[Rajeevraj]

We have seen a lot of bad press about VW's infamous Dual Clutch transmission-The 7 speed DQ200. Came across this article today on Ford's Dual Clutch Transmission-The 6-Speed PowerShift.

A law firm in Australia (Bannister Law) has launched a class action lawsuit against Ford Australia, claiming that the car maker’s PowerShift dual-clutch automatic transmissions are unsafe. Although a specific number of owners involved with the class action is still to be confirmed, as per CarAdvice Website, a spokesperson for the firm told today that around 70,000 examples of the 1.5-litre EcoSport (built 2012-14), ‘WT’/’WZ’ Fiesta (2010-14), and with 1.6- and 2.0-litre ‘LW’ Focus (2010-14) models may be affected.

The suit alleges that the PowerShift system “slips, bucks, jerks, and harshly engages when driven”. Owners are also claimed to have experienced both sudden and delayed acceleration while driving, along with delayed gear shifts and difficulty in bringing the vehicle to a stop.

The class action launched in Australia is asking for a full refund of the purchase price to be ordered, along with compensation for out of pocket expenses, stress, inconvenience and costs associated with carrying out the lawsuit. Similar Lawsuits have been filed in the US in 2015. In 2014, Ford Australia had also extended the warranties of 47,000 Fiesta, Focus and EcoSport models, acknowledging a defect that may cause the PowerShift auto gearbox to exhibit “excessive transmission clutch shudder during light acceleration

Representative Image

Source: CarAdvice.au

In India, Ford uses this transmission in the Figo, Aspire and the Ecosport. It was also used in the now discontinued Ford Fiesta Sedan. Some of the above mentioned 'issues' have been experienced with owners here also. Up until now, most of these have been considered as 'quirks' of the gearbox, but looks like customers in Australia and the US think otherwise. I had noted this point on surges as well as sudden and delayed acceleration.

From my own ownership report:

The short surge scenario: One you take the leg of the brake and give a prod on the accelerator, sometimes instead of gradually moving ahead, there is a quick surge. It is as if you would expect the car to be in 2nd gear, but it decides to hang on to the first gear. I noticed the same behavior when I drove the Aspire also. You get used to it, but a little bit of a bother in tight situations.

The medium slow-fast scenario: Consider you are in slow moving traffic, say at 30-40 kmph, occasionally there is a gap and you want to quickly accelerate and close the gap. The transmission seems to be confused here. Sometimes as you step on the gas, it will be in the right gear and close the gap quickly, other times, it holds the gear and hence you take a while to move on.

A key point to note here is that unlike VW's DSG which has a history of unreliability and failures, in the case of Ford's PowerShift actual failures are not the issue. The unpredictability of the transmission in several scenarios and the potential issues that it can cause is what has got customers upset with Ford.

Point to ponder: Was the relative unpopularity of this transmission in the other markets a reason why we got this across 3-4 models in India and at fantastic prices?

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

There is a similar discussion going on in the Endeavour thread where members are complaining of the transmission behaving abruptly while driving.

Is this related by any chance? If so, its a big issue for our market as well.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post3977039

[reignofchaos]

I have the power shift wet clutch 6dsg450 in my car. Haven't experienced any of these issues mentioned. Which particular transmission are they referring to cos there are multiple variants of this transmission that can take from 150Nm to 450Nm of torque.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Is this related by any chance? If so, its a big issue for our market as well.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3977039

The issues look similar. But does not seem tied to this case. If I am not mistaken, the Endevour uses a different 6 Speed - Torque Converter Gearbox and not a Dual Clutch. Similar issues popping up is worrisome though.

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

I have the power shift wet clutch 6dsg450 in my car. Haven't experienced any of these issues mentioned. Which particular transmission are they referring to cos there are multiple variants of this transmission that can take from 150Nm to 450Nm of torque.

This seems to be the specific one that does duty in the Fiesta/Ecosport/Focus line of cars.

From the source link:

A different version of PowerShift went into Volvo models beginning in 2008, but that unit avoided complaints of bad performance. The Volvo version uses hydraulic actuation, rather than the electric motor/solenoid actuation used in the Focus and Fiesta.

So the one you have apparently will not have these issues.

[GTO]

Ford is getting a lot of heat for its DCT in the USA & Canada too.

The car did fine on the highway, he says, but in stop-and-go traffic, the car would hesitate and surge at unexpected moments.

"Every time it changed gears it stuttered," Magee said. "At about 30 mph, it really acts up."

