Beware those with five hundered Limiteds. Six years in, brought her in for the annual MVI and get a noise fixed in the strut. Oh yes, wife told me the Traction Control Indication was on all the time, and sometimes the car would "lurch" like it was out of fuel. Brought it into the dealer.
The AWD was ruined the foreman told me, so after further consultations, told me, "they see this every so often" Indeed?? Every so often?? INDEED? For six years I have bragged about Ford to everyone who would listen, loved that car, still do, but I guess I don't love it enough to shell out some 5000 dollars for a new AWD system. The pump begins to disintegrate from within, the foreman tells me, then metal filings get into the system, basically everything shorts out, the assembly module is runined, the lines...the sensors...oh goodness everything. You are faced with paying out the 5K, or telling the good foreman,... just disconnect the system, He did just that, and now we have a Front wheel drive only. Still a good car for a few years, my other vehicle is a truck, a Ford yes, and 4WD, my fourth 4WD and I have yet to lose the 4WD in any vehicle, Dodge, toyota, Ford Bronco, I have ever had. The reason we paid over 40 grand for it in the first place though, was it had AWD and traction control...."Six years"....darn sin. If there is any way of checking on that system guys and gals, find it and get it done... In the meantime Ford,....You have to do better" My next truck was a Ford, my next car won't be.

 

Based on the fact that this transmission is, in crude terms, a bunch of stainless steel rods on end that ride and push or soften the 'grip' on cones, it's the same thing as Ford's Volvo infinitely variable transmission...I think I'd figure out how to collect all the 'shavings' generated through normal ware.

Some of it has to be ferris, so a magnate, like on Saturn's spin-on transmission filters.
And the rest collected and held in the trans filter, and the last bit held in suspension with the old fluid.

I don't know. I'm just guessing...


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I'm sorry, are you referring to the AWD system or the CVT? which this vehicle also has, although it is now 7.5 years and nary a problem with that. Or both? I am way behind you on the theory, I will say I put a set of snow tires on it last year, and with that Front Wheel Drive now, anti locks, I don't know, the Traction Control doesn't appear to be totally gone. In any case, with the tires and whatever drive system it is a great winter vehicle for what we need. Just rolled over 200K yesterday.

 

Good point the topic was limited by me to just the CVT transmixer. Sorry if there was confusion.

I kind of forgot about everything down stream of the trans, and don't really know enough about the split in driving force between the front and rear axles with their own individual differentials.

I don't know what makes the 'transfer case', for lack of a better term, work. There is a lot of ways to go on making this work.

I forget what it said but the owner's manual had a pretty good explanation of traction control 'on' and T/C 'off'. A lot of miles...

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