Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Mustang

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Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Mustang

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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

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Yup, I've been watching this whole thing unfold in the Mustang forums. People have been complaining about it for quite some time now. When I first heard about Ford's decision to go with the MT82 with the new 5.0 Mustang, I wondered if it would hold up. I don't know why they didn't just use the 6MT from the more powerful Mustang Shelby GT500 instead. I don't see those guys complaining.
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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

Post by 94Corolla5Speed »

This is why I will (try not to) buy a first model year or two redesign of a new car.
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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

Post by watkins »

I try that in theory, but every one of my cars has been a first year.
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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

Post by 94Corolla5Speed »

watkins wrote:I try that in theory, but every one of my cars has been a first year.
True, but you bought them used. Any problems would have most likely surfaced and there will most likely have been a fix/workaround. I was meaning more as in brand new, since no one knows what's wrong, as in this case.
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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

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True. Stuff stick was f*cked though.
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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

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Haven't had any problems with mine yet, but I am definitely keeping a close eye on it.
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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

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paul34 wrote:Judging by the variety of "fixes," it seems no one really knows what exactly the problem is, or does, and its really just a fundamentally flawed transmission... meaning the "fix" would probably be brand new transmissions for everyone. Expensive? Yes. But the "new" Ford will have to do it if that's what it takes to rectify the issue. The brand damage otherwise will kill much of the good will they've painstakingly built up with the American people over the past few years.
Yeah, the MT82 hasn't exactly had glowing reviews in other vehicles either. If I'm not mistaken, Land Rover used to use the MT82 and there were plenty of problems too...
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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

Post by FDSpirit »

Can we chalk this up to another quality control issue? Why can't they just make stuff here in the US and supervise these things?
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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

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FDSpirit wrote:Can we chalk this up to another quality control issue? Why can't they just make stuff here in the US and supervise these things?
I don't think so... it's a Getrag transmission. I think it's just not the right transmission for a car like the new Mustang, which has a lot of torque and is likely to be abused often. I know people like to jump on the "built in China" thing, but as long as it is being assembled correctly (I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary), then I don't know why people focus on that.

Back in the days of the Foxbody 5.0 Mustang, Ford put the T5 in the Mustang. It wasn't exactly a heavy duty transmission either and plenty of people abused it enough to break it over and over again. I really think Ford should have just put the Tremec from the GT500 in the new Mustang.
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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

Post by FDSpirit »

Okay. Gotcha. I'm not too familiar with a lot of transmissions out there, but I have heard of the one being used. I agree though. Better to put a beefier transmission in there to be safe from the getgo. I'm still waiting to see the outcome of this. From some of the comments, the ones that ended up being rebuilt here seem to be doing fine. It sucks that that one guy went through like 3 clutches and 2 trannies.
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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

Post by Rope-Pusher »

Shadow wrote:
FDSpirit wrote:Can we chalk this up to another quality control issue? Why can't they just make stuff here in the US and supervise these things?
I don't think so... it's a Getrag transmission. I think it's just not the right transmission for a car like the new Mustang, which has a lot of torque and is likely to be abused often. I know people like to jump on the "built in China" thing, but as long as it is being assembled correctly (I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary), then I don't know why people focus on that.

Back in the days of the Foxbody 5.0 Mustang, Ford put the T5 in the Mustang. It wasn't exactly a heavy duty transmission either and plenty of people abused it enough to break it over and over again. I really think Ford should have just put the Tremec from the GT500 in the new Mustang.
Tremec trans probably costs $1000 more. has more rotational inertia, weighs more, and has higher parasitic losses.

When I worked with Chinese suppliers, they would tell us "The steel is just like SAE grade "98765", but every time we had our metallurgy group check it out, it was one or another grade of Chinesium that was NOTHING like SAE "98765". I'm thinking that by the time you throw enough people at it to "keep them honest", you're better off dealing with more reputable sources and paying for quality parts.
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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

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FDSpirit wrote:Okay. Gotcha. I'm not too familiar with a lot of transmissions out there, but I have heard of the one being used. I agree though. Better to put a beefier transmission in there to be safe from the getgo. I'm still waiting to see the outcome of this. From some of the comments, the ones that ended up being rebuilt here seem to be doing fine. It sucks that that one guy went through like 3 clutches and 2 trannies.
My guess is that we'll see something similar to the World Class T5. If you're not familiar with the World Class T5, it was basically a T5 built up with stronger internals to cope better with high torque and abusive drivers. Plenty of those older 5.0 Mustangs ended up with a World Class T5 in them. Then of course they started using Tremecs, which were much stronger and could handle all kinds of abuse. The T45 Tremec was a pretty good transmission that was used for many years in the Mustang.
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Re: Faulty Chinese-built transmissions plague new Ford Musta

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Rope-Pusher wrote:Tremec trans probably costs $1000 more. has more rotational inertia, weighs more, and has higher parasitic losses.

When I worked with Chinese suppliers, they would tell us "The steel is just like SAE grade "98765", but every time we had our metallurgy group check it out, it was one or another grade of Chinesium that was NOTHING like SAE "98765". I'm thinking that by the time you throw enough people at it to "keep them honest", you're better off dealing with more reputable sources and paying for quality parts.

Maybe so, but they still put it in the GT500, even today. I bet if they made the Tremec 6060 a $1000 option on the new Mustang GT, buyers who are aware of the MT82 issues (which is just about anyone who reads any Mustang forum) would have no problems paying the extra grand for a superior transmission with a proven history in powerful Mustangs.
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