Today, the Ford Motor Dealership where I purchased my wifes 2009 Escape, informed me the 6F35 transmissions [like in my wife's 2009 Escape ]have a defect.

The 6F35 transmissons have a "shift flare" condition that (to date) Ford has no fix for!

BEWARE!

I purchased a 2009 Ford Escape on 9/12/2008.

The transmission FAILED after only 300 miles!!!

Ford replaced the transmission only to have the same "shift flare" problem AND, the replacement transmission blows transmission fluid from the filler tube!!

The Dealer re-adjusted the fluid level twice, and the fluid blow-by condition has not stopped!!


The Dealer said the engineers are aware of the 'shift flare' problem, but to date, have no solution for the problem!!

The Escape is my wife's, she is afraid to drive the vehicle! The shift flare is sporatic and unnerving, it feel's as if the transmission is shifted into neutral between shifts!

Ford Motor Company says they may not have a 'cure' till the 2nd. quarter of 2009!!!

The Dealer said numerous other complaints are coming in about the 6F35 shift flare condition and we (wife & I ) have to live with it till Ford engineers figure out a 'fix' for this problem!!!

THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!!!

Buyer beware!

-RR03-

 

oh boy that really sucks for ford and mostly you. i was waiting for your escape to be fix but im not sure ill be buying one now for my wife. no way. sorry you are going through all this. ill have to wait and see if they fix this or not. untill then im not buying a 09 escape.

 

Wow! You know Redranger, if I were you, I would play the "blowing oil out the dipstick tube" to the hilt as a safety issue. What if your Escape starts on fire or the trans seizes, causing an accident. Start crying the blues to the Dealership manager and go up from there. Perhaps the slightest inference to a lawsuit may help. I know they say it's safe to drive but how can they guarantee that in your case with oil blowing out? Anyway I feel your pain and hope you find a quicker resolution than Ford offers. Hang in there.

 

I never thought of the Fire danger!!

Already hinted about not wanting to go the lawsuit route...

I'm just sick about this crap...

 

nothing worse then buying a new car or truck suv and having these kinds of problems. foreign or domestic. my wifes 97 honda civic trans is going after 95.000 miles. $2500 to 3 grand to replace. im not happy but what are you going to do. she got 10 yrs of pretty good luck with it but a new car with these problems just scare me on buying anything new these days.

 

mbf, at least you got 95k before the tranny went out...

Just think, I got a brand new truck and afraid to drive too far and shifts like a slush box with 200k miles on it!!!

 

my stress level would be threw the roof if i bought a new car and were afraid to drive it. that would do me in. i hope it all works out.

 

I would take the Escape back and demand my money back. It's stupid for them to expect you to live with this problem until they find a fix. Sounds like Ford QA department is a joke. They didn't discovered this problem during testing.

With vehicles like this, I hope they don't get a bailout.

 

...and I had thought about an '09 Escape with the 2.5 and automatic trans a while back, but needed to buy something before the '09's were available.

I am guessing that this 6F35 is not unrelated to the 6F50 which has been in use since 2007. I have NOT heard of any big problems with these at all. Looking at Consumer Reports, it looks like both the '07 and '08 Edges are "much better than average" for major trans problems, and the '08 is much better for minor trans problems. The '07 is much worse than average for minor trans problems--and this says to me that there was likely a software issue or some other such calibration problem that could be fixed easily.

I will note that GM has been using these 6-speeds since 2007 or so as a 6T version. Haven't heard of any big problems with those.

I've got a relative on my brother's side who I see once a year on Christmas Eve (how convenient)--and he is one of the head engineers with FWD drivetrains (how convenient) these days. I will ask him the real scoop and get back to ya if I learn anything. (His previous assignment was the 2.3 4-cyl co-developed with Mazda, and he told me that that engine is bulletproof.) Unless he's laid off

George

 

Thanks George,

It would be great to get some "inside info"

-RR03-

 

I talked to my Ford engineer relative last night, and he is keeping busy working on FWD drivetrain stuff (their division is doing really well given the popularity of the new gen FWD cars and SUV's); he said that Ford is not having any global problems with the 6F35 that he is aware of. And if it were a serious design problem I'd expect that he'd be hustling to fix it.

I asked about the relationship between the 6F50 (used in the Edge et al), and that is definitely a very shared design with the GM 6T70 (or whatever their designation is) whereas the 6F35 is a scaled down design that is primarily Ford's own.

Based on my poking around the Internet, it does not look like there is any kind of widespread problem with the 6F35, and you'd think that behind the higher hp 3.0 Duratec it would have problems cropping up if there is any design weakness.

So, RR03, it looks like you're just "lucky" with your particular transmission or ECU. Sorry you didn't win the lottery instead.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and good luck getting your trans problems sorted out...

George

 

Thanks George!

 

If Dearborn was already aware of RR03's 6F35 problem that means that he is far from being alone with the problem. Not sure how many complaints they have to have before it's flagged as a "real" problem. The timeframe given for the fix is so long that I "hate" to say that it sounds like they don't know what causing it yet!

Just reread RR03's orginal post again. Dealer states that Ford has received "numerous" complaints of the shift flare problem and refering to it as a "defect". How come George's engineer relative hasn't heard about the 6F35 defect yet?

If Ford is working on the problem that would mean that they have at least one 09 Escape with the problem. I wonder how that is/was handled if it was in the hands of a owner when the problem started??

 

It is possible that the dealer is making up this story about "engineers being aware and can't fix" to deflect the blame from themselves not being able to fix it quickly...

Searching the Internet, have you found even one or two other instances of this problem? There are probably 20,000 or more 2009 Escapes on the road already using this transmission, and RR's problem started at 300 miles.

George

 

i would tow it to your ford dealership and tell them you want a loaner vehicle until they fix yours properly. then at least you would have a new replacement until they fix yours. i really dont know what else to try. i think they should give you a refund,but is that possible? then you could buy a different model,or buy a 2008 model if you choose to. maybe they have a new 2008 on a lot they could bring in for you to make a deal on? remember that right now, none of the dealerships,or ford corperate HQ can afford bad public relations in light of there financial situation. nor can any of them,GM, Chrysler,Toyota,etc. try to get some feed back on this from ford corperate ,contact someone above the dealership. dont take no for an answer,keep fighting until you get what you want,they eventually will help you so they dont keep hearing from you. it's sad you may need to go this route but ,you may have to. good luck i hope it gets resolved to your liking.