Ford Territory Problems

As with any automatic transmission problem, the first thing to do is check the level of transmission fluid in the gearbox itself. These shouldn’t need top-ups, but if a leak occurs, they can lose enough fluid to play havoc with the gear selection and drive-transmission processes. Low fluid can cause a loss of drive in any gear, but could also contribute to a valve-body problem where the lack of fluid prevents the correct gear selection process. Low fluid can also mean the clutch-packs and bands can not exert enough pressure to get the car moving.

It's worth noting, though, that this particular transmission has a finite lifespan and a loss of third and fourth gears could be the first sign that the unit is worn out and requires either replacement or reconditioning. A transmission specialist should be your first port of all.

The Territory was sold in pretty big numbers, so finding a replacement transmission either in a wrecking yard or a specialist transmission shop shouldn’t be difficult at all. That’s helped by the fact that it used the same transmission as the Ford Falcon and that car sold in huge numbers over the years.

But before you rush out and buy a new gearbox, make sure the one you already have actually needs replacing. Sometimes, a small problem can cause issues like the ones you’re having, and it’s a simple, cheap fix instead of a complete replacement.

The first thing to check is the level of the transmission fluid. Low fluid level can cause a loss of drive like you’re experiencing, and a transmission shop should be able to diagnose exactly what’s going on. That said, a loss of drive in this particular transmission is often the first sign of a terminal failure.

This era of Australin Fords had a bit of a habit of having their body computers go on the blink. When that happened, a whole bunch of things could start acting up, but the central locking was a prime suspect.

When a car thinks it has a door, bonnet or bootlid opened, it will often refuse to lock, preferring instead to warn the driver that the car is not secure. And when the body computer is confused, it can interpret a closed door as an open one. But before you take it to an auto electrician to be sorted, try this: Take a can of lubricating spray and apply some to the little door sensor inside the door jamb. This is the micro switch that tells the computer what’s going on, and if the switch is full of dust or jammed, that won’t happen. Sometimes freeing the switch will make the problem go away.

The other thing to try is to disconnect the car’s battery and leave it overnight before reconnecting it. Sometimes this will actually reset the body computer. It doesn’t work every time, but sometimes it will do the trick.

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.

This sounds like a home bodge designed to keep a car running even if it’s not how Ford intended things to operate. Often, when something like the temperature sensor that controls cooling fans fails, a dodgy fix is to short-circuit the switching mechanism to have the fans running all the time. So, the vehicle’s engine stays cool, but the fans are now running constantly.

Even though you’ve replaced the temperature sensor that controls these fans (which is what the previous owner probably should have done) the short-circuit bodge means the fans still keep running all the time. Fundamentally, you need to work out what was bodged and reverse that process. Only then can you start to fix the original fault. An auto electrician should be able to unravel things for you.

The Territory has a yellow check-engine light just on the outside of the tachometer’s face, around the 2000rpm mark. Perhaps that’s what you saw flickering on. This is probably nothing to worry about as the light immediately switched itself off, suggesting that whatever the problem was, it was a fleeting one.

This light is linked to the car’s onboard diagnostic system which monitors the entire car for faults and then logs them for future problem-shooting. If a problem occurs twice within a certain time-frame, then the check-engine light must illuminate to warn the driver to have the car checked and the problem fixed.

If the light reappears and stay lit up, then you need to act to have the problem found and fixed before it has the chance to do any permanent damage to the car’s driveline. As a side-note, a car with an illuminated check-engine light is technically unroadworthy.

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.

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.

Any time you have oil mixing with coolant, you have a pretty major problem on your hands. In the case of your Territory, it could be that the head gasket has failed, allowing the two fluids to mix, creating the milky murk known in the trade as a 'milkshake'. It’s a bit unlikely but it could be even more serious and your engine may be suffering from a cracked cylinder head or a split cylinder liner. A blown head gasket is a lot more likely, though.

But just as probable is a problem that occurs pretty frequently with this make and model. The Territory’s transmission is cooled via a heat-exchanger that is cooled by the engine’s coolant. If the plumbing on this cooler fails (usually because of friction due to junk inside the tubing) then the engine coolant and transmission fluid can mix and also form a milkshake which you’ll see in the radiator or coolant catch-tank.

Unfortunately, if this is the case, the transmission’s computer and its hardware may also be damaged beyond repair by the coolant diluting the transmission fluid and generally causing havoc inside the transmission.

The best advice is to not drive the vehicle any farther and have it diagnosed by a workshop to see exactly what has happened.

It might be a case of super-fast overheating, but one would expect the temperature needle to take more than 15 seconds to go from normal to dangerously hot. You could have a broken or faulty gauge, a short-circuiting wire somewhere in the gauge’s wiring or even a temperature sender unit that is giving false readings to the gauge once it gets to a certain temperature.

The first thing to do is work out just how hot the engine really is getting. You can do this with an external temperature gauge or an infra-red thermometer that can be bought for a few dollars. Aim the infra-red beam at the top tank of the radiator, or the top radiator hose and see what reading you get. You should see a value of between 85 and 95 degrees Celsius. At which point, the engine wouldn’t appear to be overheating (provided your new thermostat is working properly).

By the way, the coolant being under pressure when the engine is at operating temperature is perfectly normal. It’s why you shouldn’t remove the cap on the expansion tank when the engine is hot as you can easily get burnt by the escaping coolant. Modern engines pressurise their cooling systems to actually raise the boiling point of the coolant and make their cooling systems more efficient.