2016 FORD F-150 Power Train Problems

The first sign of trouble with my 2016 Ford F-150 was that the blind spot sensor failure light came on while driving. Then the engine warning light came on and the gear indicator on the dash went blank. Also, while the truck was in forward driving motion, it lost throttle control. After stopping the truck and shutting it off, it would not restart. The check engine codes were 0706 and 0707. After clearing these codes, the truck started again, but repeated the same issues three more times in one week. The truck was taken to the Ford dealership and confirmed that the lead frame needs to be replaced.

Had issue with sudden downshifting ,not changing gears ,hard shift as well. Took the vehicle to AAMCO and was told the transmission needed to be rebuilt. So i did just, at 99,000 miles. Not sure if this helps your findings.

Truck down shifts randomly, causes a shutter, and has a hard time accelerating. I had a sensor replaced inside of my transmission along with new transmission fluid put in and it failed to fix my problem.

I was driving down the road with the cruise set at 60 mph when I came over the top of a hill and I started to decend down the hill if felt like my truck had down shifted and the back tires locked up and screeched a little bit then a big bang happened and had no more drive gear as I hit the gas it just reved the motor up and didn’t move. Upon further inspection I pulled the rear differential cover off and my spider gears and the shaft holding the gears in place was snapped in 2 different places, chips in the gears. My transfer case chain was snapped in half and my transmission had hard shift from first to second gear and a loud buzzing noise. . I took the truck to my mechanic and hooked a scanner up to it and took it for a...

The transmission is clunks on random shifts through gears. Changing the shift selector results in a jolt and then it pops into gear. This truck has had new tranny wire lead replaced at ford dealership because of the same issue in the past

The contact's husband owns a 2016 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving at 55 MPH, the transmission unexpectedly downshifted to first gear. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that while her son was driving 60 MPH, the driver lost control of the steering wheel and the vehicle unexpectedly downshifted, and the vehicle almost came to a complete stop. Despite the failure, the contact's son was able to drive the vehicle back to the residence, and the vehicle was parked and remained parked at the residence. The dealer was notified of the failure, and the contact was informed that the VIN was not under recall. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 103,000.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving approximately 5 MPH, the vehicle shuddered and stalled. The WRENCH symbol (Powertrain Malfunction Indicator Light) was displayed, and the check engine warning light was illuminated. The failure had occurred on several occasions. The vehicle was taken back to the residence. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 98,000.

Was traveling down the road and my truck randomly downshifted into 1st gear and caused my rear wheels to lock up and i almost went off the road..occasionally 9n way back home gear shift selector was randomly cycling back and forth and truck would seem like was neutral and would suddenly go back into a random gear.

Gets stuck in 3rd and 5th gears randomly, on the interstate it will get stuck and won’t shift, we believe it is a lead frame issue, in town it won’t down shift out of third, we can turn it off and on and it can jump from first to third gear while not moving, sometimes it runs just fine, it does this at random

While driving at approximately 55 mph the vehicle began to behave strangely. The "D" light for drive and the gear indicator began to flash. Then the transmission abruptly down shifted to 2nd gear from 5th then lost all power before returning to somewhat normal operation for a short period of time before happening again. The issue occurred multiple times in a 5 mile trip. If there was anyone close behind me it could have resulted in a crash, or it could result in myself losing control of the vehicle. The vehicle has not yet been inspected by a mechanic. There were no warning lamps or any messages prior to, during, or after the issue.

Over the past few years, I have experienced sporadic issues with my transmission. I am aware of an investigation into 2015-2017 F-150's with 6-speed 6R80 automatic transmissions which is what I have. According to articles I have seen, there have been reports of sudden down-shifts at highway speed from 6th to 2nd or 1st gear. While I have not experienced anything that drastic yet, I am concerned that it's just a matter of time. I have experienced slipping out of 6th gear or what I would describe as the transmission "hunting" to find a shift point between 4th and 6th. I first became aware of this while trailering an RV on the highway using cruise control in the summer of 2023. Periodically, I would notice a "lurching" sensation as the vehicle seemed to have difficulty maintaining 6th gear. As time has gone on, I've had this happen even when not...

Sudden downshift from 4th to 1st gear. Rear end locked up, had to manually select 1st gear in order to get power back to the wheels.

Transmission downshifted unexpectedly during normal driving .

