New Mustang Transmission Problems - Would You Still Buy This Car?

In My Humble Opinion
1

According to this story (thanks, Throatwarbler Mangrove, for the link), the 2011 and 2012 Ford Mustangs have manual transmissions built in China that are failing at a higher than acceptable rate. We are planning to buy a 2011 or 2012 Mustang this summer with a manual transmission (we have zero interest in an automatic one), but now we are becoming afraid of buying the Mustang.

Have any of you heard of this? Does it sound like a car that you’d still buy? Is there any way for us to find out how likely we are to buy this car and have it fail miserably? Is this not actually a big risk?

2

Hell no, I wouldn’t buy.

3

Are you planning to buy it and use it as a daily commuter or put less than 5k/year on it? How long are you planning on keeping the car?

If the answers are “the latter and not long” I’d still go for it. Otherwise, run.

4

My husband will be using it as a daily commuter. I don’t know how long we’ll keep the car - we might look at something like a three year lease.

5

Especially if you’re going to lease, well, I wouldn’t worry about it. That’s what the warranty is for.

6

^^^Ford doesn’t actually have a fix for the trans issue at this point, so if it breaks, you don’t get to drive it, which isn’t much fun, even if it’s under warranty.

I don’t think there’s any was to tell exactly how widespread the problem is. At this point it’s just a bunch of guys on a forum and all anecdote. It’s never a good idea to buy a 1st model year of any car, anyway.

I noticed Calgary is a pretty Chrysler heavy town. I’m biased since I own and like my Chryslers, but for the price of a new V6 Mustang you can get into a 1 or 2 year old gently used Dodge Challenger R/T. The 5.7l Hemi and the Tremec TR-6060 are proven and reliable and of course, what’s the point of any of these cars without the V8?

7

It’s got a warranty, I’d buy it. The T-56, T-6060, and later TR-3650s are the only Mustang Transmissions that were completely trouble free. The T-5, T-45, and early TR-3650 were iffy. Some people got a good one, others got a bad one. Both of mine with 3650s were fine, but I can think of two people who had second gear go out pretty quick. My current Cobra has a T-45 and when it’s below 50, it grinds second until it gets some heat in it. It still grinds second a bit at the drag strip, but it’s fine for normal driving. I’ve only put about 1000 miles on it in the 5 months I’ve had it though.

With that out of the way, if it doesn’t grind on a test drive, I wouldn’t worry about it.

You can browse the forums at www.stangnet.com and www.corral.net to see what issues others have had.

8

Apparently, the trouble starts at about 1000 miles. It would of course have a warranty, but the fix would probably be getting them to put a new transmission in that is exactly the same as the transmission that doesn’t work. My fear would be that the car would spend more time in the shop than on the road (and it would be a fight every step of the way to get Ford to do what they’re supposed to do).

9

This is the thread they talk about:

The bright side is that the problem seems to be mis aligned or out of tolerance attachment of the shift mechanism and not any problem with the internal components of the transmission. Some people have reported that their problem has been fixed once they re-aligned and installed shims in their shifter mechanisms. If this is true then the actual fix should be fairly simple and can be done without removing the engine or trans from the car.

10

If that’s the case, the 2012s should be fine then. I wasn’t a fan of the remote mount shifter that they switched to in 05. Not only did it make a simple part more complicated, it also made aftermarket shifters a lot more expensive. I loved the Pro 5.0 in my 03 GT, but I wasn’t willing to spend what they wanted to put one in my 07 GT. My current car has a Steeda shifter. I’m not crazy about it.

I haven’t been following the problem, but would an aftermarket shifter, like a Pro 5.0 or MGW, fix the problem?

11

2012s are also having the problem. It’s all pretty tentative right now, there could be more than 1 problem that’s affecting different cars.

12

The transmissions that are failing are failing very early - therefore it’ll be a design change when it’s fixed. You’ll either end up with a car with the redesigned box, or they’ll swap in a redesigned one when yours goes.

13

Didn’t they use the T-5 in the Turbo-Coups? I liked that transmission. Very smooth and reliable although it did NOT like additives. Of course, it wasn’t banging 400+ hp from the factory.

Big surprise that there are quality control problems with products from China. Good of the Op to research this stuff ahead of time. Keep an eye on it.

14

I once had a Taurus with a transmission problem. The tranny kept breaking. I will never buy another Ford, new or used, as long as I live. Engine block cracked too. The depths of the shittiness of that car are a painful memory.

15

The T-5 was used in a lot of performance cars in the 80’s. Even Z-28s and Trans/Ams used them. They were fine back then, but if you put one in a heavy car with a lot of torque and sticky tires, it’s going to break. The T-45 is the same way. Mine likes to crunch second when I powershift it. I’ve got a spare one that I got for free if it ever does break. If I manage to break the spare, I’ll probably do a T-56 swap.

Was it a Ford transmission? Most of the Mustang transmissions listed above are made by Tremec, who also makes transmissions found in GM and Dodge vehicles. My Ranger has a Mazda transmission in it.

16

I’m gonna fight some ignorance here:

There’s a TON of stuff ‘made in china’ that’s just fine. If you buy a crap product, made in china, blame the company that spec’d it to the manufacturing company, then didn’t QC the product.

17

Other than the SHO and the early 1st gens that had the 5 speed manual, all Tauruses except the current generation had the AXOD/AX4S/AX4N, which are famously terrible.

The three domestic carmakers almost single-handedly pushed themselves out of the mid-size sedan market in the 1990s with badly built electronic FWD transaxles. Everyone who had a car with the Ford AXOD, Chrysler A604 or GM 4T60-E will probably never buy another domestic vehicle again.

18

Thanks for the information, y’all. When we go in to have a look at the prospective new car there will be some very pointed questions directed to the salesman and we will be assessing his answer for corporate doublespeak and outright bullshit and adjusting our side of the negotiations accordingly. It is a little distressing that there could be such a major fault in what is otherwise, so far as I’ve been able to tell, an outstanding vehicle. The question remains just how frequently the transmissions fail and what kind of risk we’re taking of having the car in the shop every other month.

19

Indeed, a bad experience with a 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan made me swear off buying another Chrysler… And what do you know, that transmission that failed twice before 60,000 miles was an A604!

20

They did eventually iron out all the problems and the later models have been pretty good. Our 2004 Intrepid has been great, and we got it used for a very reasonable price due no doubt to the bad reputation these transmissions have. Chrysler at least did better than the other 2 by actually doing something about the A604. If you had a Ford Windstar with the AXOD, then you just have a badly built transmission, AFAIK Ford never fixed or redesigned it, and there’s just nothing to be done other than take it to the junkyard.