Car stuck in 1st gear

[BigBetty]

On Saturday, August 17, 2024, I was driving my automatic Bronco. I pulled off from a red traffic light and the car was having difficulty accelerating(I was going maybe 20mph, I'm not sure really, but slow enough to disrupt traffic). I checked the dash and it indicated that the transmission was in 1st gear. I only use D, I do not use manual shifting. Then a few minutes later, I was driving and attempted to accelerated and the car was going very slowly, maybe 20mph again. I was able to put my hazard lights on. I tried took it from D to M and back to D, eventually acceleration picked back up. In this second scenario, it appears that the transmission has jumped into 3rd gear.

Anything like this happen to anyone else? This is a snippet from my complaint.

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[Rick U]

Yes there is a tsb which my dealer performed. When that didn’t work, they replaced the transmission.

 

[Ducati1098]

Did you accidentally press the + or - on the shifter? Because if you did it will temporarily hold whatever gear has been selected and not shift. That’s also the only time in drive that it will show the current gear on the cluster.

 

[broncobase1]

If the transmission was stuck in a low gear the engine would have revved when you accelerated. Was this the case? My Bronco had issues accelerating and it ended up being a bad fuel pump, a known issue.

 

[Rick U]

My first transmission would get stuck in third gear. I was not pushing the plus or minus buttons but when it was stuck, it did show third gear on the display.

 

[TX-Dennis]

Did you accidentally press the + or - on the shifter? Because if you did it will temporarily hold whatever gear has been selected and not shift. That’s also the only time in drive that it will show the current gear on the cluster.

Exactly. This happened to me once, and I realized that I had pushed the button inadvertently. I would bet that the OP did the same without noticing.

 

[BigBetty]

If the transmission was stuck in a low gear the engine would have revved when you accelerated. Was this the case? My Bronco had issues accelerating and it ended up being a bad fuel pump, a known issue.

Yes, it revved but didn't accelerate.

 

[BigBetty]

Exactly. This happened to me once, and I realized that I had pushed the button inadvertently. I would bet that the OP did the same without noticing.

I was driving on a road, and my hands were both on the wheels. I was worried that somehow I had activated manual mode so I put the gear into manual to see if I could "pop" it into the correct mode, but when I used manual m7 appeared on the dash, instead of the 3 that had previously been there when it was stuck. ( Remember, it happened twice within minutes)

 

[HeliPilot]

The 3 without M3 indicates you downshifted manually with the +\- on the side of the shift knob. If there is no “M” indicated with the numerical value, it will only hold the selected gear for a few seconds before reverting back to Automatic mode. If “M” is displayed, it indicates you’ve selected manual mode with the shift handle, and it will hold the gear you selected without reverting back to automatic mode. I don’t believe the bronco even shows what gear you’re in unless it’s been manually up/down shifted.

 

[Fonz54]

On Saturday, August 17, 2024, I was driving my automatic Bronco. I pulled off from a red traffic light and the car was having difficulty accelerating(I was going maybe 20mph, I'm not sure really, but slow enough to disrupt traffic). I checked the dash and it indicated that the transmission was in 1st gear. I only use D, I do not use manual shifting. Then a few minutes later, I was driving and attempted to accelerated and the car was going very slowly, maybe 20mph again. I was able to put my hazard lights on. I tried took it from D to M and back to D, eventually acceleration picked back up. In this second scenario, it appears that the transmission has jumped into 3rd gear.

Anything like this happen to anyone else? This is a snippet from my complaint.

Yes the same happened to me but only once and never again

 

[TXBronco1313]

My 2.3 launches and bucks like an actual Bronco every now and again but never had it stuck in gear before

 

[Rick U]

I think this is the tsb

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/attachments/tsb-23-2352-pdf.596433/

 

[Ford Motor Company]

On Saturday, August 17, 2024, I was driving my automatic Bronco. I pulled off from a red traffic light and the car was having difficulty accelerating(I was going maybe 20mph, I'm not sure really, but slow enough to disrupt traffic). I checked the dash and it indicated that the transmission was in 1st gear. I only use D, I do not use manual shifting. Then a few minutes later, I was driving and attempted to accelerated and the car was going very slowly, maybe 20mph again. I was able to put my hazard lights on. I tried took it from D to M and back to D, eventually acceleration picked back up. In this second scenario, it appears that the transmission has jumped into 3rd gear.

Anything like this happen to anyone else? This is a snippet from my complaint.

Good afternoon. Could you please send over a message with your VIN and estimated mileage? I would like to take a look at your shifting concerns on my end.

 

[D Rock]

On Saturday, August 17, 2024, I was driving my automatic Bronco. I pulled off from a red traffic light and the car was having difficulty accelerating(I was going maybe 20mph, I'm not sure really, but slow enough to disrupt traffic). I checked the dash and it indicated that the transmission was in 1st gear. I only use D, I do not use manual shifting. Then a few minutes later, I was driving and attempted to accelerated and the car was going very slowly, maybe 20mph again. I was able to put my hazard lights on. I tried took it from D to M and back to D, eventually acceleration picked back up. In this second scenario, it appears that the transmission has jumped into 3rd gear.

Anything like this happen to anyone else? This is a snippet from my complaint.

I just came looking here for this issue because I have now had this happen twice. Once a few months ago and now a few days ago. Was driving, hands on wheel and it wouldn’t accelerate. Looked down and there was a number showing on the dash (think it was 5, but not sure). Has to drop it into M and back to D on the fly to clear it up.

 

[JadeMyWorld]

Experienced this today. I accidentally touched the + button at a red light and saw the gear number. Then I used the - button to return the number to 1, thinking it would be fine. Then I realized the transmission was holding the first gear while I was in the intersection, so I shifted to N then back to D on the fly to disable that hold (should have used M instead of N). For whatever reason, the car did not accelerate for a few seconds as if the rpm was limited, and then suddenly, the transmission returned to normal operation. I did not observe any changes in the transmission operation after that, but I am a little concerned about any potential damage. It’s really not a smart design.

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