2018 Ford EXPEDITION EL - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

"at around 55,700 miles the transmission started slipping. within a few days (less than 100 miles), the transmission would thud and lurch as well. on 2 occasions, one while accelerating at a traffic light and one while making a left hand turn), the vehicle lost power and would not continue celebrating from 3/4 gear. during both instances, my children were also in the car. the second occurrence almost resulted in us being t-boned by oncoming traffic. we took the vehicle to ford and they acknowledged the problem and stayed there was a tech bulletin about it. however we were 2.5 months (but not miles) outside of warranty and the repair was several steps and would result in costs up to $15k! we attempted to call ford as during the time of we were outside the warranty, i had a baby (high risk pregnancy) and then had to wait several weeks for an appointment as well. corporate ford flat out ignored us as well as the dealer who tried to advocate on our behalf as this was such a severe and dangerous issue."

"about two weeks ago my 2018 ford expediton max platinum 4x4 started exhibiting harsh shifting from 3 to 4 gear. since then it has gotten worse. harsh shifting, delayed shifting, harsh engagement of gear, or sometimes not engaging at all leaving me in a a very unsafe position on the road. it appears ford is very aware of the danger and issued multiple tsb's about this issue. vehicle has not been inspected by ford as the service time is over 6 weeks long due to the very same issues are widespread. there were no warning lamps or messages before the failure began happening."

"in looking up recalls for my vehicle i see several relating to transmission issues with the 2018 ford expedition. i contacted ford they said there were not any recalls for my specific vehicle, however my transmission is experiencing problems i see in other recalls. specifically when the car is put in park and it rolls forward or back depending on the angle. the other issue is the transmission did not engage when accelerating then it made a noise like something was loose in the transmission. i backed off the accelerator and the transmission engaged again. a warning light came on briefly when it made the noise then disappeared. ford took down my information the case # is cas47105525"

"i turned onto a road and when i pressed the gas to accelerate, the vehicle wouldn’t move. i put the vehicle in park, turned it off and back on and into drive and it let me accelerate. when i got to the red light, i stopped then went to accelerate when it turned green and the vehicle went in reverse and the engine light turned on. both incidences could have resulted in an accident if there were other vehicles on the road at the time. the dial that changes gears and/or the transmission abruptly stopped working. i took it to the dealership and do not have the diagnostic results yet. they have confirmed issues with shifting gears so far."

"gears are slipping, vehicle loses power, clunking noises, ghost spanner icon on dashboard, jerks heavily sometimes when going from park to drive, shift system displays on dash after noises."

"the transmission will drop to 1st gear from 3rd or 4th gear. the rpm’s will rev high, the vehicle will not accelerate. this is available for inspection if you’d like to see it. i was almost rear-end when i couldn’t get the vehicle to accelerate. another time i was on the interstate and in 10th gear, i let off the accelerator pedal and the gear went to 9th gear, as i went to push back on the accelerator to speed up and the vehicle wouldn’t shift to 10th gear and again started to slow down, i immediately got over to head towards the side of the interstate. this is going to cause me to be rear-end if i can’t accelerate when i intend to accelerate. i can recreate this issue once the transmission is over 200 degrees (operating temperature). i have talked to several dealerships and transmission technicians. they believe the cdf drum clutch hub bushing has slipped. the is a 2018 model, so this was before ford motor company made the updated design to stop the bushing from slipping by create a “lip” to stop the bushing. this has not be officially inspected as most dealers are telling me 30-40 days and 7-12 weeks before they can even look at it. they say their transmission tech is booked way out. this makes me wonder why… upon my research these 10r80 transmissions have this problem. ford even corrected the design (becuase obviously it was a faulty design, otherwise ford wouldn’t have made this updated change). it does have a code saying “engine not in park”. but displays no check engine light. it throws lights and warnings when it starts to rev high and says to “see manual”. someone needs to do some research on these 10r80 tranmissions and ford needs to correct this faulty design on models that have the bushing slipping. it’s not right that ford corrected it for the latest models to only leave the older model customers high and dry and in the way of danger. ford can make this corrective action, but what will it require from the public?"

