Problematic Transmission?

[rcryniak]

Hi... I took my relatively new 2012 SHO PP on vacation... finally put some quality time in with the car. I have the MyCal Touch from Livernois, but haven't yet installed any of their tunes. I was hoping to install them on this vacation since there are some really gorgeous and newly paved mountain roads that are always awesome to drive.

Anyhow, before I'd install any custom tuning, I wanted to make sure that (a) my car is in tip-top shape, and (b) I also wanted to capture some test data for before/after analysis. I've been using the MyCal to capture the data.

One thing I noticed over the past month or so is that when I coast, the car sometimes feels like it's dragging a bit... slowing down a bit too fast - as if the brakes are on just a touch. On occasion, it feels like the drop in speed is somewhat sudden, like a small "bump". For all I know, that's completely normal for a 2012 SHO PP... my last car was a 2004 Taurus SES, which feels radically different. (I really do need to learn more about these things... and I will over the next year.) But I thought I'd ask all of you experts out there to hopefully get a quick answer... before I install any custom tunes... just in case there's something off with the tranny, and it needs addressed before I install any custom tunes.

Here's some data I got that I thought was possibly weird. This is all just in a normal driving situation, no WOT or anything crazy/fun:

The car went through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear relatively quickly - from 0 to 15mph (normal driving acceleration), then jumped from 3rd into 5th (skipping 4th) at only 30mph. (Automatic trans, tried this with both Traction Control on and off.) It stayed in 5th through 37mph, just a hair over the speed limit. Coming to a stop, it shifted down to 4th at 22mph, then 3rd gear at 14mph, then jumped down to 1st gear (Skipping 2nd gear) when I hit 8mph. This is the second time it skipped a gear when it shifted. The entire drive, the RPMs never went over 2300.

OK, so my questions are...

1. Is 30mph too slow to be in 5th gear? Is that normal for automatic?
2. Is the auto transmission supposed to be changing gears with such low RPMs? If so... why? Is it a fuel efficiency thing?
3. I'm wondering if the sudden drops I felt are when it skips a gear like that?
4. The RPMs didn't change at all when the gears shifted. Is that normal? I was expecting to see the engine RPMs adjust when shifting occurred... I did some reading on how auto trannys work, and now I'm thinking that could be normal since the torque converter could be at play... am I right/wrong?
5. Do any of these things seem off to anyone at all for stock tuning? If so, I will delay installing the Livernois tuning until I get the car looked at.

I really, really appreciate all of your input in advance... and sorry for what's probably totally newbie type questions... but, well, I am a newbie, lol. Thanks again! :thankyou:

Oh, and just in case this all seems too nitpicky to some (I hope it won't), I'm a software engineer, so this kind of detail is just in my nature. Hopefully over time as I learn more about cars (my SHO in particular) it'll come in handy helping others on the forum.

 

[SHOdded]

The only change you have made since purchase is the plugs, right? Has the driving behavior changed before/after?

Understanding the gearshift positions of the 6–speed with
SelectShift Automatic™ transmission (SST) (if equipped)
Your vehicle has been designed to improve fuel economy by reducing
fuel usage while coasting or decelerating. When you take your foot off
the accelerator pedal and the vehicle begins to slow down, the torque
converter clutch locks up and aggressively shuts off fuel flow to the
engine while decelerating. This fuel economy benefit may be perceived
as a light to medium braking sensation when removing your foot from
the accelerator pedal.

I believe this applies to the paddle shifters, but should also be the logic for D mode:

Recommended shift speeds - Upshift according to the following chart:
Upshifts when accelerating (recommended for best fuel economy)
Shift from:
1 - 2 15 mph (24 km/h)
2 - 3 25 mph (40 km/h)
3 - 4 40 mph (64 km/h)
4 - 5 45 mph (72 km/h)
5 - 6 50 mph (80 km/h)

You tested the trans shifting on a level road? Uphill/downhill driving will feel different.

 

[rcryniak]

The plugs are the only change I've made. I'm not aware of the previous owner making any changes, so I'm still stock afaik.

