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Comments
Road and wind noise seem to be loud, otherwise I have no complaints and just bought an extended warranty.
You might wish to look at the 05 Hyundai tucson and Kia Sportage both of which offer amount others great safty features at a low price; the new owners seem full of praise for the Tucson (Sportage just came on the market).
Is there any recourse to this? I can't afford to put out the kind of money, but what chose do I have?
Test drive on the freeway and make sure she gets through all four gears both under heavy throttle and part throttle. If there's any shuddering, walk away.
I say we should document exactly what percentage of transmissions are going bad at what miles.
How can this be done? Seems like the auto makers avoid these recalls unless there is an obvious safety issue. Without a threat of a lawsuit they don't do ANYTHING!
Maybe a class action lawsuit will force ford to do the right thing here.
The discrepancy between the stamped mercon V on the dipstick and what the owners manual says could be just what a lawsuit needs to show negligence on Fords part.
I have friend who has an explorer with 250,000 on the original transmission. He swears that the longevity is due to his installing a oversized trans cooler and switching to synthetic trans fluid.
From what I hear the escape transmission is a car transmission in an SUV. I smell a rat here.
It is a fact that early (01-02)escapes experienced transmission failures but these problems are not eligible for recall. Such transmission problems are not good to issue a recall unless there is safety related issue.
I don't know about switching to syn.trans. oil but not every car's tranny is compatible with syn. oil. However, longevity depends on frequent flushes along with filter change (if applicable).
"From what I hear the escape transmission is a car transmission in an SUV."
I believe, important thing is HP and torque that tranny is mating. I have been reading articles that Escape tranmissions are modifed to handle weight and torque but early failures are related to heat damage. This is addressed on 05s (dunno about early production like 04 -03) that tranny is getting cooled down by secondary radiator (cooler)...
Snowman says "It is a fact that early (01-02)escapes experienced transmission failures but these problems are not eligible for recall. Such transmission problems are not good to issue a recall unless there is safety related issue".
Please show me where it is a "fact" I have an 01 Escape V6 XLT 4WD with just over 50,000 trouble free miles. I have repeatedly towed my two watercraft, hauled, pulled and my transmission is fine. Granted, I have also kept on my vehicle maintenance. I have flushed my transmission 2x... I also know at least a half dozen other Escape/Tribute owners that have NOT had transmission issues.. Lets stop the hype....
And I'm curious about Edmunds policy as applied to a poster who continually, regardless of how politely or indirectly, calls other members liars for posting experiences different from his?
Sounds like top portion of your engine is not getting enough lubrication. If they used after market oil filter that doesn't have built-in anti-drain valve. Mazdas are very sensitive for this that I know from my 97 626.
that there will be a new PCM upgrade for my '01
Escape V6 coming-out soon. I don't know, nor did he tell me, if it'll covered in a campaign or recall. I'm just wondering if this has anything
to do with seemingly recurring engine stalls and
gas-mileage, which for me went down 2-MPG when they re-flashed the PCM the first-time ? He seemed to think that this may be the case, but he's not totally sure.
Still running Mobil-1 synthetic ATF in my tranny since ~55K. No problems as of yet have surfaced.
Previous posts are correct in that if a transmission does fail, then a lot of the failed components can be replaced at substantially less
than a completely rebuilt transmission. Unfortunately, as we all know there are still a lot of bad repair shops, including dealer service.
Mine has 1500 miles, haven't heard anything yet.
If you have any further questions, please address them to me in an email.
Now I'm no car expert and this does not make sense to me as my brother bought a Mazda 3 and no noise has ever been heard when he uses his brakes so is this a common problem with the Tribute? My dad is thinking of taking it back to Mazda to have it looked at again but I'm positive they'll tell him and I the same thing "there's nothing we can do about the noise".
I would like feedback on Tribute owners and see if their car makes this noise and also any suggestions as what I can do. I don't think it is normal to accept that a car "simply makes that noise" and I have to live with it. This is a brand new car I bought and shouldn't do that in my opinion. Please any help would be appreciate. I work hard for my money as does everyone else.
I am very active, take my 80 pound golden in the car, transport 100 lb bags of deer feed, so an SUV is smarter. (What was I thinking)
I would love to hear comments about safe feel of the Tribute.
But, it sounds like you could also be happy with a wagon like the Mazda 6, or a Subaru Outback. I strongly recommend that you thouroughly drive a variety of different vehicles before you buy.
Again, thank you for the insight.
Sue
Too be honest, the Tribute and the Mazda3 are too completely different animals Out of all the SUV's I drove, the Tribute handled the best and is still somewhat quick with the V6. I love the cargo capacity of the Tribute and have extremely pleased with its ability to handle inclement weather (both rain and snow). Do you live in an area that has inclement weather? If so, the AWD comes in handy and certainly adds to the safety factor. The good news about the Mazda3 is that these cars are very hot right now, and you should have no problem selling it down the road if you find it does not meet your needs.
is there a correct way to remove assembly so i can replace the signal bulbs????
packers4
So, I would get a quote from the dealer and then drive over to a local shop and get another quote. You may end up saving $200 (or more)! Like I said, I understand your frustration, but which is better paying $200-400 for a door handle, or having a hefty car payment on a new car?
