I think my axle seal has failed, pics inside

[mercdank]

The thing is my car is stage 5, it has lots and lots of mods that anyone within reason would not be surprised that my warranty work is denied. They replaced the axle because it failed, but they didn't want to look at the transmission any further because they knew it would need a new one and didn't want to absorb those costs. The tranny was whining before the axle issue and is totally separate.

I will try to call Ford, but the first thing they will ask is if the car is modified in any way. Once you set that precedence that the car is no longer in stock configuration, especially one like mine that is extremely modified beyond just simple bolt-ons, they will begin the whole "well the car has been modified so I can't gaurantee anything but...".

I took the car to a transmission shop where they are swapping the tranny tomorrow. The main shaft bearing had failed and sent metal shards all over the tranny. It was a ticking time bomb and I don't really feel like having it fail at 130mph. I am paying out-of-pocket and might try to bring it up to Ford but I doubt I will get anywhere with it. This is the third dealership that has said "too many mods" and I just really want to car fixed. In the perfect world Ford would recognize that the issue wasn't the engine modification but just a transmission failure that could've likely happened on any car regardless of the mods or power level, but warranty work denials kinda come with the stage 5 territory IMO. It is sad and not right, but it is the world we live in.

 

[thePete]

In the perfect world Ford would recognize that the issue wasn't the engine modification but just a transmission failure that could've likely happened on any car regardless of the mods or power level, but warranty work denials kinda come with the stage 5 territory IMO. It is sad and not right, but it is the world we live in.

Except the reality is that is simply not true. You've massively increased the power output. The transmission is only rated for a certain amount of torque and they factor a certain margin of safety in that specification. You've used up that entire margin and then some, potentially. So you've drastically reduced the service life of that part. I'm glad you're being very cool and reasonable about all of this, but you've gotta kinda see where they're coming from. At stock power, that trans would've likely lasted well outside your warranty period.

Of the failed transmissions, I wonder how many chewed gears and how many chewed bearings. I know yours is far from the first one to go.

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[mercdank]

I agree with you that's why after trying at three dealerships without luck I decided to bite the bullet on this and accept it comes with the territory. The fact that it is a somewhat common failure that likely would've been covered under warranty had I not modified the car is what bothers me in that we'll never truly know if it was the mods or if I had a bad tranny to start with.

 

[koozy]

looks like this gearbox was abused at some point.

http://www.fiestastforum.com/forum/...nto-3rd-instead-of-5th?highlight=transmission

 

[mercdank]

looks like this gearbox was abused at some point.

http://www.fiestastforum.com/forum/...nto-3rd-instead-of-5th?highlight=transmission

I totally forgot about this. Not really abuse IMO if it only happened once and wasn't intentional. It was a while back and the car functioned fine without any noises or mechanical issues afterwards. This whining noise I began to hear about 1 week after I got the car back from DHM after they installed the turbo kit.

Anyways, a little more info from the tech. When they went to drain the fluid they noticed that nothing came out meaning I was very very low or had zero transmission fluid in there. So I either had a leak somewhere or at some point when the car was disassembled when it was having the engine rebuilt it was drained and never refilled. Either way, be it the lack of fluid or the wear on the transmission caused a bearing to fail which then damaged the actual gears themselves. I have a new transmission in there now and I have my old one in my truck. I am going to take it apart with my buddies to see what is wrong and to learn a little more about these units.

 

[neeqness]

Don't forget that that the stock fluid is probably just at par in regards to lubrication for stock. If you didn't upgrade your tranny fluid along with the other upgrades, it could have been a significant contributor to the added wear.

With this in mind, I would definitely consider using an upgraded fluid for the new transmission...if you haven't already.

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[Quisp]

I would be confident that lack of lubrication did it in .

 

[Crv]

Not sure if anyone is still seeing this but thanks to everyone bringing attention to this. I have a 16 with 58400 miles on, just happened to notice a spot of trans fluid in the garage....just picked up after the repair today, free....if everyone on here wasn’t talking about this I might have just brushed it off on all the work I’ve been doing....pretty sure you guys just saved me about 500 bucks(and mabey more for a new trans)thanks everyone!


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[Intuit]

Turn the wheel lock-to-lock and make sure it's the same... that they realigned it. Some 'chanics cut time by skipping the realignment.

 

[XR650R]

looks like this gearbox was abused at some point.

http://www.fiestastforum.com/forum/...nto-3rd-instead-of-5th?highlight=transmission

Holy cow! Yeah, that's not good.

Perhaps this is a belated money shift.