The dealership told him the vehicle needed a software upgrade, but the car continued to misbehave. In January 2014, he had the first of three accidents.

He was on his way to work when a car ahead of him stopped suddenly. He hit the brakes, but his car -- which was going about 20 mph -- surged and rear-ended the other car. Magee wasn't hurt, but the fender bender caused $2,000 worth of damage.

After two additional accidents, Magee has replaced a clutch and had four software upgrades. Now he's joining a class-action product liability lawsuit filed by Capstone Lawyers of Los Angeles.

Full AutoNews Article

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

The issues look similar. But does not seem tied to this case. If I am not mistaken, the Endevour uses a different 6 Speed - Torque Converter Gearbox and not a Dual Clutch. Similar issues popping up is worrisome though.

My bad. I totally missed that point that the Endeavour uses a TC gearbox. However, surprisingly as you said - the description of the issue seems very similar in both cases.

[studentonwheels]

Originally Posted by GTO

Ford is getting a lot of heat for its DCT in the USA & Canada too.



Full AutoNews Article

Hell yes. The Focus has had a ton of recalls for that as far as I know. There are a LOT of 2013 Focus sedans flooding the used car market ATM.

[dark.knight]

Having driven the automatic Aspire, I have to agree. The shifting seemed vague, not seamless and clunky.. it is in summary the worst automatic I've driven, at least as far as low end torque and city drivability goes.

I drove the car for about 5-6 km and even the sport mode didn't help, heck it made things worse with the gearbox holding gears for longer and the engine becoming noisier.. everything was obvious but the speed. A very badly calibrated gearbox, I felt the Vento 1.6 Auto, Xcent Auto and i20 1.4 Auto were far smoother & seamless and none of them have anywhere close to the power figures+power-weight ratio of the Aspire engine. Something wrong indeed. The TSi in comparison felt almost like a manual.. it shifted gears almost whenever my mind would feel its time for an upshift.

[aaggoswami]

Ford Motor told to pay Thai customers for transmission problems.

Source.

Article

BANGKOK: A Thai court has ordered a local sales affiliate of Ford Motor Co. to pay 291 customers a total of about $720,000 in compensation for selling cars equipped with faulty transmissions.

The Bangkok South Civil Court's decision was welcomed Friday as a victory in a country where consumers rarely win redress.

Most of the plaintiffs in the class action suit will get payments of $800 to $8,000 each depending on the number of times and length of time their cars took to be repaired, the court said Friday. But 12 plaintiffs were denied compensation because their cars were modified before they were repaired.

The court ruled that there was no safety issue, although none of those taking part in the joint lawsuit had reported any injuries.

Ford said in a statement, that it respected the court's verdict.

"We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the Powershift transmission problems and we reiterate that we will work earnestly to take responsibility for fixing them according to our customer service procedures," the company said in statement issued in Thai.

It's another development in a long string of problems with the Ford transmissions, which have resulted in a lawsuit settlement in the U.S. and a fine in Australia. Last year, Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford settled a class-action lawsuit and agreed to pay owners of 2012 to 2016 Focus and 2011 to 2016 Fiesta cars up to $2,325. Those who paid for repairs could also be reimbursed in the complex settlement, which is being appealed.

This year, Ford's Australian subsidiary was fined 10 million Australian dollars ($7.6 million) for mishandling complaints about faulty transmissions in thousands of cars.

The group in the Thai lawsuit asked Ford to buy back the cars and sought 600 million Thai baht ($18.5 million) in damages. They can appeal the ruling within 30 days.

One of the plaintiffs, Varoporn Chamsanit, said the five-year warranty on her car's transmission was about to run out and she was unhappy the court's ruling did not mention Ford's future responsibility for repairs.

"On one hand, I feel proud that we consumers got together and made this demand by ourselves and fought a long fight for several years now," she said. "Today the court made it clear that Ford is at fault and awarded compensation for us. I am proud of the result that we received from the court and feel we've gotten a certain degree of justice."

The case was viewed as a milestone for Thailand, where the civil law was amended several years ago to allow class action litigation for the first time, enabling consumers to seek damages for various complaints.

"If we consider this case, beyond the amount of money awarded, this shows that when consumers work together against any big company, we can achieve a victory. When we file a class-action lawsuit, we can prove the damage is widespread and real, not just hearsay," said lawyer Jinna Yamoaum.

A reliable Torque Converter AT is best bet it seems.