The contact owns a 2016 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving approximately 55 MPH with cruise control engaged, the vehicle experienced transmission failure. The contact stated that the engine seized, and the vehicle abruptly stopped. The “Service Transmission Soon” message was displayed on the instrument cluster. The vehicle was turned off and restarted, and the message was cleared. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Action Number: PE25002 (Power Train). The vehicle was taken to a local dealer, who confirmed that the VIN was not under recall and there was no recall related to the failure. The dealer diagnosed the vehicle with transmission valve body failure. The transmission valve body was replaced. The manufacturer was contacted but offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 47,000.

My 2016 F150 with a 6R80 transmission will randomly fail to go into gear resulting in my vehicle going into neutral and rolling. It will randomly go into neutral while driving down the road which makes my car roll forward unexpectedly, it will randomly when you shift into park it will go into neutral and roll, it will also downshift randomly at random speeds, it has caused me on more than one occasion to almost roll into another vehicle due to it unexpectedly going out of gear without notice almost causing an accident. I believe it to be the lead frame in the transmission. It has been replaced twice with oem ford parts and has failed once within a week and the second time failing the next day, all work done at a licensed service shop, inspected and has failed completely regardless of parts being replaced,

Vehicle: 2016 Ford F-150, 5.0L V8, 6R80 automatic transmission Mileage at time of failure: Approximately 118,000 miles Approximate date of occurrence: Late 2025 (Late October to Early November) While driving at speeds above approximately 40 mph, the transmission would randomly and unexpectedly downshift, causing a severe and sudden jerking motion accompanied by extremely high engine RPMs. After several seconds, the transmission would violently upshift back into the original gear. Most occurrences involved the transmission downshifting one or two gears; however, on multiple occasions it downshifted from 6th gear directly to 2nd gear while traveling at highway speeds. This caused the rear wheels to momentarily lock up, creating a dangerous loss of traction and loss of vehicle control. These events occurred frequently, including during short trips, and were not related to driver input, braking, or road conditions. During these incidents, the check engine light and wrench warning light would illuminate. Diagnostic...

Vehicle showed wrench lite and went into safe mode when stopped went back to normal continue to drive and then vehicle showed wrench lite lite and engine check lite went into safe mode stopped vehicle and engine died would not restart checked codes received 706,708,and 1702. Prior to this no indication of problems

Transmission issue with the shift from 3rd to 4th gear. While accelerating, i,ve experienced grinding and a drop from 4th down to 1st gear, then jumping back up. This causes the RPM to rapidly increase and the truck to lose acceleration immediately. This problem has happened more than once, less than ten times over the past two years. I have not had the local dealership diagnose this yet.

Several times while at highway speed and while towing, the transmission suddenly downshifted into a very low gear causing the rear wheels to lock up and skid. This happened randomly and also left me stranded for a bit at a stop light. The vehicle was towed to porter ford and they replaced the lead frame harness

Sudden downshift from 4th to 1st gear, rapid deceleration and loss of traction. Unable to accelerate until manually shifted back into 2nd gear.

I have a 2016 f-150 5.0 L sport edition truck. Last year I had to replace the OSS on the transmission due to rear wheel lock up and transmission slipping/ down shifting while driving. I don’t see that my truck VIN is under the current recall or investigation that is taking place but I do have receipts of where I paid for a certified mechanic to replace that sensor. The truck has less than 100k miles on it currently and even less when that sensor was replaced. Any help regarding the current investigations or recalls so that I can be reimbursed would be great.

Approximately a year ago I started having trouble with the shifting in my transmission. Had the fluid changed thinking this may be the problem. My engine light continued to stay on and has been on ever since. Periodically the truck will down shift or not shift into another gear without the rpms going above 3000.

The truck suddenly downshifted to 6th to 2nd gear on the highway. Engine rpm hit more than 7000. Transmission now grinds, shudders and slips. Almost caused a wreck. Hasn't been documented to anyway, just by word. Has not been inspected as there is no way to inspect. No warning before incident, transmission now grinds 4th to 3rd gear, shudders in every gear and slips.

Transmission will get stuck in 5th gear. Downshifts when traveling at highway speeds. Sometimes hard shifts.

Transmission unexpectedly down shift.

Transmission lead frame failed.

Transmission will randomly shift gears. At speed sometimes it will shift into a lower gear causing rapid deceleration. From a start it will jump to 5th then back to 1st and stall the rear tires.

Transmission downshifts from 6 to 5 and locks up. I have taken to dealership many times still not correcting the problem. They have replaced celluloid ,spark plugs as well as coils. Although better it is dangerous to rapidly accelerate especially when changing lanes or pulling onto a highway because it loses power.

