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CarComplaints.com Notes: The top problem trend for the 2014 Escape is transmission failure at around 70k miles.

This is relatively low mileage for an expensive transmission failure ($4,500 average to fix), but unless the trend becomes more established, we are only awarding the 2014 Escape our "Beware of the Clunker" badge for now.

8.2

pretty bad
Typical Repair Cost:
$3,970
Average Mileage:
65,350 miles
Total Complaints:
13 complaints

Most Common Solutions:

  1. replace transmission (7 reports)
  2. not sure (6 reports)
2014 Ford Escape transmission problems

transmission problem

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2014 Ford Escape Owner Comments

problem #13

Apr 182024

Escape LX 2.5L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 23,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Won't get in reverse at time, don't change when taking off.

- Melanie T., Richmond, US

problem #12

Sep 172018

Escape

  • Automatic transmission
  • 101,000 miles

STUPID CAR... STUPID ASS CAR.... and service department there is horrible... CONTINUE TO LIE, and not want to fix properly... Transmission still has problems. Car still slips or downshifts itself.... and I have just had it with this vehicle! SO READY to move on away from FORD... not again...

This car seemed fine... and when the transmission started acting up, it has been downhill.... Ford does not want to fix it.. yet my daughter got a letter about getting on board for a lawsuit fix over the Ford Escape... Imagine that//

- Brenda J., Mansfield, OH, US

problem #11

Jan 172023

Escape SE 1.6L Ecoboost I4

  • Automatic transmission
  • 65,000 miles

Posting this on behalf of my mother.

She purchased a brand new, well equipped 2014 Ford Escape SE with the 1.6L EcoBoost I4 engine in 2014. It was a great car, she loved it... that is up until about 35,000 miles. The car would slam shifting to and from reverse, whines in reverse, jerks when accelerating from a stop, fails to respond when commanded then bucks aggressively once you pin the gas to the floor (only way to get it to respond), and so many more issues.

She took it to Keller Brothers Ford in Lititz, PA and they told her they couldn't replicate the issue. Two months later, with me, her, and her now husband in the vehicle, the car revved up to the fuel cutoff while my mom was trying to accelerate from a stop light. We were only moving 5 mph, the car just revved for a solid three seconds before it bucks and gets going. It went back to Keller Bros again, and my mother was told the exact same thing over the phone. My mom's husband went into the dealership that night and raised hell with the service manager. Didn't do a damn thing.

Continuing to have issues with this correctly nicknamed "Shitskate", my mother chose to take her lemon to New Holland Ford in New Holland, PA, to be treated much differently. First, they couldn't find the issue. Mom's husband probed them again, and they kept the car overnight. The very next day, another tech found the issue... the torque converter took a hike at only 50,000 miles. My mother was so happy that she purchased the extended warranty... it was $6,000 for a brand new transmission. She went on with the repair, and was in and out of rentals for a month or two (she loved the Pacifica she got cause of the heated seats, and she swears up and down she would not own a minivan!)

A friend of mine told me his mother also had issues with her Escape's transmission, which needed rebuilt at a little over 100k miles. That prompted me to look deeper into this, and MY GOD did I not expect the shitload of problems with the 6F35 transmissions. I have a whole entire folder FULL of 6F35 transmission research... of which I will make a video for YouTube on to help steer potential consumers away from these dangerous and defective transmissions.

It's now January 2023, not even a year after the torque converter replacement, my mom has about 65,000 miles on the car... and the car is beginning to exhibit the same problems as before. From the day she got it back, it started shifting hard again. The car feels as if it's scared to go. She's got an appointment with NHF to probably end up either being told "no problems were found" or "the transmission is faulty". If the latter is said, I told my mom that I will be coming in with her and speaking to the service manager. I will plop the two-inch thick vanilla folder FULL of research that I found documenting this defect.

Ford absolutely knows about these faulty transmissions in multiple products, they had a class-action lawsuit for the first-gen 6F35s they put in the Fusions! The second gens didn't even fix the problems of the first! I think it's time that us unlucky individuals that had to pay for Ford's entire lack of quality control get fully compensated for their lack of care about this problem.

People laugh at me because I sh*t on Fords... truth is FIVE out of the last SIX 2010-model-year-and-newer Fords that my family has owned all have had serious problems that are very well known and don't have one recall or TSB about it.

