Car Transmission

Cruix

Hey, hopefully someone here that's more knowledgeable about cars can help me out!

I have a 2005 Ford Escape with 63,000 miles on it and just started having an issue earlier today. I went out yesterday and didn't have any issues with it, parked my car and didn't go out again until this afternoon. When I started to drive down the road, my car started to rev up like it was accelerating -- it would never actually jump in speed, just rev the engine as if it was going to. This is with me driving steadily about 35-40mph. This happened two or three times, I turned around and went back to my apartment.

I took the car to a mechanic down the street, got up to about 40MPH accelerating slowly, the car didn't try to rev up again on the way. The mechanic scanned one part of the transmission (transmission fluid was just replaced and it's fine) but said I'd need to go to a transmission shop to have the other part scanned. On the way back I was able to slowly accelerate to 40MPH, again, with no problems.

Is it possible this was some kind of one-time thing, or is that wishful thinking?

I'm already planning on taking it in to Ford on Saturday, that way I can check if the transmission is under warranty still while it's there.

proXimity

I know in an old Plymouth Voyager my family used to have, it did something like that rev up- then it dropped into what apparently is known as "limp mode". Short story shorter, the transmission had to be replaced.

The sudden jump to a higher RPM is the transmission dropping to a lower gear, the cause of which can never be a good sign.

Since that only happened once, you *might* be fine for a while, but I'd guess your transmission is on it's way to the graveyard.

Fats

Did you or the mechanic double check the fluid level? Low fluid would cause this.

Otherwise, be very happy you're still under warranty.

matt has a problem

How cold is it where you live right now? About a week ago it dropped to -15 F in Chicago, and while driving to work in it my car wouldn't shift out of first gear (it's a 2008 with 12k miles, and an automatic transmission). Since the gears changing occurs do to fluid pressure, if it was extremely cold and the transmission didn't have enough time to warm up you could've been having the same problem.

wmelon

A friend of mine had a similar issue with his 2001 escape, It turned out to be that his catalytic converter had clogged up due to all the driving he was doing and had to have it replaced. Luckily the escape has a 7 year 70,000 mile emissions warranty so it was covered.

THEPAIN73

Escapes have horrible transmissions. I mean AWFUL.

You probably need a new trans.

PeregrineFalcon

THEPAIN73 wrote: »

Escapes have horrible transmissions. I mean AWFUL.

You probably need a new trans.

This man speaks the truth. If you're covered to 7yr/70,000miles, I'd try to break that fucker while it's covered or trade it in.

Cruix

Ugh, thanks guys. I called up Ford and left a message for their service department asking them to get back to me about bringing the car in and about what the warranty was on the transmission. I hope it's covered, if this is already happening at 60k miles, I really don't want to pay a lot to keep the car.

Matthasaproblem: It was down to 18F the night before this happened, but I didn't take the car out until around three that afternoon, temperatures were back up to around 50 or a little over by then.

Fats: Yeah, the fluid level was double-checked, that was definitely alright.

PeregrineFalcon

Cruix wrote: »

Ugh, thanks guys. I called up Ford and left a message for their service department asking them to get back to me about bringing the car in and about what the warranty was on the transmission. I hope it's covered, if this is already happening at 60k miles, I really don't want to pay a lot to keep the car.

Matthasaproblem: It was down to 18F the night before this happened, but I didn't take the car out until around three that afternoon, temperatures were back up to around 50 or a little over by then.

Fats: Yeah, the fluid level was double-checked, that was definitely alright.

Cold fluids will tend to make it stick in a lower gear on acceleration, and/or shift harshly when it does pop to the next cog in line. What you've got are symptoms of a failng torque convertor.

Cruix

So, I finally got a hold of Ford and they told me they have no transmission specialist there. I called Lincoln-Mercury instead, and I was told since it only happened that one time and when I went out again later it didn't happen, it may be just from the cold weather and not letting the car warm up. There are no indicator lights and the problem has no pattern, so I'm going to go take it out for a drive and see how it does.

I'm still going to take it in on monday and have them check it out, I'll mention the torque convertor idea when I bring it, too. Turns out my transmission warranty is the same as the car, 3 years/36k miles, so I'm out of luck with that.

fuelish

I looked around and this seems to be a an issue with the Escape. Can you afford a trade-in to a new car? This might be cheaper than fixing the trans, which looks like a replacement rather than repair.

Cruix

fuelish wrote: »

I looked around and this seems to be a an issue with the Escape. Can you afford a trade-in to a new car? This might be cheaper than fixing the trans, which looks like a replacement rather than repair.

This is what I'm going to look into if it really is an issue. I don't want to fix it just to have it happen again if it's an issue in Escape transmissions like it seems to be.

In other news, I took it out today and it ran fine, at least. Accelerated fast and slow and had no issues either way.