Are 2014 Fiesta Transmissions THAT bad?

[damian5000]

Have seen a few threads crapping all over them. Are they that bad?

 

[econoboxrocks]

The automatic dual clutch transmissions are junk.
Ford put them out without thinking about long term reliability. It ended up costing them. See also: The 1.0 turbo engine.

A Fiesta with a manual transmission, be it the 5 speed or the 6 speed in the ST, is a great car to drive, particularly for the price point. Reliable, too.

 

[Handy Andy]

Their actuators cause these issues.

Anyone with a Manual knows the methods to shift and apply throttle - because the clutch itself then applies that effort while you "modulate" the throttle - you're trying to take a humans perspective and knowledge training of shifting with a manual and applying it "roboticaily" to do the same thing to an ordinary car using a manual transmission - and expecting that robot to shift and act like a human.

They got most - accent most, of it right but the parts of applying the throttle in given extremes of operation, they didn't.

Things like feathering - a gentle push on the pedal, onto hard press to force more acceleration can turn a simple get up to speed into a roaring mess that feels jerky, onto uncontrollable and can even damage the devices doing the work - the transmission is not fallible.

That's on a good day, apply this to rain, snow - and how some have come to know "Grabbing" on a manual clutch due to the rusted exposed metal on a clutch plate can make the car shudder, this effect is pronounced on these designs due to the level of rust/contaminates on the plate when first used from a damp or rainy day off (up to several days) can affect clutch operation - they did not take this step into consideration when they designed the transmissions shift patterns to skip up several gears - they don't always glide into their shift-up points when they've sat unused for some time. - IMHO

To Add a few more objective adjectives...

• These transmissions are nothing more than an automated manual transmission. As we watch events like the Grand Prix - they use similar designs to shift their cars using electronics and precision tooling to make this type of shifting paddle function possible so the Driver focuses on the winning of the Race - not the everyday events many whom drive a manual face and automatically adjust their feet for.
• It's why there was several updates to the way the transmission shifted - up to and including making it act like a marshmallow and became less favored because of the sluggish responses - but at least it kept the transmission and the engine under them while they drove their commutes.
  • On top of the fact that the TCM (Transmission Control Module) was not entirely at fault, the PCM (Power-train Control Module) offered sensory input (sensor and advance timing) and helped establish these profiles so the TCM and the PCM works together to form power curves and allow for more quicker response and maintain emissions. This would be great if the 2012 system stayed - but,alas-they decided to remove several sensors and combine them into the one sensor and it lives with those readings and so therefore the TCM can only work with what it knows - after 2012 where they got rid of the MAF sensor in the snorkel - the PCM TCM combo work with less and their results were not always the best - so the reasons for the software upgrade were necessary.
• The ability of the system to become adaptive to the driver made the shudder worse on moments of shifting - where it seems the engine was about to stall or "your hurting the motor" moments when the system wanted to make a gear work for the "expected" speed and load - but it didn't occur so the system tries to place it in a gear to make it work but you may find it too low or too high resulting in a roaring engine or near stall conditions - you'd have to press the brake or place it in neutral to put it back into a coast mode so it can find a gear and speed combo and shift (or make it seem like it's shifting) correct. We go thru the gears like we've been taught - but the system adapts using an ability to bump up several gears we normally would arrive to - but due to the technology it has - it thinks and acts faster than a human would and in some cases the wrong way - causing erratic behavior that can make the user want to park the thing and put a FOR SALE sign on it so they can get something else more drive-able