Ford Mondeo Gearbox & Transmission Problems

I'll take a punt here and suggest that your car is the turbo-diesel variant with the six-speed dual-clutch transmission. The dual-clutch unit is vastly more problematic than a conventional automatic transmission and has given many manufacturers (Ford and VW being two of the main ones) all sorts of consumer grief over the years.

The unit in your car is a wet-clutch design which is much more robust than the cheaper-to-make dry-clutch type, but has still been known to fail. (The dry-clutch units on Ford's Focus, Fiesta and Ecosport models cost Ford millions in fines when they began failing at low mileages and the ACCC stepped in.) That said, the wet-clutch units have also experienced problems, but before you scrap the car or shell out $15,000 for a new gearbox (which sounds like an ambit claim in the first place) have it checked out by a specialist. In many cases, jerky progress like you're experiencing can be caused by the transmission's control module or even a faulty speed sensor inside the unit, rather than the actual transmission hardware. If that's the case, it may be more economical to repair the car.

Beyond that, I totally agree that less than 100,000km is not an acceptable lifespan for a major component such as a car's transmission.

Ford started using a dual-clutch transmission on the Mondeo from late 2009 in the upgrade of the Mark 4 Mondeo. It continued into the Mark 5 model launched in mid-2015. However, it’s important to note that it was not the dry-clutch DPS6 version of the Powershift gearbox you’ve asked about, but a superior wet-clutch version. It was also used only on turbocharged petrol and turbo-diesel Mondeos; the normally-aspirated petrol model used a conventional automatic transmission.

The Mondeo dual-clutch unit’s wet-clutch design has proven itself to be the vastly superior solution. It’s not that we haven’t heard of some failures of this transmissions, but it’s far less likely to cause problems than the dry-clutch version which was only used by ford in Focus, Fiesta and Ecosport (in Australia).

I can understand why anybody would be apprehensive about the dry-clutch transmission in a Ford as it was an absolute disaster for both owners and the Ford company. Ford Australia was fined millions and roundly condemned by the ACCC over its handling of the fiasco, and many owners swore off Ford’s products for life.

A huge percentage of dry-clutch Focuses, Fiestas and Ecosports suffered total transmission failures early in life, and even those that kept going often had driveability issues to drive their owners crazy. The best advice with a dual-clutch Fiesta, Focus or Ecosport is to avoid it at all costs. This is a car you really don’t want to own at any price.

This is a bit of a weird one because the only difference between using manual mode and fully-automatic mode is that you tell the gearbox what gear to be in in the former, and the gearbox decides for itself in the latter. Beyond that, the exact same process is going on inside the transmission. Which means, I’d expect the same problems to be apparent regardless of what mode you were driving in.

Your gearbox is doing what’s known as `slipping’ or `flaring’ and that can be caused by a number of things. Those include low transmission-fluid level, low fluid-pressure caused by a worn pump or accumulators, a damaged torque converter or worn out bands and clutches inside the gearbox. The low fluid level is easy to check and address, but anything else probably points to either a new gearbox of a rebuild of the current one.

The wild card is the difference behaviour between auto and manual mode, so perhaps it’s a problem with the electronic solenoids that control the shifts. It could be that the gearbox is not shifting properly in automatic and will only behave when you prod it via the manual-shift mode. A scan at a workshop might give a few clues in this regard.

The PowerShift transmission problems related to the dry clutch transmission fitted to the Focus, Fiesta and EcoSport models. The Mondeo has a wet clutch transmission, and as such, is not affected.

Ford was having heaps of trouble with its dual-clutch automatic transmission back then, so it would be wise not to take the risk of buying one. Holden was in just as much trouble with the torque-converted auto in the Cruze, and I would urge you not to go down that route either. Instead of those, consider a Toyota Camry.

The demand for manual gearboxes is so low today that it’s not worth car companies doing all the compliance work needed when they know they would only sell a handful of cars. You might have to loo at something like a Holden Commodore.

The Mondeo is generally reliable, but the dual-clutch automatic transmission has been troublesome and I wouldn’t buy one myself. Manual no problem, but not the auto. If, as you say, it is under warranty take it back to where you bought it and have them investigate the noise you hear.

To have a transmission fail after just 100,000 km is not acceptable, particularly when it hasn't been used for towing. I assume it's a dual-clutch automatic, which has been troublesome in many Fords around that time. Ford should be showing some interest in fixing it for you; at the very least they should be offering you part compensation for a replacement transmission. If you can't get any help from Ford's customer service people, go to the Victorian government's consumer affairs department, or think about going to VCAT.

Getting Ford to do anything for you is going to be very difficult. The first thing to do it to request the dealer to ask Ford to cover the cost of replacing the transmission, or at least part of the cost. If that fails go direct to Ford's customer service people and make you request directly. If that also fails, as I suspect it will, talk to the people Bannister Law (ph: 03 8899 6050) who are conducting a class action suit about problems with this transmission.

Going manual in an automatic is a good tip for all types of driving, and the best designs of self-shifters do a great job of mimicking a full manual change.