Shifter Troubles

[scoobybri]

Add me to the list of people with a bum shifter. I was hoping that the apparent lack of modern engineering would not lead to the shifter dying over the long term but here I am at 6 months with issues. Started yesterday. I tried putting the shifter in Stow position to use the workspace. The shifter only clicked when the button was pressed. It did not move. So I put the truck in drive and opened the driver door which should move the shifter automatically to Park. Shifter grinded a little and then the light next to P blinked rapidly. When I tried to manually move it, the shifter was stuck. I turned the truck off and back on a few times. It would grind and one time it finally moved to Neutral and stuck there. Another few times, and it moved to reverse. Eventually, it made it back to park. At this point, the shifter kept lightly clicking for several minutes. I disconnected the 12v battery for a few minutes and when I tried everything again, the same symptoms happened.
I called the dealer and made an appointment but to my surprise, everything was working properly the next morning. Awesome. Drove to work and everything was good when I parked. I was about to call the dealer late in the afternoon to cancel my appointment when something told me to check again. Tried stowing the shifter. No dice. Tried the automatic shift to park. It worked but the shifter was catching on every position for several seconds before eventually moving to the next position. When it reached park, it did the quiet clicking for several minutes. So I kept the appointment. I will report back when I have it looked at.

Like others have said, the whole automatic shifter seems super low tech and junky for a truck that has so much polish otherwise. Even when it is finally fixed, I'm concerned that it's going to go out again in the not so distant future. Probably at 37 months of ownership.

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[Maineiac12]

Are you in a warm climate? I noticed that happening on my XLT when the weather was 80+ and the truck was parked outside and got real warm. Always fixed it self by the next morning.

 

[scoobybri]

This is exactly what is happening. If the interior gets hot, it stops working. Once it cools down, it works fine. Since I never used the stowable feature, I may just wait until I go to the dealer for some other issue to have them look at it. It's an almost 2 hour round trip to the dealer and if they hold the truck and give me a loaner, that's another long round trip to pick it up.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Add me to the list of people with a bum shifter. I was hoping that the apparent lack of modern engineering would not lead to the shifter dying over the long term but here I am at 6 months with issues. Started yesterday. I tried putting the shifter in Stow position to use the workspace. The shifter only clicked when the button was pressed. It did not move. So I put the truck in drive and opened the driver door which should move the shifter automatically to Park. Shifter grinded a little and then the light next to P blinked rapidly. When I tried to manually move it, the shifter was stuck. I turned the truck off and back on a few times. It would grind and one time it finally moved to Neutral and stuck there. Another few times, and it moved to reverse. Eventually, it made it back to park. At this point, the shifter kept lightly clicking for several minutes. I disconnected the 12v battery for a few minutes and when I tried everything again, the same symptoms happened.
I called the dealer and made an appointment but to my surprise, everything was working properly the next morning. Awesome. Drove to work and everything was good when I parked. I was about to call the dealer late in the afternoon to cancel my appointment when something told me to check again. Tried stowing the shifter. No dice. Tried the automatic shift to park. It worked but the shifter was catching on every position for several seconds before eventually moving to the next position. When it reached park, it did the quiet clicking for several minutes. So I kept the appointment. I will report back when I have it looked at.

Like others have said, the whole automatic shifter seems super low tech and junky for a truck that has so much polish otherwise. Even when it is finally fixed, I'm concerned that it's going to go out again in the not so distant future. Probably at 37 months of ownership.

Hi there! Will you send us a message with your VIN and your local Ford dealer? I can look into things on my end.

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