Ford Problems

The Territory is pretty well known in the fixit trade for having various transmission problems. Perhaps the most common was a failure of the entire transmission due to coolant from the transmission cooler mixing with the transmission fluid inside the gearbox. When that happened, the destruction was fairly complete with ruined electronics and internal hardware as the contaminated fluid could no longer satisfactorily lubricate the gearbox’s many moving parts. A whole new transmission was the usual outcome.

The first sign of this was usually milky transmission fluid (caused by the water mixing with the oil) but by then, the damage was often already done. This was more of a problem with the later model Territories with the six-speed ZF automatic transmission.

Any time you have that combination of symptoms, the end result is possibly not going to be very good. Rangers of this year and model have experienced problems in the past that include poor fuel or other fuel-system damage causing a piston to develop a hole or crack, and even things like a failed EGR valve (which is water-cooled in this model) draining the radiator and causing the engine to melt down.

You need to have an experienced mechanic take a look at the vehicle before doing anything else, as there’s a high percentage chance that your engine will need to be rebuilt or replaced. You might be lucky and have a simple problem that is cheap and easy to fix, but plenty of Ranger owners will attest to the slimness of that chance.

It’s serious inasmuch as it’s pointing to a problem with the car’s anti-lock brakes which are a critical safety system on any car. It could be caused by a faulty ABS module (which is the component that physically modulates the brake pressure to avoid the wheels locking up). But it could also be the fault of a sensor somewhere on the car. You may even find something as random as low battery voltage can trigger this sort of alert.

It could even be a simple leak in the system that has allowed the brake fluid to fall below the minimum level. So start with that and check the contents of the brake master cylinder under the bonnet. If that’s okay, a brake specialist is probably your best bet.

In the old days, the advice on this would have probably have been to have the fuel injectors cleaned. But these days, the modern diesel is a much more complex and sophisticated thing, and black smoke from the tailpipe could be any number of things to do with the fuel system.

You may find the injectors are, indeed, the problem, but you need to check the condition of the pump, filters, EGR valve and even the turbocharger and its plumbing. Something as simple as a split in the plastic turbocharger piping can lead to excess black smoke.

The first thing to do is get your mechanic to drive the vehicle when it’s hot. Arrange a time and then deliver the car at that time with everything up to full operating temperature. Otherwise, the problem isn’t going to show up when it needs to.

While there are lots and lots of things that can cause this sort of behaviour, it does sound like something in the actual powertrain is the problem. That’s because the shuddering goes away when you drop the transmission into neutral and let the vehicle coast to a stop. If the problem was a wheel, a wheel bearing, axle, brake problem or an out-of-balance driveshaft, the problem would continue even though you were coasting.

You may have a problem with something inside the transmission itself, way too much backlash somewhere in the driveline or a problem with the torque converter. Either way, you need to have your mechanic experience the problem or everybody is simply guessing.

This engine uses what’s called a wet timing belt. So, instead of the toothed, rubber belt running under a cover as most timing-belt engines do, the Ford engine runs its timing belt inside an oil-bath. The idea is that the oil will lubricate the belt, but experience has shown that sometimes, the oil can degrade the belt, causing either belt failure or contamination of the rest of the engine’s oiling system. Many mechanics regard the wet timing belt as a liability rather than an asset.

Some owners have had no bad experiences, others haven’t been so lucky. However, it’s probably worth noting that the replacement for this engine (announced recently) has reverted to a conventional timing chain in the interests of durability and reliability.