Whooby

I suggest ditching the factory heat exchanger for the transmission. Should this fail say good bye to at least $4k to replace the box. Replace it with the PWR unit or a good Oil to Air.

Update time!!!! Got a call on the 23rd to say my car is finally ready to go, Took 5 weeks for the gearbox to come in, dealership was waiting for 4 boxes..... Not sure how much to read in to this. I picked it up on the 24th, Paid the money & they drove the car out from to the shop to the carpark for me to take home. It had been washed (not very well but still washed). I did a check over the inside only 40kays were put on it. Which is okay given it needed to be test driven after the new box was fitted. But the relief I was getting back didn't last when I saw the left rear door..... A nice bit mark about 10cm in diameter where it appears to have come to in contact with a bollard. Fuming at this point I went back inside to tell them what I'd found. Service dept. was closed being a Saturday so I had to tell the sales person about who said they would inform the service manager. Who I was told would contact me Tuesday(Monday being a public holiday). I had gone away for the week so I wasn't too worried as the car went home and stayed in the garage. Tuesday came along, no phone call. I called them in the afternoon got the fairly carefree, didn't give a sh*t response and bring it in for me to check out. So I do this drive from Noosa back to Ipswich (2.5hrs for interstate guys) to see the douche I've been dealing with for 3 months who plays dumb and pretends to not know about the damage or that I'm coming. Service manager is still no where to be seen. So I show him the damage, still acting surprised. He say I'll get the detailer to buff it out, I said it won't they're scratches. They tried, brought the car back 10mins later thinking He's saved the world only for me to say it's still scratched. I told them it wasn't there when it was dropped and I want it fixed. This is where service douche lets his colours shine again, mumbles under his breath (Like you can prove otherwise). He goes looking for the condition report for when the car was delivered.... Which he didn't do so it's his arse now. He goes to the service manager again and comes back and says it we'll arrange for it to go to a paint shop. I said good let me know when. The polishing did remove a lot of the scratches, I could have lived with the small remaining one. Being a silver card it's very hard to see. But because I've had not a sorry in any form for the damage I thought F**K this, these guys can pay for this. Seeing as we got attitude from one of the ladies working in there. Her input was "Oh it's those people that went to Ford about their car" There was absolutely no need for it what so ever, I hadn't done anything wrong. So with all that aside and on to the important bit is the gearbox issues I had resolved??? Yes they most certainly are, the bump from 2->1 I used to have is gone. The gear changes and super smooth. So the "Normal operation" I was told it was at 2 services was a load of sh*te. These dealerships are gone so I can't show them the "Normal Operation" has been fixed. But sadly I've still been let down and disappointed by the dealerships I've dealt with and also Ford Australia. I'm happy they footed the bill for the parts but it should not gone on for 3 months. So now the dramas with my car are almost totally resolved I can close the chapter. Also to prove this is not a random occurrence my brothers 2009 FG XR6 has now milkshaked. 161,000k's on his car. Not a ZF just the 5 speed, but still going to be costly venture for him. So watch this space, soon there will be a G6E Turbo with a new box for sale Thanks for reading. Hugh.

I can speak from recent experience. Currently coming out the other side of lengthy battle having my gearbox replaced after a milkshake. Ford Aust. thankfully came to the party to cover the cost of the parts (exchanger & a new ZF box). This will have a warranty for the next 12mths/20thousand, if I still have the car at the end of that time I'll investigate the cooling options then. I had a warranty provided by the new dissolved Bryan Byrt that should have covered all of the costs but didn't. Thankfully my G6ET had a full service history and I was able to plead my case to Ford. I strongly suggest anyone who has a ZF in their Falcon/Territory out of warranty to remove the factory unit ASAP. Sadly it's not a case of if but when.....

Hi guys. Haven't heard anything about my car for just over a week. Last thing I heard was they'd put the request in for a gearbox (comes from Melb. I think). But with Christmas & New Year it's understandable. But hopefully not too much longer... Not sure what why they changed their minds, my reply letter took a direct shot at their 'Maintenance related' point. It's kind of funny that they took longer to say no to the request in the beginning than they did to change their minds and say yes. I didn't need to get a lawyer in the end, I asked for their position to be in writing. They declined..... I wouldn't want to set a precedence or anything The rebuilt box will have 12mth/20,000Km warranty so I won't be able to touch it for that period. But If I still have the car when that runs out the factory cooler will be gone straight away. I don't think Ford will be willing to give me 2 free gearboxes should it happen again. I had investigated getting a tuner near home to rebuild the box. I was looking at $3500 drive in->drive out with a box with stronger clutch packs etc. oil-air trans cooler, plus $700 for a new torque converter just to be safe. This would have been ideal to do I know, but just not the right time to spend that kind of $$. Particularly when I was planning to sell the car after this saga. Since it now looks like I'll be keeping the car I'll be shopping around for metal cooler pipes, throttle body elbow, intake muffler. Basically every plastic pipe (cross over being the exception) will go. If anyone has/knows of a early standard intercooler for sale please let me know. Mine has the plastic tanks. :( I have no immediate plans to tune it at this stage, I just want piece of mind. I don't want to worry about the plastic pipes letting go. I haven't driven the car since the 31st of Oct. So it will be nice to drive it again. Thanks again guys, Hopefully very soon I'll be saying I'm back driving it. Cheers, Hugh.

