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One of the plaguing issues with the Transit Connect is the transmission. Countless stories of transmissions biting the dust at or around 100k miles. We’ve all read about it. I’ve even been a victim of my van’s trans acting up. This ultimately led to the retirement of the van from racing competition. That was 4 years ago. Van still runs and has 190k miles. Every now & then, with no consistent factors or patterns, transmission will act up and give me troubles. Never once has it left me stranded. But it left me limping to my destination one way or another. Sometimes, if I cycle power on the car, I’m able to get by. It’s a ticking time bomb at this point. One of these days the van won’t recover. It’s one of those scenarios where I can’t front the $3k—$5k for a new transmission. It would be more reasonable to drive it until it dies then pick up some cheap shitbox or finance a used car with a low payment. Until I came across these kits in the attached photos. Apologies if the photos are not in order or they don’t work. I’m posting off my phone for the first time. These kits claim to restore functionality in the transmission. They claim to rectify the shift issues (have those), the ratio codes (have those), and other trans issues (have those). This isn’t a full rebuild kit. This doesn’t include clutch packs or bushings. These kits also claim the transmission does not need to be dropped to perform this repair. It’s basically a bunch of components to rebuild the solenoid/valve body. Which makes sense when I think about what may be causing my sporatic drivability issues. This also may not fully repair my issues. It may need a full rebuild, especially knowing that I used to beat on this van for racing. But a $200 repair kit is a much more approachable option to start. I like to think I’m a 7/10 wrencher. I can do most of anything depending on resources, tools, time, and money. I’ve pulled motors and dropped trans before. But I’ve never messed with anything internal in auto trans. Trying to figure out if this is within my scope of work. if anyone has experience using kits like these for these vans or other applications, I’d love to learn more.

Greetings. New guy, here. I just bought a 2013, and, it must be freshest example in North America: 4900 miles. I bought from a dealer. I think the older folks that had it may have found it too lacking in luxury, and mostly kept it stored in a barn. Got 28.5 mph on the 230 mile trip home. I chose the Gen 1 for the extra inches of cargo head room. And, I like the looks. I have read a good bit of this forum over the past few months. Now, I have 3 questions, 2 of which are not well addressed in the owner manual: 1) My TC has SYNC, with the button pod below the turn signal control. The icons for phone and seek actions are unclear to me. It seems to indicate that the entire control pod can be flipped up or down, like a turn signal, or, maybe that the entire control can be moved forward and back, like a headlight dimmer. But, when I test these actions, it seems like too much force would be required, and would risk breaking something that may NOT be designed to move. What am I missing, here? 2) Locking the vehicle, to walk away... I can do this with the key remote. Or, I can do this with the key inserted in the lock. What I can not figure out, is how to flip the interior lock switch at the opener lever, to walk away. That lock switch seems to allow lock and unlock of all doors, while sitting in the van, only. If I'm standing outside the van and flip the lock switch, it just switches itself back to unlock position. What am I missing, here? 3) Knowing the transmissions are the weak point of the Gen 1, I will plan on doing regular fluid changes. Would like to buy a new transmission pan for $30, and have a petcock drain added to it, ready for an initial filter and fluid change. Petcock to allow easier container and measurement of fluid drained, over simply a drain plug. I think some here have done pan drains, so, what type of petcock drains have been added, and what location on the pan works best? I would not want to mod a pan, only to find out the drain is in an inappropriate position for something inside. Thanks a lot!

I replaced the factory turbo blow-off valve with an upgraded blow-off valve w/recirculation by Boomba Racing. Boomba makes a valve and installation kit for 2014+ Fiesta ST that works perfectly for TC's with a 1.6L engine. http://www.boombaracing.com/2014-fiesta-st-boost-operated-bypass-valve-full-recirculation/ The Boomba valve still routes the blow-off pressure into the intake so you will not get a loud pressure relief sound when it opens. It does create a turbo compressor surge "flutter" sound when you back off the throttle. Sounds like this (but not as loud) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqx0AHdj1Wk The installation is easy but you will need an 8mm nut to attach the solenoid valve to the existing stud on the firewall. Here is the solenoid mounted to the firewall (viewed from the engine bay). The throttle response seems better. The turbo flutter sound is kinda cool but barely noticeable at highway speeds. I think it sounds like turkeys.