PULSCAR ANALYSIS - P0776 (PRESSURE CONTROL SOLENOID B PERFORMANCE), P0761 (SHIFT SOLENOID C PERFORMANCE) AND P0868 (TRANSMISSION FLUID PRESSURE LOW), WITH AUTOMATIC-TRANSMISSION SOLENOID, VALVE BODY AND LOW-PRESSURE COMPLAINTS IN NHTSA'S PUBLIC FILES PulsCar analysis of NHTSA public data, October 2026. License: CC BY 4.0 Attribution: "PulsCar analysis of NHTSA public data, October 2026." Published alongside https://www.pulscar.io/blog/p0776-code ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Scope and dates. Prepared October 2026 from NHTSA's public flat files: owner complaints received from 1 January 2015 to 4 October 2026 (the latest received date in the files), the index of manufacturer communications and the recalls table, plus the maker papers themselves from static.nhtsa.gov. The NHTSA complaint file is public: anyone can download it from NHTSA and check any number here against it. 1. Complaints counted (3,354) Every complaint whose narrative names P0776, P0761 or P0868 by any spelling we searched, names a sister code of the same hardware (P0775, P0777-P0779, P0760, P0762-P0764, P0867, P0869, P0746-P0749, P0960-P0969), or uses solenoid, valve body or pressure wording together with a transmission word: 2,404 from a first search and 950 more from a second search of the whole complaint file. The exact search wording is in codebook.txt. found_by in the complaints file says which search found each complaint. Each complaint was sorted twice by the same written rules (codebook.txt), into one cause category and four yes/no questions (limp mode, stranded, recall, returned); the rule_applied column shows the rule used where the two sortings differed. Result: 2,958 relevant, 396 not relevant. Counts are counts of complaints, not cars. A complaint is evidence that an owner wrote to NHTSA; nothing here is a failure rate. 134 complaints print one of P0776, P0761 or P0868 (codes_named column); the rest describe the same events in the owners' words, which is why the set is built on wording as well as on codes. 2. Documents (p0776-documents.csv) 683 files: 544 manufacturer communications (bulletins, campaigns, special coverage, service updates) and 139 papers from 16 recall campaigns, chosen from NHTSA's index and recalls table by what the index summary says; two chosen bulletin entries have no file and are not listed. The list shows, for each file, which of the codes P0776, P0761 and P0868 its own text names, which neighbouring pressure and solenoid codes it names, and its relevance. Years, models, engines, build dates and coverage terms are as printed in the documents. Coverage status "as of September 2026" is our computation from printed terms. 3. Owner-reported amounts (462 figures in 391 complaints) A dollar figure is included when the owner states it as a price, charge, bill, quote or estimate for diagnosing, repairing or replacing a part tied to the transmission event on that vehicle (pressure control or shift solenoid, solenoid pack, valve body or mechatronic unit, pump or pressure regulator, fluid or filter service, software update, transmission wiring, or the transmission itself). Excluded: mileage written as "NNk"; vehicle price, value, payments, trade-ins, refund demands and settlement sums; repairs of other systems; totals that mix other major work; restatements; other owners' costs; rental-car, towing and hotel costs. Status comes from the owner's own words (paid, billed, quoted, not stated). 746 candidate figures were found and 284 were excluded, each with its reason in p0776-excluded-figures.csv. Figures are what owners wrote, not audited invoices. 4. Limits The complaint file holds the cases where an owner wrote to NHTSA, in the owner's words, with no verification; owners whose trouble ended are mostly not in it. The shares reported describe the complaints, not all cars. Only 134 complaints print P0776, P0761 or P0868; a complaint that says only "slips" or "shifts hard" with no cause, no code and no solenoid, valve body or pressure wording is outside the searches. About 970 complaints that name the Ford molded lead frame, Ford Focus and Fiesta dry-clutch gearbox complaints without a hydraulic cause, converter-shudder-only complaints and fluid-only causes are not in the set. The document set holds what NHTSA's index lists; a maker paper that is not in the index is not in it, and 68 recall filings of the 16 campaigns (quarterly and interim reports) are not in it.