My mother swore she will never buy another Ford again. That's a great choice, mom. Your son calling out a defective product and doesn't mind slapping it in front of the big guys shows you the dedication to making sure you are in a safe vehicle. Having a son entering the automotive field is a major blessing to her.

- McLaren D., Leola, PA, US

problem #10

Jan 022016

Escape SE 1.6L Eco - Turbo

  • Automatic transmission
  • 35,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Dealer said it couldn't find a problem, although it happened every time you drove the car so I don't think they ever took it out on the road.

Update: No notice received or repair notice on this, what I'm I suppose to do put the car in storage for a year to they get around to fixing it?

- dwdw, Ann Arbor, US

problem #9

Sep 172019

Escape SE 1.6L Ecoboost

  • Automatic transmission
  • 80,000 miles

My Escape had a difficult time shifting with rapid acceleration, such as on on-ramps to the Interstate. When I used the cruise control on hills, on the downhill the RPMs would be in the 3k-4k range. My teenage son said that it shouldn't be working that hard on downhill with cruise control, which I agreed with.

I took it to our mechanic and he drove it for awhile and determined that the transmission was failing, the transmission fluid was burnt. This should not happen on a vehicle with 80,000 miles! It was actually doing this before I hit 80,000 miles. I never had any lights come on, indicating there was an issue with the transmission. It appears from online comments that many other people have had this same issue.

Why does Ford not have a recall? I could not find one on the Ford website. GRRR, I've had this vehicle less than a year. Of course, this is the ONE used vehicle we've purchased that we did not get the extended warranty for. We thought we did, but the paperwork doesn't show it. $4131 to replace the transmission... The only upside is that we weren't at highway or Interstate speeds and had a failure.

- Angela R., Atlantic, US

problem #8

Aug 152019

Escape Titanium 2.0L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 77,000 miles

My 2014 has a transmission that is about to go out according to the ford dealership. They say it would cost around 7500! This is absolutely unacceptable for a vehicle this age. After research, I see there was a class action lawsuit that was settled on with Ford for the fiesta and fusion, for the EXACT same issue with the transmission that I have seen reported on here. Even down to Ford telling the dealerships to tell customers "this is a normal way for them to react" when I addressed this concern a few years ago. It would not accelerate when trying to switch lanes, etc, nearly causing accidents many times. But I went with them saying I guess it was normal because it was some sort of turbo thing or whatever. Now the dealership says my transmission is shot and will go at anytime. We all need to get this to lawyers and have this vehicle added to the current setted complaint- 6 speed transmission with a dual clutch. Not sure why they haven't added the escape to this list but we all need to reach out and get this addressed ASAP. I have contacted a couple of lawyer, stating the lemon law. We can not let them get away with letting the escapes slide by when the same issue has been settled on for different model cars with the same exact issue.. Please reach out to someone and help get this addressed.. Read up on the current lawsuit that was just settled a few days ago, you'll be amazed at how accurately it describes the issues we are all having.

- Christa A., Andover, US

problem #7

Oct 082017

Escape

  • Automatic transmission
  • 99,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

There WAS a problem with the transmission. I had taken it into the Graham's FORD dealership in Mansfield OH twice and both times they told me that there was not a problem. When I finally took the third time, they fixed it, and it I was without the car for three weeks. The transmission seemed to me to keep slipping. I had a friend that builds race car engines to drive it, a couple of different times. He shared that it is downshifting in the middle of the drive.... So when the car is going 35, the car loses a bit of speed and then catches and goes again.

FORD dealership says there is nothing wrong with it... EVEN after they evidently fixed and rebuilt the NEW transmission. STILL the same problem.... So they keep saying NOTHING IS WRONG.. but others who drive it say there sre still problems.

IN addition to that, they spilled something in the car and smelled like sour milk for a year... to battle them did not help either... I am so over FORD..NOT ever getting another one.

