On my 3rd transmission... need advice

[Ishh]

Im also been having this issue with my car. Had it for about a year, and just started hearing this noise about 3 months ago. I took it in about a week ago to my local ford dealer, was there for a total of four hours. I took the shop foreman for a drive, he did hear the whine and couldnt make out what it was. He then told me he was going to take the ( quote on quote "transmission specialist" for a drive. So i sat around for about an hour till that happened. I then was approached by the service rep that took in my car and she explained to me that, they believe it has something to do with my "mods" and that its coming from the turbo??. Then the shop foreman came to explain the same thing to me?? saying that both him and the "head transmission specialist" believe my turbo is making the noise. By then i was fustrated and wanted to speak to a real mechanic which apparently there wasnt any available. I explained that there is absolutely no way that my turbo is somewhat damage as i still boost the right psi. It clearly sounds from the drive train, specifically the output shaft bearing as i had read on here before. They refused to believe me, so then i spoked to the service manager, we went for a drive. Little to say he was intrigued by the noise and said hell look into it. Week went by he had no answers, i guess dealerships that have replaced bad transmissions on the ST's havent reported it to theyre "hotline" or something like that so there wasnt any history of the issue. So now im scheduled to bring in my car this tuesday coming up for them to fix a perfectly good turbo, and if that doesnt work thats when theyll look into the transmission??. I just hate to have my car there even longer just based on the fact that these "transmission specialist" are so damn naive.

 

[Sourskittle]

Ishh, if they do what I think they might try to do, let me know if you need me to get you a good used turbo. I think one maybe on the forum for sale still somewhere.

But it would be pretty easy to imagine that what they have in mind to shut you up is...

Step 1) Blame the mods.
Step2) say its the turbo, not the trans.
Step3) charge you to look at the turbo that isn't broken, then tell you its gonna be another $2500 to change the turbo because the mods made the original one break and the warranty won't cover it.
Step4) faced with a repair that would cost more or the same amount as the trans, you will either pay them the $400 they charge you for just looking at it or you will pay them another $2500 to replace the turbo which is 10x easier than replacing the trans.

Than being said.....
How many people have actually had a trans failure? I means a "it won't drive or shift" failure. It is entirely possible that these cars just have noisy transmission because of how small the trans is vs the power it can handle... Normally there is a trade-off in everything. Maybe they could build us a trans that is dead silent, but then it could loss some durability or cost way way way more or it would physically bigger or weigh a lot more. What I'm getting at, is that if "noise" is the most of our worries, but reliability isn't effected, then.... I'll take the noise anyday over a quiet, heavy, expensive, unreliable trans ( aka something from BMW, lol ).

I knew at least 4 people with 250whp SRT4's that got their trans replaced because of "noise". Yet... I never replaced mine. I put over 200 drag slick passes on it, countless tuning and street race passes on it ( with big drag radials ), and it was making 300-409whp at 380-505tq its entire life almost. If you go onto the srt4 forums now.... Most guys will tell you that if you never put slicks on a srt4 and never go above 500whp, your never going to need a trans repair. Yet... 4 people in my city needed brand new transmissions within 3 years of wear with 250whp and not owning slicks?

Maybe... The dealerships that disagree with the trans being broken or wearing poorly could meet you guys in the middle.... They require you to have them change the trans oil at its normal change interval from the owners manual, and in return, they agree to warranty JUST THE TRANS for an extra 24months and 24k miles past the 3/36. But only the trans. Gives you piece of mind, shows that they are really that confident in the current condition of the trans, and saving everyone from what could be a real headache for no reason ( you really want your brand new car disassembled by some guy at the dealership that makes $11.00 per hour ? ). You could very well get a brand new trans, only to find out at 40k miles that something else goes wrong because lock-tight was not used somewhere. Lets just say I have little faith in dealership techs, you get what you pay for and while dealerships are charging $85 an hour, they are using the cheapest labor around minus jiffy-lube. Lol.

