2009 Ford Escape: harsh or hard shifting

Filed Mar 12, 2018 · Steering, Transmission · 111,800 miles · AZ

Steering wheel started to shake when stopped,with brake pedal depressed. A few hundred miles later lost power steering.also transmission downshifts hard, also noticeable clunk when shifting from park to reverse.

Filed Mar 10, 2015 · Acceleration, Engine · 70,900 miles · FL

I was driving home on a 6 lane highway yesterday after work. Posted speed limit 65 MPH. My cruise control was set at 65, I was in a center lane when my vehicle made a loud clunk and the cruise control cut off and I started losing power to the car.the engine was on but pushing the gas pedal did nothing. I was trying to get out of traffic to the side of the highway with cars speeding and swerving all around me. I was petrified. I called the dealer and the car was taken for service today. They told me it was the throttle body and motor and it was on an extended warranty so I did not have to pay for it. The receipt clearly states this is recall notice 13n03. I have now read about this online and you guys are letting ford call this a "customer service satisfaction program". Well, you should know that someone is going to be killed. There is no excuse for not notifying customers of a default with a vehicle that endangers people. I never received a recall letter and I could of died yesterday.

Filed Mar 21, 2014 · Acceleration, Engine · 18,000 miles · CA

I first purchased this vehicle in sep 2010. The problem was when I was stopped or made a turn coasting slowly, when I attempted to accelerate the engine did not kick in for a second or two. When it did it jerked hard and felt like it slammed into gear. The dealer could never id the problem and put it off as normal. Then very recently I have had the vehicle not respond to the gas pedal. It keeps the RPM's at an idling level but does not respond to the accelerator pedal-like you put it in neutral. This has happened twice now. When I shut the engine off and restart it appears to self correct. This happens while I'm driving slowly once and again when I was at a stop and tried to accelerate. I have not yet taken to a dealer yet.

Filed Dec 10, 2013 · Engine, Transmission · 80,451 miles · CA

My wife had started the 2009 ford escape and was traveling at a speed of approximately 5mph, pulling into traffic. The car began moving, felt as if there as no power. She checked to ensure that the car was in drive. The car would not go over 5 MPH. The wrench light came on, no speedometer reading, and she proceeded attempting to engage the car again. The car was drivable for three miles home, with no speedometer reading, limited power. As she drove, she needed to put the car in park to steady the car. A she proceeded to re-engage the car the shifter was "clunky, slipping, and did not feel secure". She did get the car safely home, however we checked the car about an hour after this experience and the car continues to not seem to engage the power train, is not shifting properly, has no power in the engine. There appear to be no leakage of fluids, the car has been properly serviced, has fuel, has a new battery, and we are wondering if this issue is now covered under any warranty. Please initiate an investigation to the many complaint that seem to follow a similar pattern with this vehicle.

Filed Nov 16, 2013 · Acceleration, Fuel system · 54,000 miles · MA

Was pulling out of gas station to merge onto busy street, car began to roll forward upon acceleration then lost all response and lurched into road stopping there. Engine shut off and check engine light came on. Attempted to restart vehicle, car would rev but not respond with any acceleration. During this time incredibly loud harsh shifting occurred , sounded as though transmission fell out of car. Dealership replaced defective throttle body, currently still investigating transmission issues.

Filed Feb 26, 2013 · Transmission · 500 miles · NY

My first incident with my 2009 ford escape happened shortly after I bought it. After just starting my truck and driving a short distance, the truck would not accelerate but the RPM's were roaring to over 6000 and my truck finally shot out into traffic. Luckily on a very busy street, no one was coming at the time. After that the truck had multiple incidents of not accelerating in traffic and a roaring and rapid rise in RPM's. I learned to immediately turn my car off (in the middle of the road) and then restart and it would usually work properly. It can be very scary. It would often slam into gear when this happened which I know was not good for my transmission. This happened intermittently so I knew it might be hard for a technician to replicate. When I took it to the dealer for 3 years they said everything was fine. When my warranty was up I went in and insisted that they fix my truck. They replaced a tie rod, fixed the sway bar linkage and said it was fine. It started making really loud noises a month later and I took it to my mechanic who again fixed the linkage. I called ford and they kept the truck for a couple weeks and did extensive transmission work. It has had 2 problem since but not as bad. I still worry about front end issues after 3 years of slamming into gear with the engine revving. I bought this vehicle(usually I leased my truck) because I was retiring and now I feel I must get rid of it because of anticipated mechanical trouble.

Filed Mar 30, 2011 · Transmission · 14,000 miles · MO

I was accelerating from a stoplight on a two lane road without a shoulder. A vehicle in my lane suddenly slammed on the brakes, so I let my foot off the accelerator to check the next lane to see if I could swerve over at which point I pressed on the accelerator to get in front of the car in the other lane but my vehicle was unresponsive. The rpms didn't change, after a couple seconds and the accelerator to the floor, it finally engaged into gear and jolted forward. I narrowly missed the stopped car. I have experienced these dead spots in acceleration after the mandatory tsb ford released. There have been five times in which it almost caused an accident and I try to avoid making any left handed turns against traffic. My vehicle has also been plagued with other transmission issues, such as slamming into gear, slipping gears, shift flares, harsh shifting and even the transmission being unresponsive and resulting in the vehicle jolting forward when off the accelerator.

Filed Aug 29, 2009 · Body, Steering · 1,113 miles · CO

2009 ford escape (rental car) I received this new rental car from a major rental car company at the seattle/tacoma airport with only with 83 miles on the odometer. I rented the car on approximately 7-7-09. On 7-13-09, with approximately 1,100 miles on it, the front (passenger side) wheel separated from the lower control arm (I believe that is what it is called). I do know it came off the spindle. My wife and children were on vacation with me when the incident occurred. I had exited the highway and near the end of the exit lane, I was driving around a sharp, left hand, banked, hairpin corner that crosses over the highway. The exit lane was extremely long and I believe I was going about 20-25 miles per hour, when the wheel separated halfway through the hairpin turn. I heard a clunk clunk and the tire skidding. It was hard to keep the ford escape from leaving the roadway on the right, but because of my low speed, I was able to move over to the shoulder under control. I am extremely thankful the wheel did not separate from the chassis when we were traveling at 70 MPH on the highway. There were no injuries and no damage to the fender or fender well and from what I could see no damage to the wheel. It looked like a bolt was missing from the collar (I don't know what you call it) that surrounds the spindle. Don't these bolts have cotter pins? The tire went flat after three hours. The policeman asked me if I had run over something. I didn't think so, but we walked the roadway before the skidmarks anyway. Neither the policeman nor I found anything. I never abused the rental car. I have pictures.