2002 ford escape transmission failure

[garlicbreadman]

2002 ford escape with 160k miles......transmission suddenly failed. Sunday, the escape drove perfectly and the following monday in the morning, the car would not shift into second gear. Prior, the transmission always shifted smooth and never slipped.

Anyone have any idea what it could be?

Transmission problems, are they common in this car?

 

[garlicbreadman]

ahh..so many all of a sudden failures. i guess this escape did fairly well and failed at 160k.
http://www.carcomplaints.com/Ford/Escape/2002/transmission/transmission_failure.shtml

 

[Ram01]

160k that tranny has live a long life

 

[DragRace]

Interesting,as my next vehicle that'll replace our Ford Explorer will either be an Escape,Mercury Mariner or Mazda Tribute.
I personally haven't heard about that many tranny failures on the escapes,hopefully someone will chime in on this.

 

[Roadkingnc]

I work at a Ford dealer and I rarely see an Escape in for a trans failure, the c4de is usually trouble free

 

[Bluestream]

Put in a used tranny and drive away down the road

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: DragRace
Interesting,as my next vehicle that'll replace our Ford Explorer will either be an Escape,Mercury Mariner or Mazda Tribute.
I personally haven't heard about that many tranny failures on the escapes,hopefully someone will chime in on this.


The later 6 speeds aren't ad at all.

Originally Posted By: Roadkingnc
I work at a Ford dealer and I rarely see an Escape in for a trans failure, the c4de is usually trouble free


I've heard (and seen) the opposite; the CD4E is a very problematic transmission.

 

[addyguy]

Got a 2003 Tribute with the CD4E and nearly 130k miles.

Works 'decently' so far, but I can 'feel' that it may have issues soon....

Fingers crossed!

 

[Bgallagher]

Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Put in a used tranny and drive away down the road


+1 Many junkyards etc have used transmissions that you can buy for a fraction of the cost of a rebuild and have a quality tranmission shop install it.

What was the fluid schedule for yours? How often did you change it? What fluid did you use?

 

[Rand]

the early ones 2001-? were mildly bad.

ie it was common for the 100k transmission replacement.

The later ones were much more reliable

had 2 people at work with it go out.

a 2002 with 98k miles and a 2003 with 138k

disclaimer they were both middle aged women so who knows what kind of maintenance they did before something broke..

 

[Chris142]

you done good.160k on an at is real good

 

[cptbarkey]

agreed, 160k is a good run for an automatic, if you want to have the next one last consider changing the fluid and filter every 30k.

 

[dishdude]

Since it just went out all of a sudden, what are the chances that it is just a solenoid or speed sensor?

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
Since it just went out all of a sudden, what are the chances that it is just a solenoid or speed sensor?


The later variant of this transmission that ended up in the Focuses (before the DCT) aren't bad reliability wise and do suffer from bad solenoids

 

[bdcardinal]

Like said before, early ones were bad. When I was a heavy line apprentice out in the shop at my dealer 9 or so years ago we used to do a couple of those transmissions a week.

The later ones were pretty good overall, every trans has some issue that will pop up over time honestly.

The newer 6 speeds are good. When they first came out there were some issues, but overall they have worked the bugs out in the first couple model year runs.

 

[DragRace]

Doesnt sound like too big of a known issue then in the newer escapes,say 2005 and up?

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: DragRace
Doesnt sound like too big of a known issue then in the newer escapes,say 2005 and up?


Overall no. The normal rules for buying an automatic apply though, check service history, fluid condition, and owner driving habits.

Its like with 4R70W's, some people get 300K+ miles out of them, some get 30K miles, all depends on what happens in those miles.

 

[kkreit01]

CD4E should have never been used in the Escape. You're lucky it lasted that long. If you perform extreme maintenance, they can last. Most don't perform this "extreme" maintenance. It wasn't bad when mated to the 4-banger, but it was really "taxed" when mated to the V6. I had both. Many do a drop&fill every 15k-30k miles. Escape-City is an excellent source of info (at least it used to be). Luckily for you, used units should be plentiful, but they may not be in any better shape than yours.

 

[DragRace]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Originally Posted By: DragRace
Doesnt sound like too big of a known issue then in the newer escapes,say 2005 and up?


Overall no. The normal rules for buying an automatic apply though, check service history, fluid condition, and owner driving habits.

Its like with 4R70W's, some people get 300K+ miles out of them, some get 30K miles, all depends on what happens in those miles.

 

[mailman74]

You are lucky mine went out at 85,000 miles the Ford reman unit now has 103,000 on it. The warranty was 3 years or 100,000 miles on the ford unit.