Whelp. You know how they say "third time's a charm"? When it comes to the 2013 Escape transmission, that's apparently not the case.

My first transmission failed at 55,000 miles. I didn't realize it at the time, and waited until it got really bad, then paid out of pocket for a new transmission at 65,000 miles (Nov 2020).

Transmission #2 failed at 81,000 miles (April 2022). It was even more catastrophic than the prior failure. The rebuilt transmission's warranty covered the repair.

Now, it's failing yet again with 93,000 miles (April 2023). Again, the rebuilt transmission's warranty will cover the repair.

If you're considering a Ford Escape, or any vehicle with Ford's dual automatic clutch transmission, carefully weigh whether you're up for continued transmission failures every 10k~30k miles.

Aside from the transmission, I've had few regrets with this car. But this is enough that I need to look elsewhere for my next vehicle. And soon. Because if history is any indicator, the fourth transmission will likely fail between 12 and 18 months.

On a beautiful long weekend, the car which was running perfectly fine (2 weeks after scheduled service from Ford) when stopped at traffic light and then would not move an inch. The shifter was perfectly good , but vehicle would not move forward. Got it shifted to closest local transmission guy and he said would take a week to get parts, but could not find any and quoted 4000 Canadian $ to fix. Ended up looking for other vehicle. I had Ford in the past and have loved them, but this makes me skeptical to buy one again (maybe its one off and it happened to me).

Vehicle was towed to the dealership where the lead technician quoted me a total transmission replacement, a $9000 repair, without opening the transmission. At this point vehicle is a total loss. Not worth 9k, and I still owe over 5k so I'll be paying on a car that's in a junkyard somewhere. 4 year old car, 7000 miles out of warranty. An apparent total transmission failure before it even needed its first transmission fluid change (Ford recommends 70k for this vehicle). Absolutely asinine. Currently getting the run around from Ford and more/less ignored by the local dealership.

I've loved this car and have never had any serious problems with it, and very few problems in general. It's always been dependable in the few years I've had it, until the transmission went out one evening on the way home. Turns out this is apparently a common issue with this type of car. At least $4000 for a REBUILT transmission because of the turbo whatever in the engine.

The codes that came up were:

P0219-00 Engine overspeed condition engine and transmission fault code trans will not go into any gear

P0234-00 Turbo A Over Boost

My husband said, after talking to several mechanics about fixing the car, that the transmissions they put in them are junk. So if you get a REBUILT junk transmission, how long will it last? Crazy! Very disappointing indeed.

Complete loss of power just shy of 80k miles. Towed to dealer; Dealer thought it was a turbo-related sensor before problem immediately reappeared & had to be towed back to dealer. Dealer replaced pump in transmission, but transmission still didn't feel completely right. Returned to dealer once with it shifting hard/random loss of power from stop, feeling like it was starting in a higher gear, but dealer could not recreate.

Vehicle is currently back at the dealer after the dash indicated a transmission failure. Car was flawless up until this happened, but now I'm firmly in a "sell it and get something that's not a Ford" mindset.

I had a transmission failure at about 51,000 miles. But I didn't know it - I thought I was just "using it wrong" and the car wasn't responding optimally. It drove pretty well most of the time, and occasionally would shift hard. Eventually, this got much worse, and by 61,000 miles, I could no longer ignore it or chalk it up to user error.

I took it in for service. Warranty was denied. I paid over $6000 in diagnostics and a replacement transmission. The failure wasn't well described - they didn't look very hard for specific component failures, but found debris in the transmission fluid.

Okay, so that was at 61,000... a new transmission. Fast forward 2 years, 20,000 miles. I'm now at 81,000 miles, and the transmission begins hesitating and shifting funny. Took it in for diagnostics and... you guessed it. A failed transmission. Again.

So... a 20k mile transmission failure? Seems par for the course on this car. The only positive is that the rebuilt transmission came with its own warranty. So this round of diagnostics, parts, and labor will be covered.

That's about all I have to report right now. I see a class action lawsuit or a recall in Ford's not-to-distant future.

Ford dealership said bands 2 and 4 in the transmission are broken, and caused a complete failure. The extended warranty company wants it tore down to the failure, and said that I'm responsible, if they decide not to pay for repairs, but they said that the transmission is something that is normally covered. I asked what causes the bands to break, and the service tech said when the fluid gets old it will cause the bands to break. I told him that the car only has 51,000 miles on it, and Ford recommends service at 100,000 to 130,000. Then he told me, sometimes things just happen. I can tell you what will never happen again, I will never own another Ford! The Ford tech gave me the impression that this was not a premature failure.

