jeff_h
Well-known member
I swapped out my shifter today, many thanks to @ditkafan1985 for creating the custom base and providing encouragement that even a rookie like me could carry out the change. Here are some details that others may find interesting, as when I was considering doing the swap myself I wanted all of the info I could find.
I started getting the "powertrain malfunction" notice on 4/19/25 and it was there for a few days then disappeared for a week or two and I thought things were good as if an OTA update somewhere had suppressed the warnings -- but nope, it came back and became more frequent and over the last few days it was an everyday thing.
For guidance, I used this video which was referenced here before, which was a big help to show that dealing with the trim pieces were the most difficult part of the job, and that the actual swap of the component was the easy part:
However, one thing I found is that the above video was made while working on an upper trim Lightning with the large screen, and that the trim pieces on my XLT were definitely different.
The side trim pieces came off pretty easily, but then the removal of the lower base trim was definitely more difficult than in the above video and once I got it out I cut off some tabs to make re-installation possible (I think without that, the trim piece that surrounds the volume/tuner knobs on the XLT should have probably been removed).
Once I did get the base time piece off, I took a quick video of the "ducka ducka" sound that the shifter was making during its last breaths (and it was doing it whether the truck was on or off). It had done that 3-4 times over the past couple weeks and gently bumping the shifter more forward into park would make it stop, but this time after backing into the garage to do the work and putting the truck into park made the ducka ducka start again and this time it wouldn't stop. So it was very timely that I was replacing the shifter, as I've seen owner comments here and on reddit that their shifters were sending the improper signal to the truck and the truck wouldn't move at all. I wondered if I was getting closer to that happening to me, who knows. And yes the wrench light was on when I turned the truck off, it had been on steady for the past 3 days and sometimes would report that to the app and sometimes not, no idea why or why not.
As I noted above, once I got the base trim piece out I decided to cut off those tabs that connect underneath the dash, which was also mentioned in the replacement video above and I figured that the side trim pieces were going to hold the base time piece in just fine without those tabs that go directly under the dash.
It was kinda tough to get the side trim pieces back into place properly and I'm not sure they went in perfectly, as there's a bit of a gap on the right side -- unless maybe that was already there and I didn't notice?
Anyway, here is a pic of the finished product. Yes I know that the pics show how dirty the interior can get with daily commuting (mine is almost 2hrs each way), but my priority was to get this swapped out and worry about stopping at the car wash & vac later. I'm also going to get a small round piece of rubber to act as a coaster and cover the bolt head in the cup holder of the printed base.
End result: truck started normally, and no more wrench light!
I started getting the "powertrain malfunction" notice on 4/19/25 and it was there for a few days then disappeared for a week or two and I thought things were good as if an OTA update somewhere had suppressed the warnings -- but nope, it came back and became more frequent and over the last few days it was an everyday thing.
For guidance, I used this video which was referenced here before, which was a big help to show that dealing with the trim pieces were the most difficult part of the job, and that the actual swap of the component was the easy part:
However, one thing I found is that the above video was made while working on an upper trim Lightning with the large screen, and that the trim pieces on my XLT were definitely different.
The side trim pieces came off pretty easily, but then the removal of the lower base trim was definitely more difficult than in the above video and once I got it out I cut off some tabs to make re-installation possible (I think without that, the trim piece that surrounds the volume/tuner knobs on the XLT should have probably been removed).
Once I did get the base time piece off, I took a quick video of the "ducka ducka" sound that the shifter was making during its last breaths (and it was doing it whether the truck was on or off). It had done that 3-4 times over the past couple weeks and gently bumping the shifter more forward into park would make it stop, but this time after backing into the garage to do the work and putting the truck into park made the ducka ducka start again and this time it wouldn't stop. So it was very timely that I was replacing the shifter, as I've seen owner comments here and on reddit that their shifters were sending the improper signal to the truck and the truck wouldn't move at all. I wondered if I was getting closer to that happening to me, who knows. And yes the wrench light was on when I turned the truck off, it had been on steady for the past 3 days and sometimes would report that to the app and sometimes not, no idea why or why not.
As I noted above, once I got the base trim piece out I decided to cut off those tabs that connect underneath the dash, which was also mentioned in the replacement video above and I figured that the side trim pieces were going to hold the base time piece in just fine without those tabs that go directly under the dash.
It was kinda tough to get the side trim pieces back into place properly and I'm not sure they went in perfectly, as there's a bit of a gap on the right side -- unless maybe that was already there and I didn't notice?
Anyway, here is a pic of the finished product. Yes I know that the pics show how dirty the interior can get with daily commuting (mine is almost 2hrs each way), but my priority was to get this swapped out and worry about stopping at the car wash & vac later. I'm also going to get a small round piece of rubber to act as a coaster and cover the bolt head in the cup holder of the printed base.
End result: truck started normally, and no more wrench light!
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