Hello. Partner has a 2011 Ford Fusion and says it’s behaving a bit strangely. He’s noticed “surging” when on the brake at a stop, some hesitating when going uphill, getting the car to “downshift” when decelerating.
His independent mechanic doesn’t work on transmissions, the referral from that mechanic said that the only option is to replace a CVT transmission (that there is nothing to “fix” w/ a CVT). Partner will check w/ the local Ford dealership service station (of which we are not fond), but I was wondering if anyone had a rec for a good independent mechanic in LA or Ford service station (westside or southern portion of the San Fernando Valley strongly preferred) ?
There are definitely issues with the early CVTs in the Fusion and its cousins. The CMaxes through 2015 had similar issues that don’t seem to appear nearly as often in the 2016-2018 models.
I don’t have a recommendation unfortunately, but in lieu of a Ford mechanic specifically I might check out a highly rated transmission specialist, start with yelp.
Orthogonal: the Subaru weirdos who are both mechanically obsessed and do too much maintenance, too often, have reported dealers draining their CVT fluid and refilling with the wrong thing (usually engine oil), because they do it so infrequently. Even the OEM experts don’t always get it right.
If it’s still under warranty, which it usually isn’t. Though Subaru is good about throwing extended warranties at their mistakes.
Ford proved to me over 2 leases that they have very little expertise in fixing their own products. Their expertise is working their own process behind-the-scenes.