Update from Apr 12, 2022: As of today, the Ford dealership has had my car for 5 weeks, and I was told that it could take 12 more weeks to get a replacement transmission, this is beyond ridiculous.

I own 5 Ford vehicles, had been a staunch Ford supporter for well over 40 years. I worked as a professional mechanic while going through college. Have engineering, chemistry and biological sciences back ground. I know tools, systems and how to diagnosis and fix them.

Engineering of vehicles can be easily done to cause failures and are means to get vehicles into the dealer. US Export vehicles are build with higher quality/longer mileage parts, as there are few dealers overseas.

Ford determined that my 2015 was a month out of the warranty, 5yr/60k miles with 45,360 miles. This Ford 6F35 transmission is designed to fail. Ford wanted $6,000 to put in a reman tranny. I could not even get them to estimate the repair of my tranny vs just replacement. Had Code P0751.

In reading the owners manual, the suggested tranny oil change is 150,000 miles. That suggests these are very good transmissions, as most the time changing about 70-100k miles is just a good investment. However it also notes that the tranny oil should be changed every 30,000 if towing a vehicle or having a cartop carrier. The usual red tranny oil was black. There is no oil dip stick to check oil level, or oil condition. The oil change place reported that they had checked the oil at every service. The Black is likely clutch plate disintegration (I kept a good sample of the oil).

If you look on Ford's website on the required maintenance of this vehicle... they DO NOT even note to check the transmission oil at engine oil changes... many folks are not doing due diligence at Ford. I do not even think that they want to be the best built vehicles in the US, much less the world.

I opened up a case with FOMOCO, but disgusted with Ford as the car was still somewhat drivable, I took it to Aamco and they estimated $3900 with better aftermarket clutches, the valve body was bad, that is very expensive.. and the same Ford Dealer, World Ford, had several in stock... what does that tell you? They break... all the time!! And it needed a torque converter. I'm not impressed.

I bought my 2015 Ford Escape brand new from the dealership. At 5 years old and 87,000 miles, I experienced a total transmission failure. The first mechanic I took it to quoted $7,100 to have it replaced. I ended up taking it to Ford and paying closer to $6,000. The dealership gave me $500 in free labor, and requested additional assistance from Ford Corporate, with no success. Now I'm experiencing cylinder misfires, which I've sunk an additional $1K into so far, and still have the issue. This car is completely unreliable and a total money pit.

My husband and I travel near and far (mostly far) to visit our kids who are spread out all over this country. This car was purchased new so that we would avoid having problems on the road, especially for me as I am no mechanic! Always carry AAA, thank God, because they sure came through for me this time. I just got on the George Washington Bridge on a Friday afternoon in stop and go traffic when the 1st gear failed. Basically, the car went into neutral when I stepped on the brake. I had to be pushed off the bridge by the Port Authority, then towed by AAA. The car has been in a Bronx repair shop now for 13 days getting a new transmission.

This incident was unbelievably stressful as I was alone on the bridge, the cell phone did not work due to the metal of the bridge so I could not call for help or get AAA ahead of time. To top it off, the shock of having such an expensive fix and being stranded in NYC during Covid-19 period for 2 weeks put me over the edge . I could accept this much better if there were any warning signs, but there was nothing! Never a problem before. It was maintained properly and had mostly all highway driving.

Now I know that it's true. FORD... Found On Road Dead.

Never again.

My granddaughter is still driving our 2004 Honda CRV that she got when it had over 100,000 miles on it. She drove it clear across the country with no problems. I'm done with Ford, to say the least.

Car maintained for all 4 years I owned it. I purchased it as a lease return with very low miles on it. No mechanical problems until now. In January, 2021 with 66,000 miles on it the car stalled several times. No engine lights came on before, during, or after. Car towed to local mechanic, he said transmission would need to be replaced. He estimated $6000. I still owe $4,000. The warranty ended 6 months and 6,000 miles earlier. I’ve drove most of my cars well past 150,000 miles without ever having a serious mechanical issue.

