blk00ss Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 I have a 2014 Fusion SE with 2.5l. It has 52k miles. It left me stranded yesterday. Was leaving work and could feel shifter handle was dead feeling with no resistance when trying to put into gear. Discovered Ford used a plastic bushing at the end of the shifter cable to fit over the transmission lever arm. Plastic. Really? Hot cold hot cold, and a wear part...plastic? This is not a part that should fail. In fact, I've never had one nor heard of one failing. Anyhow, I managed to rig the cable to get me home. Ordered new cable. I can see it goes up under the floor area. Has any changed one of these? I assume it connect directly to the shifter itself and the console might have to be removed? Would love any advice, help or guidance that anyone may offer regarding this. Thanks 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 The fact that this is the first such failure you're heard of and it's the first one I can remember hearing about should tell you that it is, in fact, a robust design and the fact that it's plastic is not the problem. Could just be a defective part or it's possible something hit it from underneath. Check the parts drawings at fordparts.com - that might give you a clue how to replace it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blk00ss Posted September 15, 2017 Author Share Posted September 15, 2017 (edited) Thanks for the link A tranny cable shouldn't break at 52K miles. When I pop'd the hood the area was littered with white plastic dust. A sure sign this thing had been wearing for quite a while. Think about how many times you move your car from park to reverse, or drive and then back again. A metal shaft wearing on the inside of a plastic bushing daily in hot and cold conditions is bad engineering on Ford's part. Many gear selection cables utilize a steel or aluminum type connection. Even using a shaft held by a washer with a cotter pin through it would be superior to this design. My comment about not experiencing this issue isn't a positive. What it meant was transmission cables shouldn't break. I've never had another vehicle, nor has anyone I know ever experienced such breakage. My Tahoe with almost 300K has never had a tranny cable problem. So if this happened at 52K I guess I should assume it will happen again before 100K. A pretty stupid problem to have. And if you google this issue, you'll find many other complaints regarding the same exact issue. Its a good way for Ford to get you in the dealership I suppose. Plastic sucks in weather. If its a hose clamp, fine. But a wear part that could leave you stranded. Shame on you Ford. Edited September 15, 2017 by blk00ss 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 And I'm telling you this is the first time I've ever heard about this happening on a Fusion and there are a lot of 2013 models out there with twice the mileage as yours. If it was a defective design they would be failing left and right. This was a one-off failure. You don't know that it wasn't damaged by a rock. Or maybe it just got installed improperly. Or maybe that one part was defective. You can't show up with ONE failure and call it a poor design. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eGuru Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 Perhaps this video will make the repair process less painful. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drolds1 Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 And they made fun of the push button , electronic shifter in my MKZThe 2017 Fusions have an electronic selector. More and more mfrs. are moving to them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Call Paul Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 Well, then I guess this is a two-off problem, because I just had this exact same failure on my 2013 with 51k miles. Replacing the bushing at the end won't solve the problem because the entire bushing snapped in half (so the video link doesn't help, but thank you). As for it being "hit by a rock", the linkage between the cable and the transmission is located at the very top of the transmission housing, under the hood, so that is impossible. I'm now being quoted over $600 from the dealer to repair because they have to remove the dash, center console, etc. in order to replace the $45 cable. This is outrageous. It is a design flaw. I'm asking the dealer to assist me in getting Ford to cover this repair, but I'm not too optimistic. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eGuru Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 The dash does not have to be removed so cost quoted is way too high. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eGuru Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 28 minutes ago, eGuru said: The dash does not have to be removed so cost quoted is way too high. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blk00ss Posted September 26, 2017 Author Share Posted September 26, 2017 (edited) 22 hours ago, Call Paul said: Well, then I guess this is a two-off problem, because I just had this exact same failure on my 2013 with 51k miles. Replacing the bushing at the end won't solve the problem because the entire bushing snapped in half (so the video link doesn't help, but thank you). As for it being "hit by a rock", the linkage between the cable and the transmission is located at the very top of the transmission housing, under the hood, so that is impossible. I'm now being quoted over $600 from the dealer to repair because they have to remove the dash, center console, etc. in order to replace the $45 cable. This is outrageous. It is a design flaw. I'm asking the dealer to assist me in getting Ford to cover this repair, but I'm not too optimistic. Weird, mine has 52k. Yours must have been hit by a rock also. The "hit by a rock" comment actually made me laugh. I mean seriously, look at it. It would be pretty well impossible for a rock to ever make it in there. As I mentioned when mine broke, there were white plastic shavings all around the area which is a dead giveaway the bushing just sits there and wears little by little every time you move your shifter. Plastic bushing on a metal pin and plastic heating and cooling everyday = horrible design. Nothing more than a part that should not wear, but Ford says its a wear part. Transmission cables should never leave you stranded. I'm not an idiot, I actually have built many