My Escape has about 175k miles and has been great. While driving home yesterday, I stepped down on it pretty hard to pass a car. After passing and slowing back to normal speed, my O/D light was flashing. When I neared home, I had to stop and make a left turn. I noticed when starting off from a stop, performance was very sluggish. When I arrived home, I couldn't get reverse to work.

I took the truck out this morning for a 20 mile run over to a shop to get the codes read. I watched the performance very closely to obtain any symtoms I could, and here's what it does:

- If I start the engine in park without my foot on the brake, the track moves forward and against the parking lock. Odd...

- When I put it in reverse, the truck jumps forward for a split second, then seems to hit a lock or stop similar to when in park.

- When I put it in 1st, the truck jumps backward for a split second, then stops.

- If I'm rolling forward in 2 or D and pull it into 1, it like throwing on the brakes and even seems to load the engine a bit.

- The truck pulls forward fine in D, and is surely starting in 3rd gear. I've stopped in the road and started again, and it will accelerate smoothly, no gear changes, all the way up to say 55mph, then lock the torque converter. All seems fine. The O/D button works and I can take it in and out of O/D and see the difference in rpm. I can step down on it hard and it will unlock, and even drop back to 2nd.

- The O/D light flashes all the time. The shop checked, and though no CEL is on, there is a code for 1st gear ratio incorrect and 2nd gear ratio incorrect. The tech seemed to think those codes were from starting in 3rd. The tech seemed to think there was a problem with one of the solenoids, but since there are no codes thrown for those yet, he didn't know which one(s).

Has anyone seen anything like this before, and have any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Dave

 

I have seen a problem like this caused by the manual lever position switch (the old term was neutral safety switch) . It was defective and the trans did not know where to go and what to do.

 

I had the computer codes scanned and it only shows the 1st gear ratio & 2nd gear ratio errors. Tech checked the manual lever position switch and said all was OK. He thinks it's a problem in the valve body. I've talked to 4 different transmission shops, and got 4 different answers. I may just buy a remanufactured valve body/solenoid rack and swap that to seem, since most all of the shops things it's something to do with a solenoid or the valve body...

 

Well, I've been driving the truck since this problem started about a month ago. Oil looked and smelled fine. Most of my driving is local and I could always park where I had a way out without using reverse, and had put about 600 miles or so on it like this. I got in the truck the past sunday, and everything was working again. Reverse is fine, it shifts through all gears OK, etc. I'm gonna change the fluid and do a flush. Really makes me think it was something stuck in the valve body... I don't know, but I'm not complaining :-)