'08 Ford Escape Transmission Cooler Failure

[RogerAS]

Greetings,

We have an '08 Escape AWD with CD4E tranny. Build date 5/07 with 45,208.2 miles. All servicing has been done by Ford dealers within schedule, has never towed anything or had rough treatment. This has all be documented with receipts in hand.

The transmission cooler is leaking and is a well know issue with these SUV's. There is a TSB (technical service bulletin) NHTSA Number: 10024826 for these issued 09-9-4 built on or before 5/9/08. See HERE for a PDF of the TSB.

A web search returns several pages of complaints as these nearly always fail after primary warranty expires. See HERE for a web forum topic on this issue, which is one of many.

We have premium extended warranty but this problem is supposedly not covered as it it not an internal part of the tranny. However this is a part integral with the AC condenser which is covered by this extended warranty.

HERE is a YouTube video of the issue.

The point of this posting is to warn others to have their vehicle checked and have this documented. I am writing my senator and congressional representatives as well as State Attorney General to have a formal recall issued by FoMoCo. There have been cases where this issue has lead to unsafe operating conditions and placed lives in danger. I invite any other owners of these SUV's to document the issue and contact appropriate parties.

I have been a loyal Ford owner my entire life and if this issue is not resolved justly I will never own another. I will update this posting after the repairs are made detailing the outcome. I am to bring the SUV to my local deal this afternoon for confirmation of the issue. Yes, I'm upset and feel that this known defect is being ignored by FoMoCo at the expense of the consumer both financially and in their health and safety. Also the loss of transmission fluid being dumped into the environment is an emissions issue.

Thanks for reading,
RS

[RogerAS]

All,

Well due to the fact that I posted this on another forum (one that deals with magnets where I have been a member for 10 years) I was treated like dirt and posts which were WAY out of line by a moderator were deleted. I have removed all my files there and terminated my membership.

Sad.

RS

[quinnf]

Well, I was going to post something to the effect that if you'd bought a Toyota that wouldn't have happened, but I bit my tongue.   

By the looks of things here, this group will likely be more tolerant of Ford customers.  So feel free to vent.

Quinn

[Halfcrazy]

Sorry to here of the FOMOCO issues Roger. I do think this type of thing happens with every manufacturer from one time to another. Sorry to see you go from Magnets R us but I have been there before that forum is just to clicky for me and that was down right wrong for the admin to delete that post I was watching all that unfold and could not imagine where it went.

[AdeV]

Well, I was going to post something to the effect that if you'd bought a Toyota that wouldn't have happened, but I bit my tongue.   

By the looks of things here, this group will likely be more tolerant of Ford customers.  So feel free to vent.

LOL!

As an owner of both Fords (Mk2 Grandas, mainly) and Toyota (ok, Lexus, same thing), I can say that Ford can design really nice looking motor cars, but their mechanicals suck donkey ass (I believe that's a technical term); wheras Toyota's style department are mostly myopic, but their oily bits really are bombproof.

If it weren't for the fact that any Ford more than a week old wasn't made more of rust than metal, I'd stick my Lexus LS bits into the Mk2 Granny & have the best of both worlds:

Imagine this with a throbbing 4 litre V8 (instead of the relatively puny 2.8 V6 it has now):

[Henry W]

Well I still like some Fords. Back in the mid to late 60's Ford made some pretty good muscle cars. I had a 1969 Ford Torino Cobra with a 428 SCJ tied to a C6 with a Ford 9 inch rear end with detroit locker and I wish I still have it. It had a bullet proof engine after I finished blueprinting it and sent it out to get ballanced. The drive train held up to the 500+ hp with over 500 ftlbs of torque also. The engine held up to many 6500+ rpm passes. Here is a picture of one that was the exact car I had.

All car manufactures make good and bad cars. Even Toyota has problems with the Tundra trucks. These are mechanical things. They do not use slow turning engines and they are running them so hot and lean I guess we should expect problems some time down the road.

Henry

[Henry W]

Mercedes had there fair share of trouble lately. I can't think of one of the large auto manufactures domestic and foreign that did not have problems one time or an other.

RS I hope you get the matter resolved with Ford.

Henry

[TimSR2]

I had a brand new blue 1988 F150 that started losing it's paint at 20,000 km. After repeated refusals of my dealer to help me I eventually sold it, at about 4 years old and  150,000 km on the clock. The fellow I sold it to complained to Ford about the paint and they gave him a whole new repaint, no questions asked, no charge.

So the original owner got nothing, but the 2nd owner  ( who got it for a fire sale price because it had almost no paint on it anymore) got it stripped down and restored for free.

I have never had a Ford product since. And I never will.  They should take care of this problem properly. People have long memories.

Tim

[mobile_bob]

in an effort to make this statement as politically correct as possible

remember the old saying

if it has boobs or tires, it going to cause you trouble sooner or later.