Mechanic suggested going to Ford dealer. It’s been at New Brighton Ford in New Brighton, MN for 6 weeks. My dad got involved because the Ford Corporation told me my customer status wasn’t important enough to receive any assistance. They told my dad they would pay 50 percent of the cost of replacing the transmission because I could prove it was maintained and the transmission should not need to be replaced so early. 4 weeks later, they still haven’t been able to locate a transmission. They offered a loaner car, then didn’t respond when requested.

Do I contact an attorney? I haven’t had a vehicle in 6 weeks! Why would they offer to replace a transmission if they knew they couldn’t locate one? What does locate a transmission even mean? Never again will I purchase a Ford. And, this transmission issue should be recalled so other consumers are protected.

This car has received regular maintenance and it's 30,000 mile check up with a Ford Dealership. One day driving down the highway, the RMP's jumped to around 7,000 but I was losing acceleration on the highway. Upon taking the exit, once below 30 MPH, I was able to accelerate and came to a stop at the red light. Once the light turned green, I began accelerating and upon hiring 20mph, the RPM's jumped and I was loosing acceleration. At this time, the "Transmission Failure" light came on followed by the yellow service engine light. I immediately pulled over with my hazards on and put the car in park. The failure warning read "Service Now" and the engine started making a very odd sound. I turned the car off and called for a tow truck.

After a week or towing the car to 2 separate shops, 1 being a Ford Dealership, it was determined that the transmission had 3 failing components in the transmission and would require an entirely new transmission. Keep in mind, I purchased this car brand new with a 60,000 mile warranty or 5 year warranty, whichever came first. Well guess what, my warranty had expired in May of 2020 and this problem occurred in September of 2020. Filling complaints with Ford got me nowhere, even though my family could prove brand loyalty since 1984!!!!! We got NO ONE who cared to help us at ALL!!

Car received ALL oil changes and like I said, the 30,000 mile service that the Ford Dealership recommends. I expected things to go wrong with the car, which is why I risked NOT getting the extended warranty. However, a COMPLETE TRANSMISSION FAILURE at 50,000 MILES??? That was something I NEVER expected and had not even heard of in the past. We are talking about the MAIN component of the vehicle, not a hose, not a wire.....THE essential component for the vehicle to FUNCTION!

I will be filling a complaint with Ford Motor Company and distributing it to all the board members at the corporate office. $4800 and an entire month later, I finally have my car back and looking to sell it for a more reputable auto manufacturer that actually cares about the products they build.

Transmission was shifting hard when accelerating and decelerating. It happened about once a day starting at 55k miles (estimated). I thought it was a software problem, so I just ignored it and did a cold-reset of the computer. There was no improvement. Eventually, it got worse, to the point where it happened several times each day. At this time, it was 65,000 miles, and out of warranty. Since I have no documentation tying it to pre-60k miles, it's not covered under any warranty.

I opted for a rebuilt transmission. Net cost with diagnostics, parts, and labor was $5490.42 (pre-tax).

I have read many of your complaints on here and mine is very similar to all of yours. I was driving home from a family function and all of a sudden the car stops. The screen says "Transmission Fault Service Now". Here I sit 9 weeks later after going through 2 dealerships (1st ones were idiots) and my entire transmission has to be replaced. I got in touch with Ford on Facebook, chatted with them, told them what was going on, told them I was happy to know that since we live in a disposable world that they manufacture disposable cars now.

My car is VERY well maintained, and we chatted more. The end result was she asked me to work with a Service Manager at a Ford Dealership to get the car inspected. They are now paying for half of the repair.....$2489. It's a $5,000 repair. I have to pay the balance. I want other owners of this car to know this and hopefully go the same route I did. They need to be aware there is a SERIOUS issue with these cars that needs to be addressed. I am a loyal Ford owner and have owned Ford products for over 15 years. If we all report this maybe it will spurn a recall. I hope this helps some of you. This is exactly what I did:

1. Facebook messenger with Ford HQ 2. Lodged my complain and got a case number 3. Contacted a Ford dealership Service Manager and told them what was going on and gave him my case number (he ultimately opened another case number because of the severity of the issue) 4. The Service Manager had the car inspected as soon as I brought it in and sent it to Ford. He talked with Ford HQ back and forth and got them to pay for half. (Half is the best they will do) It was really that simple.

The more complaints that are filed about this car the better chance of a recall. If you have already paid for the repair make a complaint anyway....You may get reimbursed. :)