Zetec 2.0 TDCi 140 Powershift 5dr Auto MPV

Avoid the Powershift Gearbox

I bought my S-Max when it was 3 years old and with 50k miles. Within a few weeks, the gearbox failed. It lost 3 of the 6 speeds, and gave a "Transmission Limited Function" warning. Apparently a plastic bracket holding the clutch plates together had broken. The bracket was replaced with a metal one.

I still got a similar error message after this repair. It usually happened after driving for 1-2 hours, particularly if I was going at a constant speed, or in heavy traffic. The first symptom would be rough gear changes. At this point stopping for a while could clear the problem. Otherwise a few miles later there would be a chime, another "Transmission Limited Function" warning, and it would lose half the gears, so you would be left with 1st, 3rd & 5th, or 2nd, 4th & 6th. Sometimes Reverse would also not work. At this point switching the engine off and restarting would sometimes clear the problem for a short while. Carry on, and eventually it would lose all the gears.

The first few times that this happened, there was no error code stored. Then there was a time when there was an error code saying that a sensor in the gearbox would need to be replaced. The sensor was cheap, but meant removing the gearbox to fit it, so it would have been £1800. Replacing the gearbox with a remanufactured one would have been about twice that much. I traded it in instead of fixing it.

Other than that, I had two warnings from the engine. One was caused by a blocked fuel filter. The other was about the particulate filter regeneration, but I sold the car before that one returned.

Its a big, 1700kg car, but the handling didn't make it feel like that. Its not a sports car, but doesn't handle like a van (unlike some other MPVs). It is comfortable, with excellent ride quality. I would have appreciated this more if I hadn't been on edge, waiting for gearbox failures on every long drive. There a lot of storage space for small things, but if you have the 3rd row of seats up, you can't have the cover over the boot, and you can't store something the size of a airline carry on bag out of view. Even with the 3rd row of seats down and the luggage cover in place, you could can see some of the contents of the boot.

My car had parking sensors front and rear, which definitely help as its not easy to see the corners of the car.

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