Big fan, Scotty, keep up the awesome work! I have a 2014 Ford Fusion SE 1.6L 44k miles with a manual transmission. A little backstory, bought the car back in 2014, drove it for 3 years, put about 36k miles on it. Then, the car sat in storage (monitored facility) while I was stationed overseas in Japan for 4 years. We took it out of storage about 6 months ago, put about another 8k on it.
The car developed a noise emanating from the transmission, like metal rubbing/whine in all forward gears. Noise only really happens under load and with the clutch engaged. Took it to an Aamco and another reputable shop, they both quoted me roughly $2,500 just to drop and crack open the tranny. They’re thinking somethings up with one of the bearings on “diff” side of the MT. I had an extended warranty for 7 years 75k miles and of course it expired back in March. Haven’t really tried pressing Ford for the repair but I’m pretty sure I’m out of luck because of the time. Is that something even worth pursuing?
My main questions to you is, do you think this is an early tell to get rid of this car? The car drives fine right now but is it dangerous to keep driving like that? It’s only got 44k and for the tranny to already have to be rebuilt is a huge red flag in my opinion. But what do I know? I defer to your wisdom Scott.
Thanks in advance,
Eddy
You did say this was a manual transmission, right? Changing out the transmission oil with 75W80 gear oil can only help the situation. It's not like it's an automatic. I think it's worth a try at least.
(I think that might be 75W90, but I am unsure)
Whatever.
I would first try changing out the trans oil and running it to see if it helps. It sounds like there was some condensation inside the trans during storage that caused some rust. Hopefully, an oil change will dissipate it.
Mechanics say they won’t do a fluid change for liability purposes. They believe it will cause more damage. Considering the tranny already has to get cracked open, is there really that much more damage a MT fluid change can cause?
Removing and installing the transmission shouldn't cost that much - that's not much labor and what they're asking for comes out to like $500 an hour.
What I'd do is get a good used transmission for $500-$750 and see how it goes.
Would love to try that but inventory is low on these transmissions since they didn’t really sell too many manual fusions.
Try what @Doc says and change the gear oil. It's really no different than a typical oil change for most cars. Crack the plug and either siphon it out, or if it has a separate drain plug, drain it, then replace it with the same amount of oil you got out of it. If the fill hole is on the side of the pan, fill it until oil comes back out, but make sure you're on a level surface when you do it. They're splash lubricated, no silly pumps and such like an automatic. You'll be able to tell if rust and moisture was in there by looking in the old fluid.
