While driving on a busy two way highway the car shut off and would not shift into any gears. We managed to roll down a hill and set there with the car off. After about a minute or two we were able to get it to start and slowly pull us up the hill and we rolled the rest of the way into our driveway. Very scary seeing that it was dark and we were in heavy traffic.
I bought my car used back in January 2022 with it having a little under 80,000 miles. I woke up to go to work on August 1, 2022. Left my home and not even 5 minutes down the road I tapped the gas and my car acted as if I was trying to press the gas to the floor board. The engine roared and I saw my RPMs shoot up. But instead of accelerating, the car started to decelerates! I pulled over and shut the car off for a few minutes and when I turned it back on, everything seemed normal again. I keep driving and the problem repeats! This time add in that the engine started making a toy car noise instead of a normal car noise! I pulled into a parking lot and went to reverse into a spot. When I put the car in Reverse, the car kept going forward. I placed the car in park, did the turn off/on again method and then was able to reverse into the spot. When I put it in drive, the car kept going backwards! At that point I called out of work (and received a write up for it).
I had my car towed by my friends with a u-haul car hauler and we took to several mechanics who wouldn't look at it and kept quoting me $6,000-8,000 to fix! It was ridiculous. When we finally took it to a Ford Dealership, they were very rude and refused to look at the car until the end of September and said even if they did fix it, it wouldn't be until after October as they wouldn't have any of the parts. They wouldn't even offer a rental or anything even though this car was under recall for transmission issues and had less than 100,000 miles on it. It was so F-ing frustrating. Even more so, as my husband was in the field with the Army and was unreachable and I am pregnant with our first child who had just lost all means of transportation. We couldn't get a rental as I'm under 25 and where I live, no one will do an exception.
I finally found an honest mechanic who really helped me out. He even had a brand new transmission for my car in stock! Price is $4200 for parts, labor, and tax. He test drove the vehicle around the lot and agreed with how I described my issues. When he took a look he found that the torque converted had snapped into a bunch of little pieces and was jamming the rest of the transmission parts.
Car will be fixed by this afternoon but the entire process was very frustrating!
I bought this beautiful 2016 Ford Escape on 9/6/21 AS IS. I felt good about the car because it not only looked well cared for but the odometer only had 68,000 miles. Not bad for a 5 yr. old car. The warranty had expired. I planned to get an extended warranty in the near future and was considering going with Car Shield.
On 10/25/21 while driving on Highway 199, the car started bucking, not accelerating, jumping forward and finally making an awful grinding sound. Highway 199 is a nicely paved road so there were no road challenges. The only challenge was that Highway 199 is not heavily traveled, there is no cell reception and it was pouring rain. I was stranded for several hours before a CHP officer saved the day. He called dispatch who found a tow truck. It was a $300 tow to the closest Ford dealership which was about 1 hour away.
I was hoping my insurance, Progressive, would cover repairs. The Progressive adjuster determined the problem was mechanical and the claim was denied.
You bet it's mechanical. The seal broke and the transmission fluid leaked out. The transmission died. The Ford dealership, who will be replacing the transmission, said the transmission fluid looked "very distressed".
My car is still at the dealership about 217 miles from home. I opted to have the dealership in Eureka replace the transmission with a new Ford Transmission. Their estimate is $6500. It would have been too costly for me to consider towing the car back to Santa Rosa. I contacted my mechanic in Santa Rosa and asked for an estimate to replace the transmission and it was a very similar quote.
My car will not be ready to pick up until the first week of December.
Some of my research has turned up that Ford's Focus & Fiesta had serious clutch problems, there was a big class action suit which closed April 2020.
So, my question is - has there been other Ford Escape owners who also experienced "catastrophic transmission failure"? My car is 2016.
This is all new to me and am learning as I go. I have 2 wks. before my car will be fixed and now feel there may be a lot more info I will need to find and understand. I'm hoping Ford will pay for the cost of the transmission. Don't know about labor.
AGAIN, MY QUESTION ---
HAS ANY OTHER FORD ESCAPE OWNERS EXPERIENCED
"CATASTROPHIC TRANSMISSION FAILURE"
The car has had "small" transmission issues since I got it with 42,000 miles on it (clunking, delayed shifting, etc.) When I have had oil changes, I've wanted the transmission fluid checked but the system is "sealed," so no access to the transmission. I was debating a transmission flush when I had full transmission failure -- did not shift, LOUD clunks, not engaging. Red "Critical Transmission" warning came on. Unfortunately, I was on a two-lane road with no cell service so had to try to limp it to a safe location. There is a manual push-button shifter, which I attempted to engage, which put me into reverse at one point, which should be impossible.
I was able to turn the car off, then on, and get it in gear for a small enough time to coast to safety. Since Ford recently had other transmission issues in other models, I am very angry that this has not been worked out. Under NO circumstances should a transmission go out at 77k miles. This car was paid off, and when I called the dealer, I was asked if I want to see how much trade-in I could get for it as it sits and put me in a new car since the car itself is now probably only worth $8-9000. GRRRRR!!! I used to love Fords, because they used to be so reliable. Not any more!!
- Sue K.,
El Dorado Hills, CA, US
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Sometimes it would shudder or shift funny in the past two years but I didn't think much of it as I regularly brought it to the dealership for maintenance and checkups. Two months ago being the most recent visit. Then a couple of nights ago the transmission struggled to get out of 2nd gear. I pulled over and restarted the car, she went a few more miles then the transmission fault light came on and she died. I had her towed to the dealership that night and they took more than a day to call me back and let me know what was wrong. They said the transmission is dead and will cost about 5k to repair including labor. We still owe more than 7k on the vehicle. Needless to say, I'm pissed.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
While driving on a busy two way highway the car shut off and would not shift into any gears. We managed to roll down a hill and set there with the car off. After about a minute or two we were able to get it to start and slowly pull us up the hill and we rolled the rest of the way into our driveway. Very scary seeing that it was dark and we were in heavy traffic.
- lbna4lb, Lugoff, US