Ford galaxy mk3 powershift problems (2013)

[Mechanic man]

This is not for the faint hearted!
This job will need a good level of expertise and very clean conditions. The gearbox is basically a Getrag 6DCT450/470 which is also fitted to Volvo,s. There is a very good manual for the box just search for ASTG it has all the key information. I found a free download easily available and a good Utube video for doing the job.

My 5 year old galaxy with power shift with 47k miles started playing up and rough shifting so took it to the dealer for diagnosis. the reply was that a new box was required at a cost of nearly £4K. I was shocked as the car has had all its correct services and by authorised dealer, they said that they could not help me, not happy customer as they have had my business for two of these cars. I contacted Ford as I knew this box was problematic and in other countries the warranty had been extended?
Their reply was that they would not contribute to the repairs. Disgusted about this!

I decided to investigate and repair it myself if that was possible?
Disconnect the battery first.
Draining the oil and removing the filter I found some plastic particles in it so next step was to remove the mechatronics cover to check the solenoids and valve block.
on stripping the mechatronics unit I found some of the valves stuck and some solenoids sticky.
The valve block was disassembled and everything cleaned and blown out then carefully re assembled, put back into the gearbox ,cover put back,and oil and filter replaced with new.
Reconnect the battery and clear any fault codes in the TCU's then gearbox cycled through all the gearstick positions for 20 seconds each then test drive. The gearbox was all back to its normal running.
In all it has cost around £200 for materials and about 6 hours of my time, saving me £3.8K.

Please note the plastic probably came from a broken damper spring clip and so more could materialize in the future but at least this has saved an immediate big expense.
Make sure you pin the selector wheel, I used a 0.12 drill bit. it is also the scale for the plastic particle in the oil.