2001 Escape transmission problems

mitch71h · 10-11-2008, 06:57 AM

Hello everyone,

My wife's 2001 Escape (V6, 4WD, 120K miles, rebuilt motor 4 months ago) has a strange transmission problem. Suddenly, one day at about 35mph it shifted down to 1st gear and the RPMs went through the roof. I test drove it and found that accelerating from a stop you can feel it shift up to second gear and then just as it is about to shift to third it downshifts to first sending the tach to redline. You can manualy shift first and second on the column and it drives fine. If all the gears were on the column I would be tempted to have her drive it like a stick

.

I was told by a friend that it sounds like the transmission solenoid pack and that the labor would be the biggest expense. He said that some trannys have the solenoid pack inside the pan and it is "user changeable" but very messy and a PITA.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts?

theoldwizard · 10-11-2008, 07:34 AM

Most large auto parts store will extract Powertrain Diagnostic trouble Codes for free. Start there, report back here. Could be just a sensor.

mitch71h · 10-11-2008, 08:22 PM

The "check engine" light isn't on so I assumed there were no trouble codes in the system, but I will double check with my local auto parts store tomorrow. Thanks for the reply.

theoldwizard · 10-12-2008, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mitch71h

The "check engine" light isn't on so I assumed there were no trouble codes in the system...

Bad assumption !

By law, the "Check Engine Light" only has to comes on if there is a problem that affect emissions. It could be something as simple as a Transmission Range Sensor.