I took my 2002 Escape (29K on the clock) to my Ford Dealer this morning. I was concerned about several drops of Transmission Fluid on the floor which I have noticed in the last 3 days. I just got a call from them. They advised it will take 4 days to fix as they have to take out the Transmission and possibly the engine. Does it just sound worse than it is or is it normal? Any ideas?
ps. Some people have refered to a recall. In Australia I wasn't aware of any recalls?

 

Hi moti and welcome to the forum

I'm not aware of any recalls on these.
They are probably going to replace the torque convertor seal or maybe reseal the transmission case. It's quite a big job but it shouldn't take 4 days unless they are going to pull it apart and then see exactly what parts they need and then order them, rather than having the usual suspect parts there beforehand.
Or maybe they are just doing the "under promise, over deliver" thing.

 

Thanks Racer Guy, that's good info. It was a bit of a shock, I thought they only do this to Alpha Romeos. :-)
I'll ask for a report when I pick up the car on Friday and see if that's what they did. I'll do a bit of research between now and then so I can understand what they are talking about. This is only the second time the car had a problem. Last time it was an engine light on the console that stayed on / dealer replaced the emmission controller. I've had many cars, but this (XLT) is by far the best both in cost value and useability.

 

Any idea if Escapes there are the same as in North America?
Do you have the 2.3L and 3.0L engines or?
It's always interesting seeing what vehicles are like in other places.

 

I hope that they verifed where the leak was coming from before pulling the transmission. The power steering system on the Escape also uses Mercon AT fluid and the seals on the rack have been known to leak.

 

OVe1 - That's a good point. I thought about it as well. Of course I've checked both levels and they seemed ok. I tend to think it is from the transmission due to the location of the leak.

Racerguy - From what I can tell all specs are the same as in North America except you had more of a range than us until recently. Only this year they introduced the 2.3 litre 4 cylinder version of the Escape (to counter the oposition). Even though the Mazda tribute has had it in Australia from day one. Sales here of the Escape are still very far behind the xtrail, rav4, crv & mazda etc. Personally I think people here are making decisions on name sake because after testing all of them, there was no comparison. The escape being a V6 3.0 was powerful, rugged, practical and the XLT was at the right price. Back in 2002 there was no Limited version here. It came in several months after I purchased my car. Again Mazda tribute had the full range here all along. My understanding from the dealer is that the Escape is made in Japan alongside the Tribute. Yes, we do drive on the Left here (as in England and Japan) which does dictate where we get our cars from. I guess in this global market, it makes no difference as big companies produce the cars anywhere. ie. (your GM GTO is our Holden Monaro, and Mitsubishi Diamante is our Verada).

If I learn how to post pictures, I might add some :-)

 

To post some pictures you can go into your User CP at the top of the page and set up a gallery.
Getting the GTO over here is a start. No if only we could have the Falcons etc.

 

I've picked up my car last night from the Ford Dealership. I've asked for a full report. Here is what I got "Removed and resealed transmission, refitted transmission, toped up oil, road tested vehicle, reinspected all okay" - So there you have it. A full Ford report! When I asked how much this would have cost if it was not under warranty the guy said around AUS$2000 !! Apparently 20 hours of labour to do the work. He also reminded me that I can take up an extended warranty for around AUS$700 before my 3 years are up (next year) - That might not be a bad idea given this episode.

Car drives as it did before. I did however notice it reves a lot higher when you start it before falling back to the normal idel rev.

 

The idle is probably different now because the battery was disconnected and the PCM needs to relearn idle speed etc. Give it a few days and it should be back to normal.

 

As I walked into my garage I again noticed a drop of oil. After last weeks' saga, I immediatly saw more than just the red liquid. Again, transmission oil. It's a frightening feeling considering what was done last week. Took the car to the dealer yesterday morning. After waiting for one and a half hours the car returned. Explanation - "Auto Transmission checked for oil leak found clamp loose, resecured clamp all okay". What clamp? What hose? I thought there were just seals? Well apparently there are some hoses and clamps too. I can't get hold of any engine diagram for this car. Does anyone know of a site it can be found at. I'd love to know what they are talking about.

 

The cooler lines have hose clamps on them. That could be where the leak was coming from.