cmlconrad01

We are taking the Ford to the dealership tomorrow. The Legal Analyst from Ford Corporate told us that their Field Engineer will look at the car. They will not let us talk to the Engineer or tell us what he will be doing. We asked how long they will have it, she said it depends. They are arranging for a rental for us while this is going on. I am simply amazed that they will be looking/working on our vehicle and we have no right to know what they are doing Stay tuned for more after we go through this next step. The BBB contact has told us that he will await the feedback from his Ford Contact and we can talk after Tuesday.

All those Ford Escape folks coming to this forum, please also go over to the one on "Towing 2009 Ford Escape". There is even more information about this vehicle that you need to know. Also, the heading on both should now say FORD ESCAPE 2009 and 2010 as our friends just fried the transmission on their 2010 after only towing it 35 miles!!!!!!!!

We have contacted the BBB and now have their 36 page document to go through. We also sent in the FL lemon law form to Ford and the Attorney General. We shall see what happens after all the forms are filled out and mailed. I have a feeling Ford will say it runs now so no problem

Well, we are back in Florida and have met with the dealership about this 2009 Ford Escape. We met with the Service Mgr. as we wanted to share what happened and to understand why they did not do what needed to be done before we left town. We also wanted to see if they would work with us to take this car off our hands. Bottom line: Jarrett-Gordon Ford in Davenport, Florida - said we needed to talk to Ford Corporate about buying the car back. They also said, and I quote, "they would never buy the Ford Escape to tow". Wow, this is from the Service Dept. Folks. They don't think it should be towed and even with the service bulletin, which we gave them a copy of, they still would not tow it. They said IT IS THE SAME TRANSMISSION even if you lower the fluid level. They did not even have a copy of the Service Bulletin from FORD!!! How can they be expected to service something when they don't have the fix???? They advised us to contact the Better Business Bureau and try Ford Corp. Again!!! I called Ford Corporate yesterday, 10/27/10. They called back this morning and told me "We understand your concerns, we are sorry, but we are not in the business of buying back cars!!!!!! So, do what you need to do according to your rights as outlined in your manuals from Ford, one of them being the Florida Lemon Law booklet." SO THERE FOLKS. I recommend never buying this vehicle to tow. Even with the final dipstick fix and lower fluid levels, it is running hot when you stop. Our friends bought a new 2010 and were ready to tow last week. They got 35 miles from home.!!!! Our other friends bought a 2011, and they are now afraid to even try. Luckily they did not get all the front end equipment installed yet so they are not out that money. Now, I guess we try litigation!!!!!! I did contact the BBB today and look forward to filing out all the paperwork! Not! I did though tell the Ford person that I would put this out on the blog and tell everyone I know. He said, do what I needed to do. HUMMMMMMMMM.

Did it have to be bought back at the dealer where you bought it? Just wondering in case it doesn't make it back to Florida. Yes, maybe the magic will be new transmission just off the line, new dipstick and tube and lower fluid level. We will let everyone know as we leave this coming Tuesday and are only going 220 miles. Let's hope! The Conrads

We are back with more info. After picking up our Ford Escape that was worked on again. So, we have the Technical Service Bulletin number TSB 09-20-13. It is dated October 5, 2009. It is titled - "6F35 Transmission-Recreational Towing-Vehicle With All 4 Wheels On The Ground-Expanded Guidelines To Prevent Transmission Damage.". It is applicable to Ford 2009-2010 Escape, 2010 Fusion, 2009-2010 Mercury Mariner and 2010 Milan equipped with a 6f35 AUTOMATIC transmission. It states that ".....The transmission shift concern may be caused by heat build up in the transmission due to the transmission level being too high, towing over 65 mph and/or not stopping to run the engine at idle for 5 minutes every 6 hours or less, to cool the transmission." Now those of us that have problems, now that the later is not the issue. What is the issue is the fluid level!!!! You must have the new dipstick and tube on your transmission that allows you to measure a lower and more accurate amount of fluid to have in the transmission. Too much fluid is causing a foaming effect which causes other things (I am not the techie one) to happen and then the blowing out of the fluid occurs. Once that happens, it begins to fry itself. So, the bulletin states that for 2009 Escapes or Mariners made on or before 10/28/08 - they must replace the dipstick and tube to ensure the fluid levels are correct. Oh, we also learned that the car's system is also tracking the overheating problem. So, if you think all is finally fixed, as we did, Ford can run self tests. One of the memory checks kicked out a P1873-transmission over temp condition on the latest, new transmission that had been installed. Luckily this Ford dealer, pulled out all bulletins and found that the new transmission that had been installed for us, did not have the correct dipstick, tube and was too full of fluid. Luckily they found this before we began towing again as they said we would probably have blown another one. Well, we hope all of this helps you out there. We are going to try towing it again in a couple of days. Hopefully Ford has finally got it right this time.

Where do I get the information to fill out?

We have a 2009 Ford Escape. It has only 1900 miles on it when we got ready to tow four wheels down. We took it to our dealer that we bought it from due to a letter and new towing manual we recvd in the mail from Ford about towing 4 wheels down. They said it was fine to go. Be aware there is a Very Specific Repair That MUST be done to your transmission, especially putting in a totally different dipstick!!!!!! We took off on Sept.2nd , stopped at a rest area for the dogs and the car would not start. We thought maybe battery. This was less than 200 miles. We stopped at the campground at 300 miles. As others have said, fluid was all over the car. We never got over 65, didn't drive longer than 3 hours due to potty breaks for the dogs. It was towed to a dealer and two weeks later, we had a new transmission. We took off again, got ONLY 183 miles and it is fried again. Ford towed it to another dealer who knew about the service bulletin. After only one week this time, we have a new transmission. We have by then been in contact with Ford Corp. who could not assure us that this third transmission would be ok!!!! We took off, in the rain, and stopped every two hours as we were so paranoid. We arrived at the campground and the car seemed to be fine, but it was still raining so couldn't really see the fluid. The next day, we take it through it's paces as per the manual before hitting the road. Our first rest area, stuff on the back window. We try to tell ourselves it is just blowoff from the road. We call our contact at Ford Corp. She sends us to a dealer in Bettendorf, Ia. The service person checks the fluid level which is fine, looks at the rear window and says, no, I think you are ok. Well, we head on. We camp for 8 days and disconnect thecar. We wash it and work to get the gunk off the window. Fluid level still fine. Drives ok. Stalled once going from drive to reverse. At the suggestion of our contact, we take it to a dealership by us. Yes, you guessed it. The THIRD transmission has issues. There is metal flakes in the fluid and they have the thing from Ford that says what must be changed on the transmission if towing 4 wheels down. So, here we sit again. Luckily the last two repair places gave us cars to use as we have nothing. While it is being"fixed" we are sitting here wondering what to do now. We do not feel this car should or can be towed. We wish we would have read this site before ever buying it but theta told us it could, showed us the documentation as we wanted to see it in writing and we wanted to support Ford as they did not take any bailout money. We have been told this time it will be about a week. With the holiday, I don't feel good that will happen. We will let you all know the final outcome. By the way, we purchased it brand new in August 2009.