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EL Falcon Gearbox
I have an automatic EL Falcon Futura Sapphire, that I've owned since new.
It has 260K on the clock and just before Christmas on at least 5 occasions whilst driving on the freeway I would suddenly get a bucketful of neutrals. Normal transmission features always restored after just a couple of minutes.
I also noticed that I could no longer (at any speed) manually drop to a lower gear from drive.
It was recommended by my mechanic, the same mechanic has looked after this vehicle since new, that a new or reconditioned gearbox was required, so I agreed.
2 days later the vehicle was returned and I immediately noticed that a manual kick down to a lower gear was still not available. It also came about that on a long trip that the bucket full of neutrals also returned.
I took the car back to my mechanic and he in turn returned the vehicle to the reco gearbox place.
The car was returned to me today at no further cost, the kick down problem appears to have been fixed and I'm advised that 2 faulty solenoids have been replaced - so all should be good.
What concerns me is that my mechanic now advises me that he has been advised by the gearbox people have advised him that they will NOT be interested in any future gearbox warranty claims because of the way they assume I drive my vehicle.
They claim that my vehicle is an automatic not a semi automatic, if I want to play boy racer (I'm 58 years old) and manually kick down to a lower gear then I should have bought a manual.
They claim that because I wanted this function fixed I must be constantly using it.
They claim the Ford drivers manual reports that the manual kick down feature is only to be used when traveling DOWN a very steep hill and if used in any other manner it will void the warranty.
They claim there is a gear box lock button on the gear stick for this very reason, funnily enough I can only get this button to work on my car to move the gear lever into reverse.
As it happens my mechanic (or should I say now ex mechanic) agrees with the reco mechanics.
I claim, if push came to shove they could argue their point in court.
I can't help but feel that WHY would any manufacturer build something so obviously capable of fulfilling a function if in fact it wasn't designed to do the same. I'm not talking about kicking down to a lower gear at 100MPH, I would assume there would be some form of electronic stop for that sort of stuff but I'm sure that prior to the gearbox problems starting I was able to shift to a lower gear from drive at about 80 to 100KPH.
Your thoughts and comments would be appreciated
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Linear Mode