 

[frankiefiesta]

[MENTION=688]Sourskittle[/MENTION] I understand what you're saying and agree about driving it if it works and just learn to live with the noise.

I tried doing that but then that voice in the back of my head kept saying "you have a warranty, take it in. If you get a new trans you get a new one. If not then live with it"

 

[milkman42]

Im also been having this issue with my car. ......

sorry to hear you've having similar problems. did they try revving while in neutral? that'd be an easy way to differentiate between trans noise and turbo noise right?.

i had a similar experience in explaining/convincing them that there was a problem. every time i took it in the same tech had to drive a FiST off the lot to compare to... like he couldn't remember from a month ago that a normal car makes no noise. maybe it's just required procedure, idk. best part is that they never actually fixed the problem for any amount of time. every time i picked the car up 'fixed' it was squealing the second i turned out of the parking lot. like did they even test drive it after?? the last time the trans tech was there when i picked it up and he mentioned that it's much better now and only makes a little 'normal' noise. same deal. heard it immediately and it got much worse over time - not normal - we've already been over this, remember your 3 test drives of a dead quiet one off the lot?! only reason i didn't drive right back into the dealership to complain is because they had my car for 6 weeks and i wanted to actually drive it a while before losing it again lol...

luckily i have no mods so there was no argument there and i travel a lot for work so i just drop it off on monday on my way to the airport and let them mess around with it all week. otherwise i'm sure i'd be waiting around all day for them like you have. can't believe there is no history of this issue. not reporting all these occurrences is a waste of time, money, and patience for both Ford and us.

I'll take the noise anyday over a quiet, heavy, expensive, unreliable trans ( aka something from BMW, lol ).

i hear where you're coming from, but this isn't the clunking trans issue which i understand is a symptom of the DMF and something we more or less have to live with. this high pitch squealing noise is ear-splitting and occurs anytime you're on the gas to any degree. the radio has to over halfway up to drown it out on the highway. this is not normal and not something to be expected or tolerated in a brand new car.

 

[Sourskittle]

[MENTION=688]Sourskittle[/MENTION] I understand what you're saying and agree about driving it if it works and just learn to live with the noise.

I tried doing that but then that voice in the back of my head kept saying "you have a warranty, take it in. If you get a new trans you get a new one. If not then live with it"

You'd be trading a new trans for.... A new trans. Its not like they wear out at 100k miles. I don't blame you guys at all for exploring the possibility of the trans being bad. But it is a fiesta. And it is turbocharged. And in most cases, it is modded. This isn't a stock 10k mile BMW 7-series with a bone stock twin turbo 3.0L. Its the cheapest, quickest car you can buy for the money. Think guys with turbo dodge omni's in the mid-80's were like, "excuse me, my good man, my dodge omni can smoke a vette on a road course and cost like $3,78 cents to buy, but... My shifter isn't spot on everytime, and every 40k miles I have to replace a CV axle, do you think you can fix that so it will never happen again with stock parts?".

Just playing devils advocate a bit, lol.

I actually wish I could ride with some of you guys to hear these noises... Even more so, I'd like to know what the cause of failure was/is. Its just super super super uncommon for a mechanical manual trans to just randomly start making crazy noises. Even the POS T-5 mustang transmission never just started making noise for no reason and needed replaced ( they would break with 300ft lbs of torque because it was made with wet bread for internals ).

A good amount of people have had these trans apart and spoken highly of there "guts" as well....

I can tell you with mods... Its like waiting for the punch line, they are not going to cover ANYTHING under the warranty. If you wheel studs broke at 1500 miles and you had an intercooler; they would blame the intercooler for breaking your wheel studs. I just hope they don't do what they did to my friend in Daytona. They charged him $400 to tell him he needed a turbo ( which could have been figured out in 20minutes ), then hit him with a $2600 quote to replace it. Either way, he had to pay $400 for troubleshooting. Why ? Because he had a downpipe and fart can.

 

[MrClean]

Time to lemon law it. Get a new one if you are still in love with the FiST. Ford SHOULD be glad to buy it back so they can study it and truly understand what is going on.

