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.

Transmission fluid should generally be a pretty pink or red colour. If it’s black (and/or smells like burned toast) that suggests that it is way overdue for a change of fluid and a new filter, and also that there could be lots of wear inside the transmission.

Tiny bits of the clutches and bands that control an automatic like yours wear off over time and it’s these that are discolouring the fluid. That fact that they’re black, also suggest they’re burned having been overheated at some point in the past.

A transmission shop should be your first port of call, with instructions to diagnose what’s wrong and work out a strategy from there. If the transmission is badly worn, it may need replacing or rebuilding. But you might be lucky and discover that the fluid is simply old and depleted (from a leak somewhere) and the transmission may recover with a full service. Don’t count on it, however.

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.

You have a couple of options here. You can remove the stater motor and take it to an auto electrician who will be able to test it, see what’s wrong with it and give you a quote to rebuild the unit. Or, you can simply buy a new or reconditioned starter motor and fit that instead. Both these options should provide you with a warranty of some sort.

Actually, there’s a third option, and that is to visit a wrecking yard, take a starter motor off a wrecked Territory (making sure it’s the same model and engine) and fit that to your car. This will be the cheapest option, but you could easily find that the new second-hand starter motor has the same problems as the one you already have. Some wrecking yards (who like to be called parts recyclers these days) offer starter motors (and other components) that have been tested, so that would be preferable to just finding one still bolted to a wreck. You might not be offered any sort of warranty, however.

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.

The original slipping could have been caused by low transmission fluid, which would also explain why the unit would not select a gear. That would suggest that the transmission has a leak somewhere, because it’s a sealed system and doesn’t need periodic top-ups.

The danger, however, is that running the unit with a low fluid level has caused damage to the mechanical parts of the gearbox and possibly the torque converter as well. That’s because the fluid in an automatic transmission not only provides the drive, it also lubricates the various bits of the transmission. Not enough fluid means not enough lubrication.

If it was a as simple as low fluid, now that you’ve changed the fluid and taken it back to its correct level, you should have all the gears working again. But the fact that it will only select first and second gears suggests damage has already occurred. This is really a job for a transmission specialist who will be able to accurately diagnose what’s wrong.

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.