Frustration with Ford

New 12/03/2004

Larry,

I would like to relate my experience with my 1999 SHO. I had just bought the car two months ago at 58,000 miles on it from a private seller. The vehicle was kept in very good condition, and had prior work done in replacing the ZF steering rack due to the fact it was leaking. Other than that there were no major issues. I am a relatively amateur car enthusiast, but very responsible about maintaining my car. I had the transmission oil changed at 59,000 miles but the torque converter was slipping. I talked to Eric Lehmann (Lombard,IL) and he recommended putting a bottle of Lucas Stop Slip to help tighten the torque converter. 3 weeks later I was at Swinford Engineering after having read up about the SHO cam issues, and drained a 24oz of the fluid to put in the Lucas stuff. The oil was dark brown as if it was burnt. The car seemed to run a little better, but few days later I started hearing a whining sound from the transmission. At first it was audible when I started the car and then would go away once the car warmed up, but by the second day it was if there was some metal grinding in there. I immediately took the car to my mechanic and he broke the news that I needed a new transmission. This is quite a blow considering I had just bought the car 2 months ago and it just has 63,000 miles on it. I am really disappointed at Ford, but unfortunately I don’t know what to do about it or whether they even care, but after reading through some of the horror stories on the forum, I highly doubt it. I would highly recommend other SHO owners to invest the extra buck in getting an extended warranty, as I could possibly have saved some of the money by investing in one, but was strapped on cash after having just bought the car, putting new tires, breaks etc.. I hope this experience in some part helps in avoiding a similar problem for the other guys. I am not sure what else I could have done earlier to prevent this. I do however want to point out to those people who might not be aware of it, but the 99 SHO requires an AX4N transmission which does not require an O/D button. Also there is a $600 credit on returning the old transmission to Ford in the same case, intact. If anyone has an questions regarding the work I had done, feel free to contact me at anajam@airhydropower.com
Thanks!
Aamir Najam

Obviously Aamir is new to our frustrations. Aamir, you got a really great car, once you overcome the fubars from Ford and move on it'll be OK.

U.L.

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