One of my good friends manages a service department at a very large combined dealership (Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Kia) and he bought an Escape for his wife last year. I asked him if they see an excessive number of failed transmissions on the Escape (2001-2005) and he told me that the number of transmission issues for Escapes is not a major issue, and no more than other manufacturers. I mean, he could have used his dealer discount to buy his wife a Honda, Toyota, or Nissan and he bought her the an Escape (ironically, they sold their problem plagued Honda to buy the Escape).
I have no doubt that some of the people on this message board are having transmission problems. I can only assume that some of them are maintenance related, some of them are just the law of averages, and some of them are people who have general problems that the dealer should be responsible for. Go read the Honda Accord forums, they have just as many transmission problems as Escapes.
People who visit these forums should not panic when they read these posts. For every Escape/Tribute owner who has problems, there are thousands that don't and do not post in these forums. C'mon, if the majority of Escape owners had failed transmissions after 50K miles, it would be all over the news. It is the same way in every other car forum. Every forum has posters who told their story about how horrible car x is, and that nobody should every buy one. I think some people have had some bad experiences, but it is unfair to claim that the majority of Escapes are going to have transmission problems. Go read some of the other Escape forums on the Internet. Yes, there are reports of failed transmissions, but it is certainly not an alarming rate, and no more than any other high selling car.
Amen to that....
Thank you... It is nice to have forum members who can see the real value of some postings...
I got to the dealership on time early in the morning, I told the Service Advisor that it was my 1st oil change and that I wanted the plastic bottles and the price which I was quoted. After waiting for almost an hour, I see a kid come out looking for my car. There was a van parked behind my car by one of those idiots who think that they can park their vehicles any where they desire. The kid starts my car; there is barely 2 feet of room on all sides; instead of moving the van he starts to back up almost hitting it. Then he starts to rock back and forth going over the snow bank in fornt of my car. At this point I dashed out of the showroom and screamed at the service technician to stop. I indicated that he should have the van moved before he backed out my car, he already had hit the snow bank twice and I was picturing big scrapes at the front end of my vehicle. Anyway after about 15 minutes of abusing my car, he finally backs out the car. All this time I am watching him real carefully.
After about an hour when I got the car back the final bill was approx. $65 CDN. When I asked the Advisor why the price had jumped over $10, he said that they had used the plastic bottles etc and this is why it was higher. When I showed him the written e-mail from them showing $50.94, he did not have anything to say. There were a lot of people standing around so to make matters simple I paid up the full amount. On my way back home I was looking at the Invoice and it stated that they had used 7 litres of 5W20 oil. Now I am not an expert but I do know that the V6 engine does not take 7 litres. I called back the parts dept and asked them how much oil my car took. The man stated "I gave the kid 7 litres and that's what your car took". I turned around and went back and asked for the Service Manager. I then told him that I was charged for 7 litres; and my car only took 5.7 litres per the manual. My only concern at this point was that the kid had purposely over filled the crankcase because I had yelled at him when he was backing out my car. After a few minutes the Manager came back and said that yes the SUV only took 5.7 litres, that they had only used 6 bottles and I was inadvertently charged for an extra bottle. He gave me back approx $4 for 1 bottle in cash.
I am left wondering how many customers they inadvertently overcharge every day. In my opinion an oil change is the simplest service on any car. I used to change my own oil when I was in college. Even though I got back the money for the overcharge, I just don't trust this dealership for any future service. I was already overcharged $10 from the original estimate. I don't know how many customers even look at their invoices to make sure that the charges are correct.
I guess these days you cannot trust anyone; these are Mazda dealerships, all they do is Mazda vehicles. If they do not know how much oil to put in their vehicles, its a sad day.
All I can say is that I am looking for another Mazda dealer in my area hopefully who knows how much oil my Tribute takes. Any one knows of a honest dealer in the GTA Toronto area, please let me know.
Snowman's original post:
"My personal opinion is that there is massive trolling going on here since January. Looks like winter months are "national transmission gone bad" months for some fictitious escape owners."
What slop, and from a Mazda dealer, yet.
I've also had a similar experience after an oil change from a Honda dealer. Being a dealer doesn't mean your'e guaranteed high quality work.
I like to think the majority of our members are intelligent enough to weigh the pros/cons of each situation and decide for themselves.
You are the only person who seems to have expierenced the same ticking/tappet noise that both of my Tributes have had. Traded in my 02 when the warranty was expiring because of the noise. Dealer kept telling me that it was normal. Bought the 05 after two months same exact noise when the engine was warmed up. Did some research and found the TSB that describes it exactly. I am bringing mine in next week along with the bulletin. I would like to keep this Tribute for a long time. Is that what they did for your car? Did it work?
Ford Quality Care, and been told the same thing.
However, the person on the other end of the line didn't seem too knowledgeable anyway.
If there was a mislabeled, misplaced, tranny dipsticks placed in the filler-tube on a bunch of
Escapes or Tribs., then the truth will eventually come out, may take awhile but it will. But then again it could be a silent-type of admission, with no repecussions.
As mentioned in previous posts, no problems at 67K
miles on my '01 XLT V6. Currently running synthetic Mobil 1 ATF for the last 6K miles. Will continue to do so, unless otherwise notified. Shift points seem normal and functioning properly,
with no skips, or hard-shifts. Will keep everyone posted if anything crops up.