NHTSA Complaint #11675756 — 2020 FORD EXPEDITION

Info sent to Ford in working with cust service w/o action: Our 2020 Expedition had 4 separate instances of slipping out of gear during a road trip (2 instances on 7/11 and 2 on 7/19). During each incident, the vehicle slipped gear at highway speed, RPMs maxed out on the dial, lost all acceleration and significant speed, and the vehicle remained unresponsive for several (3-5) seconds until finally accelerating after the unresponsive period. It goes without saying that completely losing gear at highway speed while navigating traffic is a serious life and safety issue. Having that occur four times on a single round trip presents unreasonable risk. We documented the mileage and engine conditions by taking a picture of the dash after recovering from each occurrence. Those details were shared with the Krieger Ford service center on 7/22. That Ford service team was not able to recover fault codes from this information. Without being able to identify a root cause based on lack of fault codes, Ford Service performed a transmission relearn on 7/22. The service team confirmed this step is an initial measure due to lack of codes and not being able to see inside the sealed transmission. Abandoning further assessment in favor of a potential but unlikely quick-fix may be appropriate with an inconvenience issue, but not acceptable on one with such serious consequences. I recognize that further assessment will require additional cost. The assessment cost relative to the risk associated with not properly addressing the root cause of this dangerous issue is clearly justified. I’ve previously communicated this same situation to Ford when it occurred on a road trip in July of 2024. We contacted the dealership (Germain Ford of Dublin) and were deferred multiple months due to Ford's transmission tech backlog. The codes were not available by the time a service appointment was open. Without error codes and a single occurrence at that time, Ford service was unable to investigate further.