Hello,

It's been awhile since I've posted here. My 2007 FS LTD seems to be having transmission issues. It has about 73K km (45K miles). It already had a transmission repair 7 months ago at 61K. They replaced some type of gasket at that time. Unfortunately I can't remember what and my invoice isn't handy.

Basically as I accelerate to highway speed it suddenly goes into the safety mode, the wrench and traction control lights come on and you can't get up to speed. It resets when you restart but if I accelerate much past 80km/h it happens again and the second time the check engine light came on.

This just happened on the weekend so my dealer hasn't had a look yet, they are likely too busy today and will see it tomorrow. Is there anything specific I should be asking? My dealership does have a transmission guy trained on the CVT.

Any advice on this issue would be appreciated. I will post any error codes, info, etc that I get once a dealership has looked at it.

It should still be under the factory 5 year 60K mile warranty powertrain warranty. Let the dealer have at it and let us know what you find out!

Thanks,

Norm

What were the symptoms that led to the transmission repair 7 mos ago?

And is this an AWD Freestyle?

Hi Norsea. It's FWD. It was the day after Christmas, I was driving on the city bypass about 80km/h when the same thing happened. The wrench and traction control lights come on and you can't get up to speed. Again I can't remember what the exact repair was, but it was a warranty covered transmission repair. I'll try to dig up my old invoice for the exact part. I think it was a gasket or something that had worn out/disintegrated.

Whatever it is.. you are fortunate enough to still be under the drivetrain warranty that came with your 2007 model. Keep us advised as to what the outcome of this is.

This could simply be a traction control issue too. As the system does control engine RPM and speed in a slipping situation. So there is the tie to the check engine light and the trac control light. The wrench is puzzling.

It may be as simple as a bad wheel speed sensor losing it's signal at highway speeds.

Keep us posted.

...Norm

The dealership says the codes indicate the same problems as last time. Torque converter issues. I'll have the codes shortly and post them here. The service adviser tells me they are in discussions with Ford Engineering regarding a plan and other things to look at once they open her up. Some type of bushing Ford engineers said should be checked.

Looks like I'll be stuffing my three kids in the back of a Focus for a couple weeks...not a great way to travel for summer trips. But on the bright side, I'm not paying $5k on a new CVT.

I gotta say though, having the same issue in 6 months on a car that is pretty much babied is unsettling. Looking at Consumer Reports the transmission ratings are very good or excellent for the Freestyle, but it's difficult to believe when you browse a forum and see reported problems come up frequently, or so it seems.

We really LOVE this car but I'm thinking I'll be trading it in sooner than later. I'd like a Taurus X assuming they are generally reliable. But I'll cross that bridge when it's time.

pdaddy, one thing to note is that you will often see what seems to be a lot of failures on car forums as people like to go there and complain. Overall I do believe the Freestyle does pretty well, and the only issues I have seen numerous complaints about are the rear brakes, the throttle body, and the A/C compressor (esp on 05s). Compared to the number of semi-common probs I read about on my HHR's forum, it ain't bad at all (although in the HHR's defense there are more of them out there so you would expect more failures).

I'm back. Here are the codes from the original repair in January. My dealer didn't have the current codes handy when I called but said it was the same as the original issue:

Codes:
P0701
P0715
P2765

If it makes it any better, this should be covered under the PT warranty, so a free repair.

I'll look them up tonight in my service manual .

http://www.trannybuilder.com/forums/fix ... blem:2161/

Here is a link from repair shop for the same codes on a 2005.

This sums it up perfectly. Please read.
http://www.justanswer.com/questions/2vg ... at-highway

Well I finally got the car back last night. My dealer said that after a day of discussion and analyzing things with Ford Engineering they decided to replace the entire transmission with a Ford factory re-manufactured one. So I guess that's as close to a new transmission as possible now that these are discontinued.

It was a total bill of $6000. I didn't pay a dime as it's still under warranty. Thank goodness.

We'll find out how she does.