About 6 weeks ago, my exhaust and manifold were removed and refitted by a garage for welding/MOT work. When I collected the car, the garage told me reverse was not working (reverse lights came on, but the car wouldn’t move). I was advised to drive home carefully and return the next day.

 

When I got home that evening and tried reverse again, it worked normally. Since then, reverse has worked almost all the time, except for a couple of brief occasions where cycling the ignition restored it.

 

About 2–3 weeks ago, I had my first “Transmission malfunction / service now” warning while driving. This happened after slowing for a roundabout and then accelerating hard back up to speed. I heard beeping, the message appeared, and the car struggled to shift from 1st to 2nd gear, with revs rising higher than normal and an occasional jerk/slam into 2nd.

 

I drove home with the warning present. After switching the car off and back on, the warning cleared and normal shifting returned.

 

A diagnostic scan later showed fault code P074A-00 (Unable to engage gear 2 – memory fault stored).

 

Current symptoms:

 

• No permanent warning lights
• 1→2 shifts usually fine, but occasionally delayed or harsh
• Intermittent jerking / scraping-type noise
• Noise is inconsistent but occurs:
  • Sometimes during low-speed turns (especially a regular left-hand turn into work)
  • Sometimes on straights
  • Sometimes over speed bumps
  • Sometimes when lifting off or reapplying throttle
•  
• Occurs around 2–7 times per ~20-minute drive
• Noise does not feel like a constant vibration or rhythmic clicking
• Resetting the ignition can temporarily improve behaviour

 

 

A garage has since checked visible wiring around the exhaust/manifold area and said all wiring appears intact. No obvious faults found.

 

I’m trying to determine whether this is:

 

• a gearbox/actuator/control issue,
• a mount or drivetrain movement issue,
• fluid-related,
• or something else entirely.

 

 

Any insight from people familiar with these gearboxes or similar symptoms would be much appreciated.

The wiring may appear intact, but I suspect it's damaged.

Run a continuity check on EVERY wire from the transmission and check that it is getting fully earthed

Did you manage to get to the bottom of this issue? I’m also having the same transmission limited function message, then service now the it skips gears (auto) and revs are really high. Turing the engine on and off temporarily sorts this but it soon comes back my mechanic brother in law has scanned it and no fault codes stored..it’s driving me insane now 

2 hours ago, Ejw10 said:

my mechanic brother in law has scanned it and no fault codes stored..it’s driving me insane now 

... using a generic code reader I suspect.

You can't read the Ford specific DTC's unless you are a Ford dealer, or you use the software FORScan.