(even if the trouble is self induced)

having worked on all sorts of stuff for what seems like eternity now, i can honestly say
there are few things that are mechanical that don't have issues of some sort.

one just hopes it is the sort of issue he can live with i guess.

sorry to hear about your leaving the "magnet" forum, for some reason i have been censored several times, but
they still allow me to throw my .02 in once in a while, so i figure, what the heck "its their sandbox i guess"

i remember the early days of their first forum, the overunity crap was horrible, along with assertions of 1000rpm
10ft rotors and a few other things that took a while to sort out.

all in all i like their forum, but there moderation is a bit heavy handed in my opinion.

probably made worse because of the forum software they are using, it just doesn't work well with a lot of info going back and forth
things move down and off the front page too quickly in my opinion and never really fully develop because of that.


bob g

[vdubnut62]

Good luck and I wish you all the best of luck with Ford. I hope you do better than I did with Cummins and Chrysler. I have a Dodge with a Cummins engine, the dowel pin falling out that locates the timing housing was a very well known problem. The 3/8 by 1 inch solid steel pin would cause all kinds of destruction when it fell down through the timing gears.
Cummins or Dodge never addressed the problem and I paid for a very expensive repair out of my own pocket.
I just had to write it  it up to s#!t happens! ( And another student loan payment to Percussion U. )
Ron

[cognos]

Thanks for pointing this out, my father has one of these Escapes. No touble so far, he loves the thing, but I'll tell him to keep an eye on it.

I've had trouble with all manner of vehicle brands... I've owned something like 40 cars/trucks/vans... I get bored easy, and I buy them low and sell them as soon as I get an offer even slightly higher than the buy price...

I must admit, my worst experience with a new vehicle was with a Blue 1986 Ford F250 4WD truck... The paint fell off, there was a 1" hole in the sheet metal in the box that had been skim-filled with Bondo and then painted over (blew out one day while pressure-washing the box)... the fan fell off (at 1000kms) while driving in the middle lane at 110km/hr on HWY 401 near Toronto at rush hour (did the hood and a wiring harness, and probably the pants of the guy tailgating me).. the AC compressor thermostat quit, and the dealer repair was to put a SWITCH for the compressor under the dash(!) Want cool? Throw the switch! The rings never seated, so at 8000kms, the thing was burning a litre of oil every 1000kms - they put in a new engine. 11,000kms later - same problem, another new engine...

Mind you, all these things were eventually fixed by the dealer under warranty, but not without some unpleasantness...

In less than a year of ownership. and by 40,000kms, I'd had enough, and put it up for sale. A month after I sold it, I got a second $1000 rebate cheque in the mail... being honest, I called up Ford customer service and informed them that I'd already received my rebate cheque months ago, and the truck had been sold... I was informed by the CSR that this was no mistake, they had no record of that, so go ahead and cash the cheque... OKAY, said I...

(Wanna hear the story about the GM dealer that folded my rear air shock in half with the lift during an oil change - and then blamed it on me, then STRAIGHTENED it and put it back on? )

[RogerAS]

Update,

Well, even a blind hog finds an acorn now n again!

The dealer where we bought the Escape supposedly could even look at the rig for 2 weeks. Not just a look to see if this was the problem or something else so they could get the part in. I found this to be a brush-off and I'd love to name names but I don't need no lawyers sending me letters. I mentioned the TSB and he, service manager, said he never heard of this issue and almost called me a liar. Not good and I hung up one PO'ed old man. Even if I buy another Ford it will NOT be from them folks.

I called a dealer over across the White river from me and he took my VIN and phone number with a promise to call me back. Havin' my feathers a little wet already I took that with a grain of salt and expected to never hear from him again. 15 minutes later he calls back and says bring it in next Tuesday, pay the $100 deductible, and we'll get 'er fixed. Should take about 2 hours. He says the AC condenser unit is covered and he'll run it through under that. When it comes time for another new rig you can bet good money on who gets my business.

For the first time in my life that extended warranty paid off on something, and both the wife and I are a lot less stressed. I may stay a Ford man after all, but FoMoCO should still issue a recall for folks that didn't buy this extended warranty. It ain't their fault this part was badly made.

-------

Speaking of older Fords, I had a 65 Mustang that would flat out haul the mail. It had a "warmed up" 302 with a few extras and a 9" rear end. I covered the road from Bend to Burns, OR (124+- miles) in less than an hour (56 minutes). Of course one could get real gas back then and there never were any cops out there in the desert. I was also a lot less concerned with dyin than I am these days. The funny thing about that car was that it got better mileage over 80 than it did at 60. Go figure. I wish I had that little red buzz bomb back, like the Torino mentioned earlier.

--------

I still find it interesting that Bill Elliot turned the fastest lap ever recorded in NASCAR with a Ford, and immediately they started in with restrictor plates. All an older Ford needs to make loads of horsepower is a good breathing system and the right cam. I remember when he made up 2 laps at Talladaga with one of them sorry old Fords. There was a reason they called him "awesome Bill from Dawsonville".

--------

As for my post being off topic, is it more so than a DARPA project? I ain't lookin for another round of war of the words, just sayin'.

Take care all,

[Tom T]

Hay Roger right now I am betwn Bend and Burns just past Brothers at mile post 70 and is the wind blowing. Tom T

[RogerAS]

Tom T,

When is the wind NOT blowin out there? HA!

I used to make a yearly trip from the west side over to Glass Butte and then down to China Hat, over to French Glenn, up into the Trout Creek Wilderness and Back up to Burns. I love the east side. Was born in Yakima, so....

Find any good arrow heads out there?

[Tom T]

If I look out the front I look up at the towers on Glass Bute. The wind some times blowes from another direction thats all. No arrow heads yet.WE used to set on Pine Mt. annd talk on the cb and  have a party untell thay ran us off then we went out on the old bombing range. Yes I broke a few 4x4's out hear lots of good timem back then. Tom