Multiple times while driving my 2016 F-150 I would lose all power to my wheels. The RPMs would rise but no power would be transferred to the wheels. This happened one time while on the on ramp at 50+ MPH, a second time while drive down a city street at about 30 MPH, a third time while starting from a stop light, and a fourth time again when driving in the city at about 45 MPH. The check engine light would come on for a minute or two and then turn off. After the vehicle did this for the fourth time the check engine light stayed on. After reviewing there are two error codes the vehicle relayed that the mechanic said are related. During these 4 instances there were two time (highway on ramp and city street at 30 MPH when the loss of power to the wheels caused the...

Vehicle would get stuck in gear while driving, then randomly downshift harshly. Occurred in Feb 2025 and immediately brought in for service at 98730 miles. Service advancetrack, wrench light, and no hill start assist light illuminated on dash. Truck would go into limp mode. P0715:00-64 and P0717:00-6C codes were pulled at 1st mechanic shop. 1st shop did not work on transmissions and referred me to ford dealership. Dealership wasn’t able to reproduce hard shifting, but while test driving it went into limp mode with all previously mentioned lights on the dash again. Code P0717 was thrown again. Determined bad lead frame and needed replacement. Paid out of pocket for lead frame, pump adaptor, bulk head connector, and filter replacement. Problem has not occurred again since repair.

My transmission has unpredictable and harsh downshifts as well as downshifts to a to low of gear

Transmission failure resulting in replacing transmission. Vehicle was shuddering when driving. This happened multiple times causing excessive shaking when driving on the hwy.

Oil leak at transmission fittings requiring repair.

While driving at normal highway speeds 65 to 70 the truck downshifts to 1 gear which locks up the rear wheels

I have a 6-speed (6R80) transmission. My V8-FORD F-150 2016, truck transmission has been experiencing SHIFTING issues for quite some time now. I reading now that all of these same problems that has been going on with my truck might be a recall. My truck downshifts very aggressively and I was told it does not need to be replaced but it could be something electrical. I have taken my truck to numerous mechanic shops and all of them have told me the same thing it could be something electrical but they cannot figure out what that might be without just replacing the entire Transmission which cost $8K to do, this is the only issue that has been wrong with my vehicle. I cannot drive over certain speeds on a highway and sense this might become apart of this recall and every issue that I have been experiencing, I would rather...

The component that malfunctioned is the transmission, specifically the internal transmission lead frame and related sensors. This vehicle previously required a transmission lead frame replacement in December 2023 after experiencing loss of power, erratic shifting, wrench warning lights, and limp-mode behavior. After that repair, the vehicle operated normally for approximately two years. Beginning in December 2025, the same symptoms reoccurred, including unexpected downshifts, RPMs not matching vehicle speed, reduced acceleration, flashing or erratic gear indicators, wrench warning lights, and intermittent reduced-power or limp-mode operation. During the recurrence, the vehicle experienced loss of power at highway speeds, creating a safety risk during normal driving conditions and requiring me to quickly pull over. Although no collision occurred, the sudden loss of power at highway speed presented a safety concern for maintaining speed and safely interacting with traffic. Shutting off and restarting the vehicle typically clears the issue temporarily, but the problem may...

My truck has had multiple issues with randomly downshifting while on the freeway, i'm getting a code that leads back to the "Lead frame" wiring every now and then. The code comes and goes without having it cleared. I've had this issue before and have replaced it with the Ford Manufactured part. Its now doing it again but now more frequent not even a year and a half after replacement. I have been almost rear ended multiple times due to it locking up the rear tires and once it locked up the tire on ice and it caused me to slide into the median. There are multiple reports of this issue currently on many Ford Truck Forums. I am currently in the process of contacting Ford again as last time they said to just replace the wiring. My truck is equipped with the 6-speed transmission

Transmission down shifted and a wrench came up on the dash. I took it to a Transmission repair shop and they confirmed what the codes read, lead frame problem. I had them repair it. Cost me nearly $2000. I did call Ford in advance of the repair and I was told there are no recalls for this on my truck. Now 2 weeks later I see many trucks have recalls for this very issue, yet after checking the VIN, my truck still has no recall. I believe my truck should have the recalls and I should get reimbursed. My truck is a 2016 with only 82000 miles on it. Let me know what can be done to help me. Thank you

The contact owns a 2016 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the transmission unexpectedly slipped. There was no warning light illuminated. Additionally, the transmission unexpectedly shifted upshifted and downshifted on several occasions. The vehicle was turned off and restarted to temporarily correct the failure. The dealer was contacted; however, the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 40,000.