- Brenda J., Mansfield, OH, US

problem #6

Nov 292018

Escape SE 1.6L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 86,000 miles

Transmission quit on my car back in November. Replaced the transmission costing $4000 dollars. I noticed a burning smell in the car, the car was making a loud noise when accelerating, and still sticking in gear. I took the car to a different mechanic, they said there was a hose cracked from the transmission replacement. I took the car back to the shop that replaced the transmission. There replaced 2 bad hoses on the transmission. When I checked the mileage they test drove it 1 mile. I had to wait for the parts to come in. When I picked up the car shop told me there is no more accelerating noise, and the car is not sticking in gear. As soon as I drove away the accelerating noise was still there and to this day the transmission still gets stuck in gear.

- Dawn L., West Saint Paul, US

problem #5

Sep 212017

Escape Titanimu 2.0L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 63,327 miles

I'm shocked that a new car with only 63,000 miles on it needs a new transmission. The escape is used as a commuter car in Los Angeles. No towing ever, no hard driving. I'm 3000 miles out of warranty and the car needs a new transmission, that's crazy. I have zero confidence that this will not happen again if I have it fixed. I've been a life long Ford customer and this may be my last if they don't make this right.

- pixlpush, Manhattan Beach, US

problem #4

Mar 062017

Escape SE 1.6L Ecoboost

  • Automatic transmission
  • 79,383 miles

So we bought this Escape from a used car dealer. They told us they did a 180 point inspection and all that. When we asked about extended warranty we were told it was not available for the Escape and no reason was given. We took it anyway. Granted it had a lot of km on it for a three year old car... it was still everything we were looking for. Moving on... so not even five months after buying the car the transmission quit. It's not under warranty. It's going to cost us $5000 CAD to rebuild it. This is ridiculous! We've always warmed up the car before driving, we've never pushed it when cold (we drive like little old ladies) This transmission shouldn't have failed 27000 out of warranty.

- Jennie B., sas, SK, Canada

problem #3

Mar 152017

Escape Titanium 2.8L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 55,474 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

We were 75 miles from home when we stopped at an intersection and the engine died. We placed the shift lever in park and the engine wouldn't start right away, it finally started and we put the shifter in drive and it wouldn't move, but as it idled down the vehicle jerked violently and acted as though the transmission was slipping. After several minutes it finally reached 55 miles an hour and we had to drive to our FORD DEALERSHIP where they instructed us to drive it home and return the next day to the service dept. The car was purchased in Nov.2014 and we purchased an extended warranty from the dealership Chariton Ford Mercury. So we will see how good the warranty is. Ford has removed the transmission dip stick from these so the consumer can't check the transmission fluid level. FORD has LOST me as a CUSTOMER because of this.

- Alan D., Chariton, IA, US

problem #2

Oct 282015

Escape SE 1.6L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 70,000 miles

My wife's Escape, that only has 70000 miles on it, needs a new transmission. Dealer wants $6000 to fix,

paid $32000 for it two years ago and will only give us $7000 for it. She is upside down in payments.

Ford's transmissions are junk, should last longer then that. Never buying a Ford again.

- Mike D., Monroe, OR, US

problem #1

May 012015

Escape SE 2.4L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 15,000 miles

periodically, goes into neutral then kicks into gear Ok, so this started happening a while ago. Randomly, sometimes twice a day, sometimes not for 2 weeks, it goes into neutral when picking up speed, then kicks into gear causing kind of a whiplash kind of effect. I have had it happening while driving with friends and they commented about the issue and the safety hazard.

Twice it has come close to causing an accident. Once when I was pulling from a parking lot onto a busy road (45 mph), and it stalled for probably 50 yards. Last Friday it was raining and an idiot was probably one car length behind me on a 55 mph highway. The car did it and slowed down and he had to swerve to miss me.

I have had it into Ford three times and they say they have to replicate it to get it figured out. It is leased, and the last time they let a tech drive it home and back to try to replicate the problem. He lives 60 miles from work, so in the week and a half he had it, it didn't happen evidently, yet he put 1,000 miles on my leased car!

Once I got it back, it didn't happen to me for a week and a half. Now it happened for the first time with the near accident on Friday, then happened again on Saturday and so far two times today (Sunday).

This is a potential safety issue. I will not let my wife drive my car, and she doesn't want me to drive it, but I need to get to work.

I have asked Ford to simply take the lease back and let me lease another vehicle, but they have not even agreed to that.

- Mitch G., Winterville, NC, US

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