I've joined this forum just to post my Powershift success story, I referenced a lot of threads here when I was trying to get this sorted so I wanted to post my story here as it may help someone fix, or decide not to fix their car when they join the Powershift Problem Party.

 

Our car is a 2013 S-Max 2.0 tdci 140bhp diesel, with the 6DCT450, we have it for 4 years and put over 50,000 miles on it, we had no problems with the transmission until this summer with 149,000 miles on the clock we got the "Transmission Limited Function" warning activated and we lost all the even gears.

 

I removed and disassembled the mechatronics unit as per YepThatsIt's videos (link below), I found no clutch fragments and the oil was relatively clean however the internal magnets were full of metal filings. All solenoids were demagnetised, brake cleaner sprayed into them, 8V applied several times, blown out with compressed air, then soaked in brake cleaner overnight. This step was repeated 3 or 4 times over 3-4 days. Each time they were left to soak overnight clean brake cleaner was used. Finally they were soaked in WD40 overnight before refitting.

 

A few observations which might help someone;

When the solenoids were first removed they each tested at 3.4ohms, after they were cleaned/demagnetised they each read 3.0ohms. (Room temperature was 20degC for both tests) The higher resistance prior to cleaning could be because of metal particles attached to the coils of the solenoids, maybe?

 

When power was applied to the 2 CSPS solenoids and the LPS & CCFS solenoids they would 'click', remove the power and reapply they would 'click' again, and again and again. The other 5 (matching) solenoids with the white plastic protrusion would only 'click' once no matter how many times you applied power. If you gave them a shake and reapplied power they would 'click' again. Shake, apply power, 'click', etc, etc. However after they had been cleaned/demagnetised/soaked a few times if you rested them on their back with the white plastic facing up, and applied power it would 'click', reapply power again and it would 'click', no need to shake it. Gravity was enough to let the solenoid return to its deactivated position. That should prove a good indication as to how clean those 5 solenoids are internally.

 

If you split the valve body to clean it, leave the bolts finger tight until the mechatronics unit is slid back into the transmission on the guide pins. This caught me out,  I had tightened the valve body bolts and the holes for the guide pins was off preventing it sliding into the transmission, the holes looked aligned however it’s a precise fit onto the guide pins so even a little off and it'll stick on the pins. Once the mechatronics unit is slid home, you can tighten all bolts including the 9 retaining bolts.

 

So after the mechatronics unit was rebuild I had all gears again, however I would intermittently get the "Transmission Limited function" warning and loose either all even or all odd gears. Stopping and restarting the engine would clear the error and all gears would work again. I tried all the recommended fixes for this, double checked the oil level, cleaned the earth straps, new battery, I removed the sheathing from the loom and checked for bad connections and broken wires, done and some basic CAN bus checks and nothing helped. (I did find one broken wire in the loom but this doesn’t seem to have been a TCM wire.)

 

This continued for 300 miles until I lost all odd gears and reverse and this time I couldn’t clear the error, time to remove the mechatronics unit again.

 

I drained the oil which looked really dirty (despite only having 300 miles on it), pulled and stripped the mechatronics unit and found a piece of white plastic jamming one of the clutch actuation solenoids, bummer. So out came the gearbox and a reconditioned clutch, mechatronics unit, cooler, filters and gaskets were ordered from Maktrans in Poland, (Great service from Maktrans, highly recommend). I rebuilt the gearbox with the help of remusracareanu's youtube video (link below) and refitted it. Crossed my fingers and started it up, after the initial start I had no reverse until I performed the clutch and fork relearn procedures using Forscan and Vlinker. So these procedures must be done before you attempt to drive the car.

 

Thankfully, and with a fair degree of apprehensi, knocking on wood with firmly crossed fingers, I can report that we now have 1300 miles on the gearbox and it has been perfect, the only thing ive done is checked the oil level and redo  the learning procedures after 300 miles which improved the coasting and slow moving traffic behaviour, which wasn’t bad, I just felt it could be better, the relearn did improve things.

 

Make no mistake this is a big job, I'm not a mechanic but my dad was so I grew up around cars and spent my weekends and summers working on them, I also have access to a lift, a good selection of tools and it took me several weeks to get through it grabbing a few hours here and there to work on it between my day job and young family, I estimate it took me 25-30 hours in total. I was quoted €4500 (Euro) by a specialist, which when you consider the parts, fluids, and the a few new tools the cost to rebuild it myself came to €2200, the quoted €4500 really is a reasonable price.

 

Up until we had problems with the transmission I was following the recommended service interval of 37,500 miles using genuine Ford oil and filter, after this rebuild I've used Valvoline DCT oil (8L), this is 1/3 the price of the Ford oil. From now on im going to use Valvoline and change the oil every 12,000 miles, probably overkill but id rather be safe than sorry. Yes I know I should use the Ford oil, and I may in the future, but if I'm changing the oil more often the cost will quickly add up.

 

Would I do this job again? Yes, just probably not to this same car, it's now almost 13 years old, it has a few niggly issues and the bodywork is showing its age. I tackled this job because we like car, the cost of replacing it is a lot more than the cost of repair, and we want to get another few years and ideally 50,000 miles from it before we change it. (Oh, and im tight and stubborn…)

 

Would I buy another Powershift? Yes I would, aside from the well documented issues it’s a lovely gearbox to live with when its working OK.

 

If I do have any further problems Ill update this thread, if in 6 months' time all is well ill come back and post that too. Wish me luck.

yepthatsit:

 

 

remusracareanu

 

@muckerbarry, thanks for that Powershift Success Story (few and far between!) and the details of the work you have done.
Really glad to hear it!
I agree with not using Ford oil at the price charged and perhaps changing more regularly (we have had from almost new and changed every 3 years and still thankfully OK)
Like you, we don't want to get rid of a 14yo car as there's no similar replacement.
Well Done!

Well done Alan, excellent write up and information. I like the pointer about leaving bolts loose until M unit is pushed in

This link is also quite interesting about the mech unit

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/149445-servicing-powershift-solenoids-on-the-drive-an-how-to/#comments