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Stuck in first gear. D but seems like in S.


rsucre

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Hi.

 

My car is a Ford Edge 2013 SEL with 1,000 miles. In around 4 occasions, after a full stop, when I hit the gas pedal to start moving, the car seems to stay in first gear. It moves slowly and you can feel the high RPMs. The car is definitely in D shift, but it almost seems like it is behaving like being in S shift (therefore staying in 1 gear). I have to move the shift to S or N and back to D in order to get it back to normal behavoir.

 

Also, I noticed that if I move from S to D shift without enough force, sometimes the display on the dash will not show any shift position (none is highlighted -- P, R, N, D, S). It works OK as if it is in D, but no light on the dash. I have to press the shift knob and then it displays the D. Perhaps this is normal, or nothing to worry too much about. Definitely I'm much worried about the previous issue (staying in 1st gear).

 

Has anyone experienced this?

 

Thanks,

 

RS.

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Had this happen once on my 2012 when it was pretty new. Same thing. Came off freeway and had to stop on the offramp due to backed up traffic at the light. Then when I hit the accelerator to start moving, it was reving pretty high like stuck in first. Had to kick it to neutral and back and it worked fine. Never happened since.

 

I took it to ford that day on the way home. The hooked it up and had an engineer from head office dial in and check out the transmission I assume as they ran it on the dyno. No problems. They said the results looked like it just came off the assembly line.

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It happened to me again today. The shift is in D. This time I took my time to check everything and it is definitely not in S. The manual "steptronic" buttons + and - won't work, so it is in D. I now realize that it does not seem to be in 1st gear. It seems more consistent with being in 2nd, because it feels like not having enough force to move from a complete stop. It feels more like if you were using a manual car and wanted to start moving from a complete stop, but put it in 2nd instead of 1st. It does move, but without enough force. The problem gets resolved by shifting to N and then back to D.

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Mine doesn't seem to have that feature. Nothing happens when I press those buttons when the car is in D. The + and - buttons only work when the car is in S. Is that a feature in 2013 SEL? Perhaps it is only available in Sport or Limited?

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Thanks Omar, I checked the thread, but mine does not have that feature. Touching the + or - buttons while in D does nothing. So there is an issue. Sometimes, when coming out of a complete stop, in D, the car does not have enough force. The only option is to shift to N then back to D for it to start behaving normally. No one else had this issue that can point out to a cause and possible solution? I will take the car to its first maintenance in a couple of weeks and would like to go prepared. Most likely I will get the usual "everything seems OK".

Edited by rsucre
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  • 4 weeks later...

It happened to me again, but this time I seem to have caused it by shifting from D to N (while moving) and back to D. The transmission "kicked" and then I was in that weird state in which the car is in D, but like without much force. If I accelerate, it moves (so it is not in N) but slowly..... Lots of RPM in order to move a little bit.

 

This time, moving to N and then back to D did not resolve the problem. I had to stop completely, move to P, then back to D and it was back to normal.

 

Anyone experienced something like this? Any ideas of what could be happening?

 

More info: I took the car to the first maintenance. I mentioned the problem to them. This time they only performed the scheduled maintenance, but I will take it back next week for a full day of diagnostics. The strange thing is that the list of materials used in the scheduled maintenance has a 1 qt of automatic transmission fluid. Weird that a brand new car is low on transmission fluid. What do you think about this?

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Do you think they used automatic transmission fluid for the power steering? They are different fluids. Don't understand your posting. Can you elaborate?

 

I wasn't guessing. Page 324 of the owner's guide:

 

Power steering fluid Between MIN and MAX on reservoir Motorcraft MERCON V ATF

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Akirby,

 

Thank you so much! That explains the ATF that was used. I thought they were different fluids for power steering and automatic transmission.

 

Still don't know what is happening with my transmission... And it happens so rarely that it may be very difficult to reproduce and therefore diagnose and fix.

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Hi. This video is from a 2008 model, but shows what is happening with my 2013 SEL. Luckily, in my case I can get out of the situation by changing to N or P and back to D. Sometimes have to do it a couple of times. So in the 2013 model it somehow resets itself out of the situation easier than in the 2008 shown in the video.

 

Anybody having this issue?

 

Video:

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 month later...

Exact same problem here. Been going on for 8 months. Only happens when pulling out from a dead stop and you have to tramp on it - say to pull into traffic. If you "feather" the gas pedal IE: start slowly it will shift through the gears ok.

 

It does not accidently shift into manual as mentioned previously here.

 

If you really need to accelerate say onto an expressway from a dead stop... it sticks and stays in first gear. Nice running down an expressway with a semi behind you in first gear @ 8000 rpm. Trying to shift into manual and shift that way doesn't work nor shifting into neutral and back into D neither. The only way to fix it is to pull onto the shoulder of the road put it in Park and SHUT OFF the car. This must reset something. Even stopping and shifting into Park and pulling back out won't fix it. On mine you have to shut off the car and restart. Then make sure to lightly feather the pedal until you get past 1st gear. Then everything is ok.

 

THIS IS DEADLY SERIOUS FOR SAFETY. My best friend is a cameraman at a local TV station. He couldn't believe it when I showed him what happens. I can make it do this anytime I want. A reporter called me. They have a weekly automobile segment during the news. They are interested in doing a segment.

 

Dealer can't give an answer. They say "it's normal for the car to hesitate a little when you tramp on the pedal from a dead stop". Geesh.

 

Amy

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In my case the issue was fixed. Has not reocurred in more than a year. The dealer shop told me that they applied some updates to the car computer. Also, my gear shift was not "firm". Sometimes I moved the handle to D position and it did not "lock" properly in that position and the dash D light did not get on. They also fixed something mechanical inside the gear shift handle mechanism. But I suspect that those issues were not related and that the "stall" problem was fixed with the computer update.

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