[escape05xls]

I have a 2005 2.3L 4x4 escape with 103k on it. I just picked this up and I assume the trans, rear diff, transfercase oil has never been changed. I think since its a 05 it will have Mecron V tranny oil?

I also read earlier today but cannot find, that the transfercase uses a synthetic and the rear diff does not. I would like to use exactly what ford recommends as I will be doing this to my 05 escape and my dads 05 escapte v6 at the same time.

Right now most of the time the suv runs fine, but sometimes randomly the trans feels like it slips more than it should. Specially in D (1st gear from a stop) and pressing the gas the rpm's go slightly up then catch and since its only sometimes I figure a trans oil change should fix that....Anyone buy the trans oil at a ford dealer?

 

[CrashNburn]

the tcase uses synthetic 90w140. its about $22cdn, and you need just over 1/2 a liter to fill it from empty. i will be swapping mine out today when i do my pre winter service. the diff uses 8090 gear lube.

there are tonnes of methods for changing the tranny fluid, but for me the last time i just took it to the dealer and they uses their machine to swap out the fluid while the escape was running. we have a transmission fluid exchange machine at work now, its brand new. so i might try it out myself.

 

[C17chief]

yeah, best off taking it somewhere for the transmission. I dont have any experience with FWD transmisions yet as this is the first vehicle I have had that was FWD setup vs RWD/real 4x4. Anyhow, lots of experience with normal RWD transmissions. With those, just draining or dropping the pan and refilling typicaly only gets about 1/3 of the fluid, as a lot of it is still tied up in other places like the torque convertor. You can take things further apart and drain/refill the torque convertor and all that mess, but this is one of the rare things that is really not worth the time and effort to do vs what it costs for a shop to hook it up to the machine and more or less do a transfusion with it running, no matter how hard core of a DIY'er you are. This applies to automatics of course. manuals are a lot simpler with just a simple drain and refill. Same with transfer cases and rear difs too, but again, no experience yet with the FWD setups so might be different.

 

[escape05xls]

I just did the drain/fill on my trans and thought the drain would be about 3.5-3.8 quarts...well it was only 2-2.2. Also the oil was a dark red with no burning smell so I think the dealer swapped fluid before I bought it. So I filled another 1-1.5 quarts in and sure enough no its in the normal fill level. So my slipping may of been from being 1-1.5 quarts low! I drove around and no real issue yet.

BUT I did just try to do the rear diff...wow its on there. I ended up taking a baster and tube and sucking out the oil. I got over 2 quarts out of it. The manual states it should only have 1.4 quarts though.... I put about 1.2 in and with out driving it a while and its leaking out the fill plug... sooo was it over filled or am I crazy?

 

[escape05xls]

holy wrong conversion! I pulled just over 2 pints out. so 2 pints = 1quart so I pulled probably 1.2 quarts which is about what I put in...so never mind I should be good...wow.

 

[Squishy]

You can get very close to 100% of the fluid out of an automatic as long as it has an external cooler. This is also how a transmission fluid exchange machine works at a shop.

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3656

Prowler's method (post #2) has been used and tested for years now, but both that and the original method will work.

Taking it to a shop can be dangerous if you do not know which method they use. Some will use chemical flushes which are not always compatible with transmission seals, and some will do a reverse pressure flush to get around cleaning the filter (bad!). Older, neglected transmissions can even suffer from a forward pressure flush, but in many of those cases the transmission was failing to begin with (I still would avoid all but a "fluid exchange" machine that uses the transmission's own pump).