Serviceability Report: Ford Focus Revisited
In the July 2006 issue of AutoInc., I compared the 2006 Focus to the 2000 model. Well, let’s look at the next generation and see if Ford took heed of our suggestions.
Ford had a hit when it introduced the 2000 Ford Focus in 1999; it sold more than 286,000 units the first year. Sales settled down to around 175,000 for the other years, but the 2012 model may change that for the better.
Do You Sell Enough to Keep Your Technicians Busy?
Technicians can play a big part in the sales process, thereby controlling their own destiny to some degree. They can and should be doing an excellent job of checking out each vehicle that comes into their bay no matter why it is initially there. They should make all repair and service recommendations to the service adviser even if they find so many items that it might scare them. The service adviser’s job is to sort them all out, check the vehicle’s history to see what has already been done and decide what the customer really needs now, what can be put off for a little while and what can wait even longer; then he or she has to do a stellar job of selling all those items and giving alternatives only if the customer can’t or is unwilling to have them all done now. The idea is to keep the vehicle on the lift and perform as many repairs and services as possible to save the technician from making unnecessary moves, allowing for maximum productivity.
Tribology
Last month we spoke of some of the design and engineering aspects of gear technology. We will advance this discussion to examine the gear and bearing damage, which we see frequently enough. When you look at damaged gears, shafts, bearings etc. are you confident that you can identify the cause of the damage?
The Cost of Oil-Flow Charts
This story involves a complaint of no third gear on a 4T80-E transaxle. However, the lesson to be learned can be applied to almost all root-cause diagnosis and troubleshooting tasks.
The material for this article involves a unit that was built for our stock inventory and, at the dyno, had no third gear. This would normally lead me to believe that it had a stuck 2-3 shift valve or bad 2-3 shift solenoid. Simply pull the lower pan, swap out the solenoid and the problem should be fixed – or that was my first thought.
History Repeats Itself
Most torque-converter rebuilders routinely deal with the undersize pilots on GM 298mm converters. It is common either to build up the pilot by welding and then re-machine, or to sleeve the pilot area. The issue is so widespread that the repair is a requirement on the OE remanufactured-converter process.
May 2012 Issue
In This Issue
Hyundai A4CF2: solenoid codes
Nissan/Infiniti RE4F04B: no turbine-speed-sensor reading
Nissan/Infiniti RE4F22A: failsafe with DTC P0726
We Work with Gears, but Do We Understand Them?
Gears date to the beginning of civilization, and the development and advances in gear technology have created the modern world. We as experts in transmissions, transfer cases and differentials work with gears every day, and I thought it would be interesting to examine the theory and design, and some of the geometry involved in gear design.
Bitter Cold: Sometimes It’s the Root Cause, Sometimes It’s Not
Here in Denver, when the snow flies and the mercury plummets, we all like to press “4WD” on our dashboards and blast out into the blizzard. When our rigs stay in “2WD” and slide into the gutter – that’s when I get the phone calls. The following two customers called me the same morning recently, and we came to two very different conclusions after diagnosing their inoperative four-wheel-drive (4WD) systems.
Rounding It Down
Did you ever get excited about the prospect of paying a visit to your local deli for coffee or a sandwich? I do every time. From the point of view of a marketing and sales consultant, doing business in this store is an absolute and rare pleasure, the kind of experience we should provide for our customers every time. Because I witness so many doing it wrong, it’s extremely refreshing to deal with people who go out of their way to do it right day after day.
01J Gear-Ratio Error
During the recent Showpower Expo in Dallas, I was speaking with a good friend, Eddie Rose, from the UK who works on many 01J/0AW Multitronic continuously variable transmissions in Audi vehicles. He informed me of a problem he ran into while working on one of these that I just had to pass along to all those who are working on them here. This problem had Eddie stumped for a while but he finally sorted it out, and it was, of course, a simple solution to what had been a puzzling problem.
Reusable Gasket – Not!
A late-model Ford truck with a 6R140W transmission came into the shop with a complaint of a leak from the front. When the truck was raised on the lift, it appeared that it was leaking out the front, so the transmission was pulled to reseal it.
A Tale of two Hyundais
We recently received a call from one of our wholesale customers that had bought a carry-out transmission for a 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe. The vehicle had been out for a few months and was returned to the installer with a complaint of slipping shifts. Our customer had driven the vehicle and verified the complaint, removed the transmission and called us to send a replacement. At this point with the transmission already removed there was not much we could check so we sent out a replacement transmission.