+1

Lemon Law this bizznitch.

 

[FordService]

Im also been having this issue with my car. Had it for about a year, and just started hearing this noise about 3 months ago. I took it in about a week ago to my local ford dealer, was there for a total of four hours. I took the shop foreman for a drive, he did hear the whine and couldnt make out what it was. He then told me he was going to take the ( quote on quote "transmission specialist" for a drive. So i sat around for about an hour till that happened. I then was approached by the service rep that took in my car and she explained to me that, they believe it has something to do with my "mods" and that its coming from the turbo??. Then the shop foreman came to explain the same thing to me?? saying that both him and the "head transmission specialist" believe my turbo is making the noise. By then i was fustrated and wanted to speak to a real mechanic which apparently there wasnt any available. I explained that there is absolutely no way that my turbo is somewhat damage as i still boost the right psi. It clearly sounds from the drive train, specifically the output shaft bearing as i had read on here before. They refused to believe me, so then i spoked to the service manager, we went for a drive. Little to say he was intrigued by the noise and said hell look into it. Week went by he had no answers, i guess dealerships that have replaced bad transmissions on the ST's havent reported it to theyre "hotline" or something like that so there wasnt any history of the issue. So now im scheduled to bring in my car this tuesday coming up for them to fix a perfectly good turbo, and if that doesnt work thats when theyll look into the transmission??. I just hate to have my car there even longer just based on the fact that these "transmission specialist" are so damn naive.

Hey Ishh,

Welcome to the forum! My name's Nick, the local Ford Service Rep. Shoot over a PM with your name, VIN, mileage, dealer, and best daytime phone number. I'm going to look into this to see how I can help get your ST back on the road and running smooth again. Talk to you soon!

Nick

 

[milkman42]

finally got my car back, seems fixed for now! OP updated

 

[TheGreenOne]

Great news! Keep us posted.

 

[GAbOS]

Grats, and fingers crossed for you.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

Has anyone tried the fluid change from factory fill to the Oem fluid? Or the motul 300? Just curious....

 

[neeqness]

Has anyone tried the fluid change from factory fill to the Oem fluid? Or the motul 300? Just curious....

I have replaced my fluid with oem, Motul dctf, and motul 300. IMO, the 300 seems to provide the best lubrication. It also felt the smoothest, though I live in a warmer climate than most in the US. Others (not all) in colder areas have complained that the 300 was too thick during the colder seasons.

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[TyphoonFiST]

So guess what....mine also makes a high pitched noise in 3rd-6th....mostly audible in 4th gear....let off throttle in all gears no noise.....coasting no noise....in gear noise. Did the 4th Trans fix the problem? Or is the sound back again? I will put money on it that it is a bearing....

 

[neeqness]

Does the noise change (get louder/softer) with your revs (higher/lower)?

 

[TyphoonFiST]

Not when it's in neutral....only when in gear and driving. Disengage the clutch and coast .....nothing no noise. Only when in 3rd gear and up.

 

[Intuit]

My snow tires whine due to the tread design. Not my transmission. Whine is prevalent under acceleration, deceleration. Since the ambient noise, torque application and acceleration curve can be different depending on gear, the noise may seem to differ. The only thing my transmission does is clack but there's a lengthy thread on that; no reported failures by any of the members experiencing the issue that I recall.

 

[neeqness]

Doesn't sound good. I would try changing the fluid in tranny and differentials...maybe a flush to see if it helps.

Does it seem sluggish? Is it still under warranty?

 

[GoHack]

What weight oil, and what kind does it use, ATF, 30 Wt. Engine Oil, or Gear Oil, and yes I've seen all three used in manual transmissions.

 

[ChillinZX]

We had ours replaced at 800 miles for whine noise, now we have 3,000 miles and no noises.

 

[SkirataST]

When i get the chance im changing my oem fluid out. My trans has developed a 2nd gear issue. It pops out when downshifting, engine braking. Never pops with upshifting. Forst remedy will be RMM and oem fluid flush.