"i have had issues with my expedition not shifting gears properly/slipping gears. this usually happens during acceleration. rpm will rise but act as if i’m in neutral and significantly reduce my speed, then with a hard thunk it will jerk my car into gear. this has happened twice on the freeway, once almost causing me to be rear-ended with my children in the car. the other car had to swerve off to the side to avoid hitting me. the dash will flash a shifting warning light and go away almost as soon as i get the chance to look at it. the other times have happened on main roads in town. thankfully where it’s easy enough to pull off to the side when this happens. but even so, it’s starting to happen more often and at slower speeds where i’m accelerating maybe 5-10 mph faster. just today, and the reason i am finally posting a complaint, my car slipped out of gear and when it finally slammed back into gear, the force was so strong that it whipped me forward and caused me to brake in the middle of rush hour traffic. not only that, but it went out 2 more times on my way home and now i’m hearing a rattling noise under my car (which is probably metal shavings). the only thing on the dash this time was a yellow warning reading ‘see manual.’ this is my family vehicle that i use to transport my kids to school, sports, etc. so they are in the vehicle with me about 95% of the time. i am honestly afraid this will happen again at the wrong time while they’re in the car with me. is ford waiting for a death to happen before they address this issue? just do a basic search on expedition transmissions and it’s all over the place. so many people are having the same issue and forking out so much money to replace or have their transmissions rebuilt. i have taken my vehicle in just for them to tell me they can’t recreate the issue and therefore nothing can be done. no codes are pulling and it drives fine. ford needs to address this and recall their 10r80 transmissions!"

"the contact owns a 2018 ford expedition. the contact stated while driving 25 mph, the transmission was slipping, and the vehicle failed to exceed 25 mph while depressing the accelerator pedal. there was no warning light illuminated. the contact stated that the failure had been recurring while driving. the vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that the transmission had failed. the contact stated that the dealer replaced the valve body instead, because the manufacturer warranty department declined to cover the transmission replacement. the failure persisted. the vehicle was not repaired. the manufacturer was notified of the failure. the failure mileage was approximately 36,000."

"in july of 2023, while driving on the highway and depressing gas pedal, the transmission seemed to disengage from engine. the vehicle lurched, making control difficult and putting me in a position of being unable to get a response when steering vehicle. the vehicle rapidly lost speed making a rear end collision possible. the engine began racing forcing me to release gas pedal completely until i could gently depress pedal hoping the transmission would reengage. the transmission finally chose a gear and i was able to accelerate avoiding a collision and reach a safe speed. no lights or codes showed after the event. this was my first time driving the vehicle on a highway after purchasing it used, 2 weeks prior, from a local ford dealer, who certified the vehicle as safe to drive. a second incident happened sept. 2023 under similar circumstances."

"the auto-start/stop is malfunctioning as follows: when i am stopped at a stop sign, when the auto-start/stop is engaged, the engine will shut down when fully stopped. when the engine re-engages (by even letting off the brake a small amount), the car transmission jolts the car forward very aggressively even thought the brakes are still pressed. it does this every time that the auto on/off is engaged. it is very dangerous! this is because the car will move a full foot, or more, forward when the engine reengages. i took my expedition to the ford dealer and the code is "tsb 23-2250" my understanding is that this code is for "automatic transmission - harsh/delayed engagement and/or harsh/delayed shift". the dealership said that the expedition needs a new "valve body" and that it would be on back order or they can overhaul it for about the same price and they can do that soon. the quote is for $1,400 to fix this issue. i have found out that the part is on back-order from the manufacturer and that they have ordered a significant number of this part -- clearly there are a ton of people needing to fix this part right now. this is significantly dangerous because when the engine reengages and the transmission has a harsh engagement at that exact same moment, i have come close to rear-ending vehicles several times. this is a significant safety issue and not my fault and should be immediately fixed and paid for by ford. you can contact me in any manner: [xxx] - [xxx] -- [xxx] -- [xxx] . information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6)"