G
George
Passed Away July 25, 2015
- Reaction score
- 156
- Thunderbird Year
- 2002
This subject of whether our trannys are From France or U.S. has been answered by Quickdraw somewhere along the line but the questions continue, so here's a copy of his response, especially for those who see tags that say, Made in France:
"The transmissions for the Thunderbird and Lincoln LS are made in Ford’s Sharonville, Ohio transmission plant, not in France as is widely believed. The engines are also made in Ohio, (Lima). Bordeaux France makes the truck version of the 5R55 transmissions for Rangers and Explorers. The car versions for this latest Thunderbird were always made in Ohio and until last year the Sharonville Ohio plant even made the transmissions for Jaguar."
Some people have found that the "Parts Content Information" sheet that came with their Thunderbird and it list parts content as follows:
"For this Vehicle:
Final Assembly Point:
WIXOM, MICHIGAN, U.S.
Country of Origin:
ENGINE: U.S.
TRANSMISSION: FRANCE"
The vehicle's serial number is listed at the bottom of the sheet.
So, QD went looking for more data and came up with the following:
"First of all let me say I never would have bothered asking where the transmissions were built if I had ever seen a “Part Content Information” sheet. I've always heard the Tbird transmissions were made in France but it didn't seem logical when Ford has transmission plants in the U.S. I asked a senior engineer at Ford, Sharonville where the transmissions were made and he said “they’re made in Sharonville.”
The answer to the discrepancy is: the "Part Content Sheet" is wrong. The Sharonville plant said "we ship over 3,000 5R55 transmissions to Wixom every month." (Wixom LS+Thunderbird production is about 3,600 monthly). An Email from the head Wixom engineer said "yes the transmissions come from Sharonville and we know the parts content sheets are wrong". It has been speculated that some parts that Sharonville assembles into the final transmission might be made in France and they had to divulge that. Another explanation is the Explorer transmission is also a model 5R55 but is a truck version – that is made in France and maybe whoever ordered the content stickers didn’t know there were two versions of the trans. But the Thunderbird/LS transmissions are absolutely made in Sharonville, Ohio.
Other things I learned while digging today: The Select Shift Transmissions (SST) are identical to the standard transmissions, "add-ons" make it a SST or not."
Please note, since I have copied these data from QD's written posts, I have pulled out any information that did not belong here to keep the info to a minimum
I hope that Quickdraw dosen't mind me doing this, I just thought that since the subject keeps coming up that it was important to get it back out.
"The transmissions for the Thunderbird and Lincoln LS are made in Ford’s Sharonville, Ohio transmission plant, not in France as is widely believed. The engines are also made in Ohio, (Lima). Bordeaux France makes the truck version of the 5R55 transmissions for Rangers and Explorers. The car versions for this latest Thunderbird were always made in Ohio and until last year the Sharonville Ohio plant even made the transmissions for Jaguar."
Some people have found that the "Parts Content Information" sheet that came with their Thunderbird and it list parts content as follows:
"For this Vehicle:
Final Assembly Point:
WIXOM, MICHIGAN, U.S.
Country of Origin:
ENGINE: U.S.
TRANSMISSION: FRANCE"
The vehicle's serial number is listed at the bottom of the sheet.
So, QD went looking for more data and came up with the following:
"First of all let me say I never would have bothered asking where the transmissions were built if I had ever seen a “Part Content Information” sheet. I've always heard the Tbird transmissions were made in France but it didn't seem logical when Ford has transmission plants in the U.S. I asked a senior engineer at Ford, Sharonville where the transmissions were made and he said “they’re made in Sharonville.”
The answer to the discrepancy is: the "Part Content Sheet" is wrong. The Sharonville plant said "we ship over 3,000 5R55 transmissions to Wixom every month." (Wixom LS+Thunderbird production is about 3,600 monthly). An Email from the head Wixom engineer said "yes the transmissions come from Sharonville and we know the parts content sheets are wrong". It has been speculated that some parts that Sharonville assembles into the final transmission might be made in France and they had to divulge that. Another explanation is the Explorer transmission is also a model 5R55 but is a truck version – that is made in France and maybe whoever ordered the content stickers didn’t know there were two versions of the trans. But the Thunderbird/LS transmissions are absolutely made in Sharonville, Ohio.
Other things I learned while digging today: The Select Shift Transmissions (SST) are identical to the standard transmissions, "add-ons" make it a SST or not."
Please note, since I have copied these data from QD's written posts, I have pulled out any information that did not belong here to keep the info to a minimum
I hope that Quickdraw dosen't mind me doing this, I just thought that since the subject keeps coming up that it was important to get it back out.
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