Going down the Hwy 6th gear the transmission will go from 6th gear lit up on dash down to 1st gear lit up. Hasn’t engaged in 1st gear (yet) then goes back to 6th gear. No warning lights on the dash.

The truck would fall out of gear, going down the highway it would shift into 1 or 2nd gear reving the engine. I would have to put it in neutral and at times have to shut it comeplete down to have it reset.

I’ve been having persistent issues with my transmission for some time now. It occasionally would have a hard shift or a lagged shift where it would rev high and not go into the next gear for a few second. This has been accompanied by an odd “clown honk” type sound whenever shifting from 3rd gear into 4th gear after the truck is warm. Sometimes it would get stuck in one gear or another or unable to shift to certain gears until it was shut off and reset. These problems are sometimes accompanied with each other and sometimes on their own. Not until recently did my transmission downshift on its own when I was going around 50-60MPHs to first gear, throwing my back end out and almost causing me to crash. Luckily I was on open and empty road. This occurred sometime in December and it finally threw a code which...

The transmission will go into limp mode at high speeds. Failing to correct itself. I will pull over and shut off vehicle then restart the vehicle and it works fine until it happens again. This has happened several times. I had transmission looked at and in the drain pan were pieces of metal and debris. I have had transmission issues frequently. I am now having to replace the transmission for a safety precaution.

I was driving home and the truck started to shift very harshly and had died at a stoplight , I put it into park and restarted it and the engine light came on tried to put it into drive and it had jumped forward very rough as soon as I did, started driving again and then the truck shifted into 5th gear and would not shift out of 5th gear at all was very slowly leaving from stop signs and the high speed fans had turned on and ran the entire rest of the time. Causing very irratic shifting where at times it would down shift and skid the tires

transmission is downshifting early and hard. it is clunking and causing erratic speeds and shifting patterns. the hard shifting and downshifting is not normal and dangerous.

Sudden downshifts of my transmission. Traveling on the highway at 65mph and all of a sudden the transmission shifted down to a lower gear, causing my wheels to lock and vehicle to shudder. Then after stopping on the side of the road, it took the vehicle several minutes to re-engage. I was able to limp the vehicle to the dealer where they replaced the Molded Lead Frame and Transmission Control Module. Very unexpected repair cost.

THE TRANSMMISSION DOWN SHIFT WHEN GOING 60 MPH

While decelerating from approximately 80 mph to 65 mph under very light throttle, the transmission in my vehicle unexpectedly shifted into 1st gear for a brief moment at highway speed, without any driver command. This caused a sudden and severe deceleration event and created a loss-of-control safety risk, especially in traffic. The transmission immediately corrected itself, however after the event the vehicle avoided normal downshifts and remained in higher gears (5th and 6th), indicating abnormal transmission behavior following the incident. No warning lights or messages were displayed at the time of the event. The vehicle is a 2016 Ford F-150 5.0L equipped with a 6-speed automatic transmission (6R80). The vehicle has approximately 91,100 miles. The automatic transmission was serviced at approximately 80,000 miles, including fluid and filter replacement only. No transmission flush was performed. The vehicle has a new AGM battery, properly programmed to the vehicle. The vehicle was originally...

The contact owns a 2016 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the transmission was shuddering. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was driven to the shoulder of the road. The vehicle was then towed to the dealer, where it was diagnosed with heater exchange failure and coolant intrusion in the transmission. The contact was informed that the heat exchanger needed to be replaced, and the transmission needed to be flushed and refilled. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact was informed that the heater exchange part was on back order. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, where the repair was performed. The contact visited a chat forum online, which advised the contact to report the failure to the NHTSA. The vehicle was repaired. The contact stated that during the failure, there were no warning lights illuminated. The manufacturer was not made...

The contact owns a 2016 Ford F-150. The contact stated that upon taking the vehicle to the dealer for an oil change and tire rotation, the contact was informed of an unstated fluid leak and that the rear brakes needed to be replaced. The vehicle was taken to Classic Ford of Madison (6251 N Ridge Rd, Madison, OH 44057); where additional repairs were performed. The dealer test-drove the vehicle and noticed that the vehicle was experiencing hard transmission shifts and shuddering. The dealer replaced the transmission, the front sway bar and links, and the stabilizing bar. Additionally, the transmission adaptive learning was reprogrammed. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 127,867.