hot rods and modern muscle cars. I know my way around tools and cars. This Fusion is my DD. Not sure why the love and defensiveness admitting Ford engineering sucked on this one. Doesn't take a genius to see this design is awful and is meant to break Anyhow, I replaced mine last Thursday evening. Took me about 4 hours. You don't have to remove the dash, but you will have to remove all the trim around the shifter and what goes up and around the radio/ nav screen. You will remove the vinyl trim pieces running the length of the console on the side. Remove all these pieces gently working your finger or tools along the edge to pop the clips loose. Its pretty well all clipped in until you get those pieces removed to reveal the actual hardware of the console. You will then remove 4 screws where the console sweeps up and attaches to bottom of dash/ on sides of nav screen. You will see two larger bolts at the front of the console pointing towards engine bay. Remove those. Slide front seats forward and remove the two large bolts at back of console from rear floor board. You''ll see those once you have all the plastic side panels of the console removed. Then there are four maybe six nuts holding shifter down to the floor. Remove those. With all those bolts removed you should be able to lift console from the rear. All you're doing at this point trying to give yourself enough room to feed the old cable out and new cable in. Out/ in will be done through the console. It will not come through firewall. The oval plate built onto the cable attaches under the dash via two nuts right onto the floor well. This plate is basically a cable guide. The hardest part is feeding the cable under the abundance of wiring at the very front of the console, but you can do it. Just don't start yanking on the cable. Feed it, work it around etc. As for the part. No local store could get it for me. I was told by two stores the car is too new. It had to come from Ford directly. The part # is most likely DG9Z7E395L or DG9Z7E395M. You'll need to contact a Ford dealership and give them your vin so they can get you the right one Oh and one last thing. This will happen again. Its supposed to. Might not be a horrible idea to keep an extra cable or lots of zip ties to at least get you going again like I had to Edited September 26, 2017 by blk00ss 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blk00ss Posted September 26, 2017 Author Share Posted September 26, 2017 And...I actually did buy a bushing kit from my local parts store. It has I think 4 or 5 different size bushings in it. One of them looked like it might fit, but since plastic becomes brittle heating up and cooling down, when I tried to put the busing in the end of the plastic cable housing, the entire end of the cable broke in my hand. That's why I had to buy a complete cable 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eGuru Posted September 26, 2017 Share Posted September 26, 2017 (edited) My post with the screen shots shows all the disassembly steps (pretty much as described by blk00ss). I wanted to add text to it to explain what it represented but seems that I don't have any "edit" menu item any more. Since I am paranoid about the site crashing, I submitted immediately after uploading the image (with the intention of editing immediately thereafter). Edit - so after submitting this post, I do now have an edit button - weird. Edited September 26, 2017 by eGuru 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdford Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 Eguru can you label those pics you posted to say what they are my bushing just went and apparently isn’t included in the current dam recall so I have to do it myself 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangster Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 What about your car makes it not part of the recall? I can't get my daughter to take her 2015 in for this recall and the one for the steering wheel bolt, I might have to hijack it, leave her with the hooptie and get it done, and not give it back. I even tried scaring her with the worst possible outcome of steering wheel detaches while getting on interstate, or parked on a hill can't put it in park. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eGuru Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 1 hour ago, bdford said: Eguru can you label those pics you posted to say what they are my bushing just went and apparently isn’t included in the current dam recall so I have to do it myself The description given by blk00ss should help you greatly. Seems that I can't edit my 2017 post. Not sure if I still have the original pictures so that I can annotate them. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdford Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 i have to do this myself only thing that bothers me is what inside the car has to come off 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rehabray Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 I know this is an old post, but I still drive a 2011 fusion, and I had this problem somewhere about 50 to 60,000 miles myself. I initially repaired it with zip ties at the transmission, but of course this failed in time due to the zip ties becoming brittle. I decided to see what the dealer would charge to fix it. Turns out they quoted me between $750 to $850 to do the job. $50 of that was the actual cable. The rest was 7 to 8 hours of labor. So I took a washer and some steel from a flag (the kind you'd put in the ground for locators to know where you're going to dig). And for less than $0.50 worth of steel I think I've come up with something that will out last the car. It works like a charm. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blk00ss Posted October 25, 2022 Author Share Posted October 25, 2022 Funny how all these years later, and now there is a recall on the shift cable that I had to purchase and change myself around 50k. Apparently not a rare problem, but I almost feel like I was one of the first. It’s meant to break. It shouldn’t be that way, but that’s how Ford wanted it. BTW…they use this very same cable on other vehicles as well. Neighbor across the street bought a new Edge. Checked her shift cable, sure enough….same plastic bushing riding on metal arm. What a brilliantly designed piece, Ford 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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