5 months and 36000 miles = problems!

CKhalvashi

Hey all,

I know I’ve had a slight moan about this before, however now if the point where I really am going to scream.

Just got back from a Ford dealership with a 5 month old S-Max 2.2 TDCi (Auto) that’s covered just over 36,000 miles, with a gearbox light that’s been persistently on for the most part of the last 4 months.

The dealership in question (won’t mention them as they have been so helpful!) have had the car in about 5 times, and have literally turned the light off this morning using a code on the car. Is this normal?

I’m worried about invalidating the warranty!

Chris

neilmcl

Well if the only problem is the fact that the warning light is incorrectly showing and there's nothing actually wrong with the gearbox, and all they've done is reset the fault code then no it won't invalidate anything.

Mr_Reeman

If the fault turns out to be something where you need to claim off the warranty, then as long as you have records of the fault first happening whilst the car is still in warranty, then I think you are fine.

I would be pushing to get the dealer to fix the fault, rather than just clear the fault code. I can guarantee the light will probably be back on by the end of the week!

CKhalvashi

Mr_Reeman wrote: »

If the fault turns out to be something where you need to claim off the warranty, then as long as you have records of the fault first happening whilst the car is still in warranty, then I think you are fine.

I would be pushing to get the dealer to fix the fault, rather than just clear the fault code. I can guarantee the light will probably be back on by the end of the week!

That’s what I was worried about. I’ve heard rumour that the engine can’t cope with 200bhp (The ’11’ plate model and also my ’58’ from before are both 143bhp and has had no problems, same gearbox).

I’ll give it until the end of next week and see what happens!

iolanthe07

5 month old S-Max 2.2 TDCi (Auto) that’s covered just over 36,000 miles.

This huge mileage, equating to almost 90,000 miles a year, may be the problem.

CKhalvashi

iolanthe07 wrote: »

5 month old S-Max 2.2 TDCi (Auto) that’s covered just over 36,000 miles.

This huge mileage, equating to almost 90,000 miles a year, may be the problem.

Much of this is due to the fact I’m either abroad or somewhere in the country (Will do around 2200mi this week for example). It’s doing the mileage on international motorways, rather than in cities (just 100 of the above will be at less than 20mph average, for example).

My ’07’ was run to 130,000 (Replaced by the ’08’, which had 286,000 on it in September (Replaced by the ’61' (and has just been released onto a taxi rank, so doing about 1k/week), so I simply don’t see why there are problems with this one.

mattyprice4004

iolanthe07 wrote: »

5 month old S-Max 2.2 TDCi (Auto) that’s covered just over 36,000 miles.

This huge mileage, equating to almost 90,000 miles a year, may be the problem.

Why would that be a problem? Why would this cause the light to come on?

It's unrelated to mileage.

GolfBravo

CKhalvashi wrote: »

Much of this is due to the fact I’m either abroad or somewhere in the country (Will do around 2200mi this week for example). It’s doing the mileage on international motorways, rather than in cities (just 100 of the above will be at less than 20mph average, for example).

When your dealer cancelled the transmission error code did he, by any chance, mention what the error code related to?

When did the warning light appear first? While driving or stationary?

Error codes can be generated by a dozen different "faults". It could be even high transmission oil temperature (due to high speed on a motorway and then a stop at a service station) or a "offline" solenoid (say the onboard computer misses an electric signal from the solenoid because of moisture in electrical connector). Once there is a fault diagnosed, a code is logged by the cars ECU and the warning light comes on.

Unless there are any other faults (slipping/missing gears, transmission going into neutral, low oil level, etc.) there is nothing to worry about.

However, since you do very high mileage at high speed I would recommend to change the transmission oil (and clean the filter) sooner than recommended in the handbook - automatic transmissions heavily rely on high quality (and correct grade) oil. Constant high speed driving (and hence high oil temperature) degrades the oil quite quickly.

Notmyrealname

iolanthe07 wrote: »

5 month old S-Max 2.2 TDCi (Auto) that’s covered just over 36,000 miles.

This huge mileage, equating to almost 90,000 miles a year, may be the problem.

It isn't. All components on the car will be far less worn than a car doing 36,000 miles over 5 years.

CKhalvashi

GolfBravo wrote: »

When your dealer cancelled the transmission error code did he, by any chance, mention what the error code related to?

When did the warning light appear first? While driving or stationary?

Error codes can be generated by a dozen different "faults". It could be even high transmission oil temperature (due to high speed on a motorway and then a stop at a service station) or a "offline" solenoid (say the onboard computer misses an electric signal from the solenoid because of moisture in electrical connector). Once there is a fault diagnosed, a code is logged by the cars ECU and the warning light comes on.

Unless there are any other faults (slipping/missing gears, transmission going into neutral, low oil level, etc.) there is nothing to worry about.

However, since you do very high mileage at high speed I would recommend to change the transmission oil (and clean the filter) sooner than recommended in the handbook - automatic transmissions heavily rely on high quality (and correct grade) oil. Constant high speed driving (and hence high oil temperature) degrades the oil quite quickly.

The code was something to do with the gearbox, and it won’t go into manual mode (which is a nightmare in the snow, especially as I live at the top of a steep hill!) I don’t know more than this. Dagenham Motors see the car around once every 10,000 miles, that’s it!

The first time I noticed it was after about 600 miles at between 90-100mph (I was crossing from Dusseldorf to Calais at the time), after a fuel fill-up.

It’s just had £1700 inc. labour spent on it (why didnt someone tell me that 18” tires are £480 each :mad:), and as far as I’m aware, it’s been run in accordance with the manufacturers recommendations.

In Switzerland now until tomorrow night, and off for a drink, so see you later guys, and thanks for the help :beer:

GolfBravo

CKhalvashi wrote: »

The first time I noticed it was after about 600 miles at between 90-100mph (I was crossing from Dusseldorf to Calais at the time), after a fuel fill-up.

It is quite common to run into problems on German autobahns when you're not careful. Since (usually) there are no speed restrictions on autobahns you tend to drive at 100mph+, so all the gear runs really hot. And then the worst thing you can do is to stop at a petrol station and quickly turn the engine off. The oil temperature in both engine and transmission (especially automatic) then increases dramatically, since there is no cooling. The boiling hot oil then deposits all sorts of nasty stuff on turbocharger oil seals (ask any Renault dCi driver) causing a sudden and premature turbo failure. Auto transmission oil temperature soars as the oil radiator doesn't work well in a stationary car - this can cause an error that gets logged by the ECU.

The best thing you can do is to slow down 2-3 miles before a petrol station (in Germany there are petrol station signs at 5, 2, and 1 kilometres prior) to let the transmission oil cool a little, and then when you stop let the engine idle for half a minute.

CKhalvashi wrote: »

It’s just had £1700 inc. labour spent on it (why didnt someone tell me that 18” tires are £480 each :mad:), and as far as I’m aware, it’s been run in accordance with the manufacturers recommendations.

Huh? £480 each? What tyres did you get? Good quality 235/45 R18 W tyres shouldn't be more than £250 each fitted.