The factory towing package did come with an engine oil cooler, but I don't know if that was offered with the 2.3. The previous owner may have tried to retrofit a towing package himself. You can know for sure the next time you do an oil change - an engine oil cooler will have hoses running out where the oil filter attaches. You may have spotted the small radiator at the bottom of the bumper openings - that's the transmission oil cooler and comes standard with all but hybrid Escapes.
My grille guard isn't WAAG, but it weighed roughly 50 pounds if I'm remembering the installation correctly. I noticed no fuel economy change before and after the install. It won't help with deer hits and fender-benders, though - as we have no solid frame attachment points, any decent hit will just crumple the guard supports and collapse it onto the hood, possibly causing more damage than without the guard. I have mine primarily to protect my auxiliary lights and to offer the plastic bumper cover some protection when plowing through snowdrifts.
Ford step bars came in two versions, I think. The earlier ones, which I have, had a plastic top and a metal bottom. The bottom rusted within three years from all the rocks thrown at it by the tires. I did see one from a 2005+ Escape where the owner claimed it was all plastic, so try to find that if you want to go with OEM. For a winter car, I would stay away from chrome or stainless.
The transmission sounds like it just needs new fluid. You can dump-and-fill the pan to exchange ~30% at a time, or do the more involved fluid pump out of the cooler lines. From the fluid application charts, it looks like the transmissions shipped with Mercon up until 2006, so that may be what is inside if the previous owner did no transmission maintenance. There were possible fluid incompatibilities with early versions of Mercon V (and Ford did state not to mix them), but we have seen no failure trends in recent years, since Ford changed its stance by discontinuing Mercon and back-specifying Mercon V for all Mercon applications. I have played with Dexron VI in the transmission, which I wouldn't safely recommend, but my shifts were noticeably firmer, cold starts were much better, and shift quality was retained for a much longer time. I have 20,000 km on the current fluid and my shifts take less than a second. Also, on some shifts that take longer even with new fluid, try rev-matching the shift. When you know the computer is about to shift, lift your foot off the gas slightly to lower the RPMs - it's much easier than on a manual as the computer will automatically shift when the RPMs go low enough. I don't have to do this with the first two shifts, but I find it helps smooth out the later shifts.
Edit: The radiator fans will also run continuously if you have the A/C compressor engaged, which should happen in both A/C modes and both defrost modes.
My grille guard isn't WAAG, but it weighed roughly 50 pounds if I'm remembering the installation correctly. I noticed no fuel economy change before and after the install. It won't help with deer hits and fender-benders, though - as we have no solid frame attachment points, any decent hit will just crumple the guard supports and collapse it onto the hood, possibly causing more damage than without the guard. I have mine primarily to protect my auxiliary lights and to offer the plastic bumper cover some protection when plowing through snowdrifts.
Ford step bars came in two versions, I think. The earlier ones, which I have, had a plastic top and a metal bottom. The bottom rusted within three years from all the rocks thrown at it by the tires. I did see one from a 2005+ Escape where the owner claimed it was all plastic, so try to find that if you want to go with OEM. For a winter car, I would stay away from chrome or stainless.
The transmission sounds like it just needs new fluid. You can dump-and-fill the pan to exchange ~30% at a time, or do the more involved fluid pump out of the cooler lines. From the fluid application charts, it looks like the transmissions shipped with Mercon up until 2006, so that may be what is inside if the previous owner did no transmission maintenance. There were possible fluid incompatibilities with early versions of Mercon V (and Ford did state not to mix them), but we have seen no failure trends in recent years, since Ford changed its stance by discontinuing Mercon and back-specifying Mercon V for all Mercon applications. I have played with Dexron VI in the transmission, which I wouldn't safely recommend, but my shifts were noticeably firmer, cold starts were much better, and shift quality was retained for a much longer time. I have 20,000 km on the current fluid and my shifts take less than a second. Also, on some shifts that take longer even with new fluid, try rev-matching the shift. When you know the computer is about to shift, lift your foot off the gas slightly to lower the RPMs - it's much easier than on a manual as the computer will automatically shift when the RPMs go low enough. I don't have to do this with the first two shifts, but I find it helps smooth out the later shifts.
Edit: The radiator fans will also run continuously if you have the A/C compressor engaged, which should happen in both A/C modes and both defrost modes.
