solenoid.

But it sounds like an internal failure though

That code is due to it not being able to select gears properly

Just also make sure battery voltage performance is excellent and all earths are in good condition

Check wiring under LHF wheel arch, main block connector, for broken/breaking down wires too

I changed battery and straight away car drove fine no warnings on dashboard was changing gears great come home went back out to nip to shop same happened again transmission limited function but still drives put old battery back in fully charged and it don’t drive at all with the old battery very strange.

55 minutes ago, Darren18 said:

I changed battery and straight away car drove fine no warnings on dashboard was changing gears great come home went back out to nip to shop same happened again transmission limited function but still drives put old battery back in fully charged and it don’t drive at all with the old battery very strange.

Sounds like you need to really look hard at battery/Earth leads, all external wiring before anything else (although solenoids etc may still be necessary if the codes stick - pun intended!), much as as per:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikDCVb93mk0

 

1 hour ago, Darren18 said:

 

I changed battery and straight away car drove fine no warnings on dashboard was changing gears great come home went back out to nip to shop same happened again transmission limited function but still drives put old battery back in fully charged and it don’t drive at all with the old battery very strange.

Every time you disconnect power you need to perform a transmission reset

But power performance is very important.

FULLY charge the good battery you have and fit it or bite the bullet and buy a new battery (fully charge it before fitting) then reset the transmission

Check earths and wiring as previously mentioned