Good Morning,

Reaching out for some help and advice as we are a bit stuck with our Ford S-Max.

We have a 2014 Diesel Automatic S-Max Titanium TDCI, it has done 64k miles.

In early December 2023, we had a transmission failure error appear on a short trip to the local shop and the car became difficult to drive, after restarting it we got it home in first/second gear.

It was difficult at that time to get the car in for diagnostics anywhere locally, we then found a 'automatic specialist' online and they took the car very promptly. The car was quickly diagnosed as needing a gearbox rebuild;

"After conducting diagnostics on your S-MAX TITANIUM TDCI 161 A, our technician has identified severe clutch wear, resulting in oil contamination. Consequently, a complete gearbox rebuild and new clutch pack installation are necessary. For your reference, I have attached a detailed quote outlining the costs associated with the required repairs."

and at a quote of £5k. I phoned around and advised i obtained a cheaper quote of £3k, and organised for the car to be redelivered, paying the gearbox specialist for the haulage and diagnostics in order to release the car.

The very next day the gearbox specialist phoned and advised there had been a mistake, and my car was fixed, apparently there were two identical S-max in the garage being used.  A long story short, and after lots of phoning around to see what i could do and where i stood, we settled on a reduced bill of £3.5k and the car was returned the next day with a 12 month warranty for the work and it was all in working order again. This is what we paid for;

• Labour to Remove and Refit Powershift Gearbox Assembly
• Labour to Strip, Repair and Rebuild Powershift Gearbox Assembly
• Double Clutch Unit & Damper Assembly Unit
• Full Rebuild Kit
• Gear Sensors
• Internal Case Engineering
• Filter Assembly
• Automatic Gearbox Oil
• Powershift Software Programming

During early August 2024, we encountered another transmission error. As we had the warranty for the gearbox work, we organised to return the car via the gearbox specialist. It took a month for the car to be diagnosed, apparently the gearbox tested fine but the solenoids were sent off for individual pressure testing, and after much chasing, the below is the summary we received;

"Vehicle Fault codes:

• ABS:(Anti Lock Brake System) ]
• U010100 Lost communication with TCM(Transmission control Module)
• TCM: (Transmission Control Module)
• P060A00 Internal Control Module Monitoring Processor Performance
• P076600 Shift Control Solenoid D Performance or stuck off
• P077100 Shift control solenoid E Performance or stuck off

Recommendation: Transmission Control Module (Mechatronic) faulty processor, will require replacement of complete Mechatronics unit, with online programming and replacement of external oil filter and transmission oil. 

Unfortunately the mechatronic is unrepairable and will need replacement. Now when we originally rebuilt the gearbox we did not replace the mechatronic unit, this means we cannot cover this under our warranty as it is outside of our scope of work. 

If you would like us to carry out this repair, we are willing to carry it out at cost price of the Mechatronic unit as well as any oils/filters and programming that is required. This would come to £2,440.00 + VAT (£2,928.00 including)." 

Not really having any faith in the gearbox specialist company and thinking of trying for a second opinion, we asked for the car to be returned, which they did at no cost for haulage. 

 

I have since tried to get some further advice on this, i got the car to a local automatic specialist, and they told me that they could find no fault codes logged (presumably cleared) but the vehicle fault codes provided from the diagnostics pointed firstly to the gearbox. The mechanic kindly showed me the units with the solenoids from another vehicle he was working on, and TCM, and advised this should have been serviced and checked prior to completion of the works when we had the first failure. The mechanic also said its very rare the TCM needs a complete replacement, but of course not impossible. After driving back from this the car actually broke down with the transmission error, so i do now have an engine management light back permanently on, so maybe the fault codes have re-appeared?

 

We just do not know what to do with the car now or the process, considering the car was fixed without our consent prior. We are not trying to dodge an issue if there is one, but just have no faith in the gearbox specialist, and are worried and now suspicious about there previous work. It has crossed our minds that maybe there was no issue big back in December, but how would/could we prove that? Would/should the parts used for the rebuild be logged and traceable?

 

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Many thanks

Really sorry to hear that history.
From my reading, the first repair focused narrowly on the clutch pack  and sensors plus strip, clean and rebuild with the necessary seals etc.
It doesn't look like the mechatronic was tested along with the solenoids (at least that's not mentioned) - major mistake?

I would have expected that to have been done on a test bench (which I believe exists) to try to avoid the situation you are in now.
The extreme cost of any auto box repair means (to me) that it's critical to spend a bit extra to ensure all parts are tested comprehensively.
That seems remiss of the specialist (and I would have expected this additional testing to be offered - obviously at a cost which the owner can decide upon)
They are offering the part at cost but there does seem to be a case for trying to get a further reduction based on the fact that a full inspection and test of the parts that may now have failed wasn't done and/or a warranty covering ANY faults for at least a further year (our local specialist gives 2 year warranty on rebuilds - with some Ts & Cs) That should be an incentive for them to get it right?

https://austrin-engineering.co.uk/services/#1488725417825-2758920e-e7efd3eb-d2400966-8526

Unfortunately, if it were me, I'd have to decide between the cost of selling the car for spares and purchasing another vehicle (MANY thousands?) OR biting the bullet and shelling out more (multiple thousands) to fix a car we love and would buy again (with a full warranty on the gearbox which seems fair in the circumstances)
Unsure if that helps but it's my best!