U-Joint replaced @46K.
Catalytic converter failure @51k.
4r70w Transmission failure @75k.
The van sat at the dealership for 4 months. Ford could not locate a converter. I was told by the dealership to go under my van and disconnect the converters myself. I said no.
The transmission's planetary gear blew at 75k.I had to get a total rebuild on the transmission. The transmission failed without any signs of slippage, grinding or clunking.
This is a good work truck for the most part. Gas mileage stinks. With a ladder rack I get around 11 miles per gallon. The 5.4 triton has enough power to merge into traffic and pass on the highway. The cab is comfortable and for a work truck is pretty easy to drive.
Well my transmission is now slipping and had to be towed. This transmission was just rebuilt at 75k.The odometer now shows 76.5k.I am totally fed up with this truck. Back to the mechanics once again. Meanwhile I have a business to run and a truck that gives me headaches.
To go through both a U-joint and transmission, it sounds like the driveline was really pounded on.
Something really severe has to take place to "blow" a planetary gear set in a transmission. Usually the parts of an automatic transmission that fail are the shifting clutches or bands, because they are subject to the most wear. The planetary gears are a constantly meshed set of gears that are only really subjected to wear if the driveline is shocked, such as through repeated abrupt accelerations (the type where the back bumper sinks down), shifting from reverse to forward while still rolling (hitting the gas while doing this makes it dramatically worse) or other similar activities. A U-joint is killed in the exact same way.
I could be jumping to the completely wrong conclusion here, but both the U-Joint and planetary gear set failing on this van, given that they will both fail if subjected to the same type of conditions, is pretty suspicious. These vans go 200K+ miles without these types of problems. I am not saying any of this necessarily happened, but to have both these types components go at once is highly suggestive of the particular types of abuse I mentioned.
The U-joint and tranny were replaced 30k apart. I understand that these trucks go over 200k; that's why I bought one. Mine has been a POS since it hit 51k. All I can say is its been serviced on a regular basis and was not a fleet vehicle. I have owned or driven many Fords over the years and have never experienced so many problems this soon(82k) on a vehicle. Junk is junk.
Do you drive this van or is it one of your employees?
If it's your employee's someone ain't tellin' you somethin'.
No its just me driving. When my own mechanic tells me to trade it in, well that speaks volumes. This truck sucks big time.
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