I did my test on a road with level regions, as well as a very mild grade. How it has been feeling is no different than when I first purchased the car really. And I didn't see that section about the torque converter & coasting... "a light to medium braking sensation". Yep. That's what I felt. AWESOME!! Thank you so much for pointing that out... that it's normal! (whew!)

So...with question #3 answered, any ideas on the other questios? Is it normal for the RPMs to stay the same when changing gears under "normal driving"? Is 5th gear normal at that low speed in automatic with gentle acceleration? Is it safe to assume that the gear skipping is normal then with automatic?

 

[rcryniak]

I should also point out that I'm slightly nervous about loading the LMS tunes. I'm told they've had a 0 percent failure rate, and that's awesome, but since this was a used vehicle with 25k miles on it, I have no guarantees that it's in the perfect condition it should be in for something like that... and being such a new driving experience, I don't know the car well enough to "feel" if something's genuinely wrong. My fear is that if something's not perfect, and I install one of the tunes, and something goes wrong... it won't be covered under the warranty... which would SUCK. I did have the garage check everything when then put the plugs in, an they said she's in great shape. Still a little nervous and feeling cautious... but also really anxious to try out the stage 4+.

 

[rcryniak]

Oh, and the gear skipping thing in automatic... from 3rd to 5th and from 3rd to 1st... I didn't "feel" that necessarily. That's the data coming into the MyCal Touch and logged - noticed it when pulling the data into Excel. Hoping that it's normal operation for the SHO in automatic.

 

[SHOdded]

Hopefully someone who DOES have answers about the trans shifting behavior will chime in!

Any idea what the plugs are gapped at? Check for oil in the intake, or loose turbo piping?

From the experience with my vehicle, dropping a couple of gears happens when more power is demanded from the engine than is available in the current gear (going uphill, or suddenly going WOT, e.g.). Going up a couple of gears, that I have not seen, but may be possible if you are on a significant downslope (kinda like going into overdrive).

Ultimately, if you do not get to speak with LMS directly, I would not load the tune, but WOULD continue monitoring and logging. Best to err on the side of caution, as you already have.

 

[rcryniak]

Any idea what the plugs are gapped at?

Got the plugs from Livernois, gapped at 0.030.

Check for oil in the intake,

Everything under the hood looks clean and dry... but I'm not sure if I'm looking in the right place?

or loose turbo piping?

Not even remotely sure how to check that. lol


So I called Ford today... told them I had a logging computer hooked up to ODBII port, and noticed the automatic shifting skipping gears. The lady on the other end wasn't a tech, so she forwarded me to the dealership closest to my location, and I spoke to the service advisor there. According to him, in automatic, it's perfectly normal for the transmission to skip gears during normal driving (i.e. not WOT), and he'd only worry if it skipped in manual.

Someone here PM'd me and recommended I get Livernois' take on it, and to get a transmission diagnostic done regardless. So, I think I might do that... but as of right now, I'm no longer worried per se. Cautious perhaps, but if someone experienced says it's normal, then at least it's not a red flag. I guess I'll put off installing the tune until I have hard proof that says she's in tip-top shape.

I also found a great road to do some testing on today... ran 0-60 in 5.69 seconds. That seemed a little slow, so I chalked it up to altitude. (We're in the mountains.) Then I realized I had my A/C and Traction Control on... so probably not an ideal test, lol. Even so, it was fun. I think my old 2004 Taurus SES could do that in what 9 seconds? So, it's still really awesome!!

 

[SHOdded]

Keep us in the loop

 

[Calgary]

I think the pressure was on to keep this thing high in the MPG to keep the whole ecoboost motto going. I feel the exact same thing when letting foot off gas I feel it is worse when the car is cold. I can easily keep almost exact rpm when shifting its quite impressive how smooth it shifts sometimes. It feels worse when the car is cold.

Im not even 100% sure flooring it to full throttle is the best way to get acceleration. When you ease into it seems to produce more pull. I suppose thats just the boost building up.

BTW if your getting 5.69 with tc on and ac thats pretty impressive mine feels like a POS when the a/c is on it feels like atleast 5 or 10 percent of the power is gone. i thought it was suppose to be more like 1-3 percent.

 

[rcryniak]

I wonder if any SHO owner actually cares about the "Eco" in "EcoBoost" lol