Thanks - can't wait till mine arrives

 

It varies between dealers. If you don't want to wait for Ford to collect enough evidence and issue a TSB, contact the Regional Ford Rep and let him know about it. You would be helping to move this along into TSB territory. It generally takes a while on a new model for a TSB to be announced as enough owners have to bring them into dealers with that particular complaint so Ford can begin to recognize it's an across the board issue and not just an isolated event. Back on the new 2005 Mustang (I had an early model GT coupe) and it had faulty upper strut bearings that would "pop". Dealers were replacing them and about half the time the repalcement bearing would go bad...finally enough folks brought in their Mustangs and Ford issued a TSB for it and engineered a better part that cured the issue.

 

The dealer received a reply from ford saying they were unaware of this issue...Thats hard for me to believe....I drove another 09 yesterday and it was the same way....

 

I've noticed similar behavior from my truck. If you turn off the truck and right back on, the trans temp gauge goes almost all the way to cool and stays there for a while. There is no way that is the case and it instantly cools the tranny! I would say that just like every other recent Ford gauge, that this one is mostly for looks. Most ford temp. gauges are more like multi positions switches. You know that the normal range is very large and the gauges are designed to make the customer feel good about what they are seeing. For example, if you look at your coolant temp gauge when running at normal op. temp you will see it is slightly ****ed to the left (a little cool), the oil pressure is slightly ****ed to the right (a little high), and the trans temp at normal is also to the left. Makes us all feel good about how our vehicles are running.

 

Funny - how you could look at the other side of the stock guages and wonder if we didn't have a trans temp guage - would we miss it? Probably only folks who do serious towing would even miss it. My 535i doesn't have an oil guage, temp guage or even an oil dipstick - drove me nuts at first - yet I now have to admit - the only thing I really miss is the oil dipstick (as I like to change the oil at half the BMW service interval of 15K miles)....and as much as folks bag on the stock Ford guages - they've never led me wrong and the one time I blew a head gasket in my '96 Mustang it went right into the red...worked perfectly - unlike the head gasket Be patient when manufacturer's come out with new models there is always a gremlin or two (and ALL manufacturers have these "teething" issues)...be happy that it's something as simple and non-essential as a trans temp guage...Ford will pick up on this and issue a TSB given time...it's only March '09 and these new models are still very new and due to the economy - there aren't a ton of them out there yet. When BMW first introduced the twin turbo in the 335i it ran hot and was frying the turbos (they had to add an external oil cooler to fix the issue)...also their high pressure fuel pump for the direct injection was having issues with many of the early cars...thank goodness it's only a trans temp guage we have to worry about

 

Just got my 09' 4x2 XLT this last weekend and I think I noticed the described issue today. I have the max tow package with the external tranny cooler.

I left my house to pick my daughter up from her school. I noticed the trans temp gauge about in the middle of it's range as I pulled into the parking lot. School is about 5 miles from my house.

I sat in the ruck, transmission in Park and engine idling for about 10 minutes waiting on my daughter. I never turned the truck off. As I pulled out of the school parking lot, I noticed the trans temp gauge was seated all the way to the left of it's range, in the cold. Took about a mile of so of driving and it slowly climbed back up.

 

I could be wrong...but it sure sounds like a sending unit placement issue with the trans temp guage. Sounds as if the sending unit is on the downstream side of the aux trans cooler thermostat and when the trans cooler thermostat cools down and closes (like when you shut off the truck for a few minutes or idling in Park)...the temp reading on the guage (as expected) drops and doesn't come back up until the fluid warms again and the aux trans cooler thermostat opens and the warm fluid begins circulating past the sending unit once again and registers on the guage. Has anyone ever experienced a false "Hot" with the trans temp guage...that would certainly discredit my "theory"

 

Sounds logical based on my limited experience with the truck so far.

IMO its not an issue as long as I understand why its reads the way it does. The only reason I monitor the tranny temp gauge is while towing to make sure things don't get too hot. If indeed the above posted theory is correct, the gauge still does the job. It'll still show tranny temps that are above normal operating conditions.

It does seem odd though.

 

Mine does it too.

 

Its hard for me to believe that Ford has has no response to this issue...Is their anyone whos transmission temp gauge does NOT act this way ???

 

Before you shoot Ford - give'em a chance to log enough customer warranty claims with this issue so they can: 1) determine there is a common problem, 2) check into it and, 3) design a fix for it...this IS a brand new truck after all and there aren't that many on the road yet! Is your tranny guage actually registering hot (meaning there is actually an issue with the transmission) or are you just upset because it drops to cold and then slowly comes back up to normal operating temp again....

 

You are correct, and I will be patient, it is just quite disconcerning to drive a new 34k truck and before you can get it home you find several things wrong with it...Yesterday, when I would stop at stoplights, the trans temp gauge would bottom out and then slowly rise again, it did this 3 times. This morning it acted pefectly normal (of course I didnt shut off the truck until I got to work). I have a couple other issues as well so this kinda just magnifies it...

 

wrong thread, whoops!!

 

You know what's funny about this...you finally got a real gauge in your truck that works the way it's supposed to and giving you real readings, and you're gonna blow it. Do you know why all the other gauges are simply idiot lights with a needle instead of a light bulb?? Because years ago, Ford used real gauges. But, people kept coming in and coming in for warranty claims because " my gauge is moving around funny so something is wrong with my car!!". So to remedy this and eliminate all the useless warranty claims, thy removed the real monitoring gauges and installed what we have now. It's ironic that so many guys complain about not having real gauges and we're heading straight back down that very same path.

You guys are all complaining about the exact same symptoms almost. What do you think the odds are that all tese trucks have the exact same problem with the tranny temp gauge??? As someone who has been driving for SEVERAL years with a real tranny temp gauge that I installed, I can tell you it sounds to me like everyones gauges are working like they should. Relax, enjoy your new truck, and just take the time to learn how it operates.

 

So far I haven't heard of any actual issues with the 2009's yet, a HUGE leap over when the '04's came out. What other issues are you having, if I may ask?