Ford Falcon Gearbox & Transmission Problems

It was thought that the revised cooler design had fixed the problem, and that was backed up by a lack of reports of failed coolers for a long time, but more recently we have been getting reports of coolers failing and damaging the transmission. That would suggest the problem hasn't been fixed. It's worth considering fitting an external cooler.

Yes, we understand that the problem is still occurring. We also understand that Ford has an external cooler to fix it. Talk to a Ford dealer about it.

It was thought that the problem with the automatic transmission oil cooler was fixed when the design was changed in the BFII model, but from the number of reports we are now beginning to receive of failures on the FG it appears the problem hasn't been fixed. You're right to seek a solution through the courts, and you're right, it isn't acceptable.

It's most likely a software problem, so you should think about taking back to the dealer to see if they might have a fix available for it. Another possibility we were told about by our auto trans expert, Andrew Williams, is to disconnect the battery and leave it sit overnight or so. There's no guarantee it will work, but that way it might be possible to reset the adaptive learning of the transmission and start from scratch.

The design of the oil cooler was changed in the BF II Falcon to eradicate the potentially expensive failure of the cooler, but we are now seeing enough to say that the problem hasn't really been fixed. We'd like to hear from anyone else who has had troubles with their Falcons in this regard.

If you're not sure whether it's coming from the diff or the auto trans you need to get some help to isolate it before you have any chance of finding the cause. Changing the diff oil would have been the first thing I would have suggested if it was the diff, the next would to suggest it could be a bearing, but that needs a specialist to sort it out. An auto transmission expert would say you should change the trans oil every 25,000 km or so, or every year, and there's good reason to do that if you do a lot of towing. They would also say you should do a full service every 100,000 km or so, and again it's more important to do that if you tow a lot.

The best option it would seem to me is to fit an external cooler and bypass Ford's cooler in the radiator. Changing the cooler every year doesn't really seem to be a workable option for most people.

It could be a number of things causing it. Take it to an automatic transmission specialist and have them check it for you.

Changes were made in the BFII model and they seem to have fixed the problem. We don't get reports of it happening on these later models, but the changes don't affect your car. If you intend to keep the car for a long period it would be worth making the modification, but the car is now eight years old so you might think it's not needed.

Take it back to your dealer and ask him to reset the computer to soften the gear selection.  He should have a recalibration available to do it for you.