Latest update....... Ford Australia is paying for the parts! exchanger and g'box. I'm paying the labour & misc bits & pieces. So while I was hoping to not have to pay anything, A smallish portion of the original bill is okay. When I get it back the reliability mods will be done, Full IC piping replacement and fitting a bloody trans cooler! Cheers for your help and support guys. Hugh.

Crazyxa - Your idea is way out there and a lot more costly than the g'box repair. The saga continues. With the dealership moving closer to liquidation the warranty company now informs me they're only an administrator and can no longer assist with any claims in the future. The warranty was/is between me and the dealership. So now I try to recoup costs from the Administrators/Receivers, which for anyone that has been through the process before can take a very, very, very, very long time.... I was told at least a year. Only saving grace might be that my claim was in before they went to the wall. But we'll wait and see. I've got a total repair cost from Ford, repairing/replacing the box (including the mechatronic unit) replacing the stupid BS heat exchanger (or pay them more to fit an air->oil cooler and not replace the exchanger) plus the oil, etc. etc. They also told me they've been driving it in and out of the workshop everyday for the past 5 weeks now. I nearly pulled the guy through the phone when he said this. But they're Ford trained tech's and they know what they're doing......... Sadly the storms in Brisbane in the coming days/weeks won't be enough to kill it. It would only get repaired. So that's the story for now, getting closer to me having to put my hand in my pocket to pay the bill. Then I'm faced with the keep/sell decision. Only light is that if I keep it I can mod it now and not worry about voiding the warranty. Cheers, Hugh.

Thanks for checking anyway. It's funny that the warranty company say the warranty I have is an extension of the manufactures warranty. But they don't treat it the same as one or cover the car the same.

Cheers for the input and support guys. To sum it up so far to reduce scrolling. Bought the car second hand, 3rd party warranty sold via Ford Dealer (manufactures wty had already run out). 3rd party warranty company are claiming g'box is consequential damage from the heat exchanger failure - Not going to pay for it. I went to Ford because they have serviced the car since I've had it (Twice in 11mths) and when mentioning g'box issues when being dropped off for the service. The report on the service sheet was "G'Box operation Normal". Ford Aust, aren't coming to the party because of the 3rd party wty. This is what they told me over the phone (note the letter doesn't reflect this!?). Currently collating resources to dispute it with the wty company. Failing this I'll raise the point that false info provided by the dealer to the wty company to A. Get the warranty B. Get the sale based on the supply of the warranty. The dealer was selling the warranty product which makes them an agent of the Warranty company and making them ultimately responsible for false info provided to me to get a sale & sell me a void product on a signed contract. Which would be legally binding and require honoring or compensation I won't be rolling over on this, I'm probably not the only one being screwed over by them either. Cheers, Hugh.

Ford told me the heat exchanger failed. Seems they believe it's a "maintenance item", I'd like to see at which service interval they suggest to replace the heat exchanger. It's a BS cop out, completely missed the mark on what's actually wrong with the car. It hadn't even reached the Ford recommended kays for their "life time" gearbox oil change(100 thou).

Well I got my response from Ford, I had a good laugh when I read it...... Sorry the quality is a little crappy, If you can't read it I'll type the text in. Hugh.

The warranty I have has no claim limit per item so I wasn't worried I'd have to contribute to the cost of any repairs. But I didn't expect was their blurry interpretation of a word. The g'box is associated damage, It's not a consequence. Running off the road and smashing through someones fence is a consequence, Having to hire a car is a consequence. Failure of a component which is required for the operation of another is a direct association with the original component failure. All your examples make sense to us normal people. Failed injector = cracked piston (extreme but possible) doesn't mean replaced injector and leaving motor fuct. I'm not done fighting yet.

I thought the Cooler unit was made in china now? Box aside the Ford Milkshake has been an issue for Ford before the ZF came along. The heat exchanger was still a problem here too. The car is nice enough, I just haven't really formed any attachment to it. I don't find as comfortable to drive as my Cruiser or my Celsior. The power/speed it has would be what I like about it the most.

I can't fit an aftermarket transcooler because that would breach the 'warranty', according to the warranty book. Ford service guy even recommended it. What does that tell you about the stock setup....... It all seems very BS. I think they're hoping I'd just accept it and pay the bill myself. I've had a good read, thanks for that mate. I'll do some quoting in the letter I write them. Some legal letter head would look nice on it too. Warranty company will no longer talk to me, everything has to be in writing now.