I had a 2010 and I hated the transmission with a passion!!! It acted so weird when you tried to step on it and go in drive. I had it in 3 times and it never got any better. I traded it in for the 2012 I have and its a day and night difference!!! The transmission on the 2012 act and reacts like a transmission should. For the rest of the stuff I didnt see it at all, I never had any other problem with it. The best thing... I paid 39k in 09 put 41k miles on it and traded it in for 37 2.5 years later.
OK, I have a 2010 and I agree with some of your assessments. Yes the delay in transmission downshifts used to drive me crazy but the 5Star tune has aleviated some of that problem. My driver's seat heater has burned out once -a very common problem on these Fords.
I haven't heard about the upper control arm problems.
Unless there's something wrong with your truck, all 2010's are capable of fully shutting off traction control. You have to clear any warnings first, then press and hold trac control for 10 seconds. If you change anything (ie, 2 wheel to 4 wheel drive, O/R mode button pushed) you have to repeat this process.
Hope this helps.
I have a 2010 5.4L and Love my truck BUT hate my trans.
Yes it does shift like crap and like Hockster has done I've also done by bringing it in several times to get fixed and they've basically done nothing but reset my computer.
The tune does help a bit but I still get really bad shifting especially in the summer.
I've just recently had a trans flush and that also didn't help.
As for winter I always place it in sport mode before going out in snowy conditions.
I've had times where I'd try and pull out from my court into traffic and the damn traction control kicks in and leaves me stranded while there's on coming traffic, very scary.
So now sport mode every time.
Personally it sounds like you got a lemon but I would not give up on the Raptor.
It really is an awesome truck and even with my crappy trans I still love my truck.
