— A Ford F-150 10-speed transmission lawsuit alleges the trucks experience harsh shifting, jerking, hesitation and slipped gears.
The proposed class action lawsuit includes 2017-2019 trucks in Illinois, all equipped with 10R80 automatic transmissions.
According to the lawsuit, the 10-speed transmissions cause potentially "life-threatening" issues yet the automaker refuses to recall the trucks or replace the transmissions.
The lawsuit alleges Illinois F-150 owners and lessees would have paid less for the trucks or possibly wouldn't have purchased the F-150s if they would have known about the life-threatening problems.
The plaintiff claims all affected truck customers "have suffered ascertainable loss of money, property, and/or loss in value of their Class Vehicles."
Based on court documents, plaintiff Justin O’Connor leased a 2018 Ford F-150 XLT 3.5 EcoBoost with the 10R80 10-speed transmission, but about five months and 6,000 miles later the plaintiff claims he noticed a loud "clunk" or "bang" noise when he started the engine.
He also claims the 10-speed transmission holds gears longer than it should and experiences a loss of power while shifting during warmup and colder operations.
According to O'Connor, the truck lost its acceleration and shifting capabilities and displayed a message that said, “drive mode not available," along with an orange wrench icon illuminated on the dash. The plaintiff alleges the F-150 went into limp mode, so he pulled into a parking lot and disconnected the battery to reset the drive mode.
The lawsuit alleges Ford advertises the F-150 trucks equipped with 10-speed transmissions as providing “on-demand power with virtually no lag." However, drivers have allegedly suffered whiplash injuries because the automatic transmissions shifted harshly.
Ford has issued at least two technical service bulletins (TSBs) to dealerships concerning how the transmissions shifted.
Ford TSB 18-2079 says:
"Some 2017 F-150/Raptor vehicles equipped with a 10R80 automatic transmission built on or before 1-Aug-2017 may exhibit harsh or delayed shifts and/or an illuminated malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) with diagnostic trouble code (DTC) P0711 stored in the transmission control module (TCM)."
Ford technicians were told to reprogram the powertrain control modules, and technicians were also told to advise customers the vehicles are:
“[E]quipped with an adaptive transmission shift strategy which allows the vehicle’s computer to learn the transmission’s unique parameters and improve shift quality. When the adaptive strategy is reset, the computer will begin a re-learning process. This re-learning process may result in firmer than normal upshifts and downshifts for several days.”
TSB 18-2274 was issued for 2018 F-150 vehicles "equipped with a 2.7L, 3.5L or 5.0L engine and 10R80 automatic transmission and built on or before 15-May 2018 may exhibit harsh/bumpy upshift, downshift and/or engagement concerns."
That bulletin also informed technicians to reprogram the powertrain control modules and tell customers about the adaptive transmission shift strategy.
According to the 10-speed transmission lawsuit, the “adaptive transmission shift strategy” fails to fix the harsh shifting and other problems associated with the components.
The Ford F-150 10-speed transmission lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois - O'Connor, et al., v. Ford Motor Company.
The plaintiff is represented by Greg Coleman Law, and Wexler Wallace.