This tranny has been around since 2009 I believe. It is one of the products from the Ford/GM collaboration that brought such fine performers like the 6T70 to GM with its 35R waveplate failures, shift flares, full rebuilds, and such.

I have a 2014 Escape SE 2.0L Ecoboost. I loved that vehicle for 51K miles.
It has a history of 2-3 shift flares when cold, then clears up. Shouldn't happen at all if you ask me, but Ford acknowledges it as normal and refuses to do anything about it

They've had YEARS to solve this but seem to have made little progress.

I took mine in after waiting 2 weeks for a spot with their tranny expert who, not surprisingly, is buffered from the customers and will not go on a test drive with you. Only the shop foreman, who pretends to notice nothing, yet inexplicably passes it on tho the tranny guy anyway.

The problem: my 2/3 shift flare NEVER goes away. they refuse to admit it is out of the ordinary and are stuffing it in writing under the "few shifts to go away" TSB. Which says a couple of cold shifts.

I asked the service advisor how cold was cold, and how many shifts is a few? I then answered my own question with "I don't think they meant 150 shifts on a vehicle at operating temperature for 3 hours where it never goes away".

I never asked him to, but the warranty check visit went from 98 to 45 to no charge before I even got to the desk.

I thought their service structure was a little less f'd up than GM's but apparently I was badly spoiled by Saturn and now have to resort to showing up with understanding of every technical aspect of my suspected vehicle condition in order to beat them into submission. Now that I know what I'm up against, I guess I'll FINALLY learn how an auto tranny works in detail so that when I do meet the auto tranny expert, he will be in for a rude surprise.

Any pointers to where to start my auto tranny learning is appreciated.
Animated shots of trannys shifting gears will help alot.

Oh, by the way, they are still seeing the problem in 2017 Escapes ......

I told them I took it in for the problem in its infancy under powertrain warranty, and that any future visits from my perspective are directly tied to this visit under powertrain warranty so there is no way I expect to pay a dime for a f'd tranny that they let me drive another 15K mi destroying itself to the point of needing a rebuild just so we can get out of the powertrain warranty period so they can say it is my fault for driving it all screwed up and claim customer neglect.

Thanks for reading.

And don't buy a Ford vehicle with a 6F35 tranny. Their whole line, just like GM, has a bunch of variants. Gm just came out with an 8 speed automatic or so I was told

 

Ssm 45239 is the bullsh@t letter they are quoting about normal behavior. There are a lot of letters about your tranny. Pm me your vin and I will put it in the Ford website and look at the history and tsb's.

 

I know I'm gonna sound dumb, but what is a shift flare? I've only got solid experience on three types of transmission...

Ford AX4S/N: weak, but performed well enough... Sometimes clunky downshifting to 2nd
GM 4T45E: strong enough for the engine its coupled to, and works predictably...
Subaru Lineartronic CVT: it's a CVT that's programmed to imitate the shift behavior of a six speed, what else to say?

 

A shift flare is when one gear releases before the other one engages. A "shift kit" firms up shifts by raising line pressure and eliminating overlap. Cadillac had so much overlap that you never felt the shifts back in the 70s. This lead to transmission failure by holding the lower gear and engaging the upper gear at the same time.
Computer controlled transmissions like your 4t45 can be tricked with resistors and reprogrammed with a "tune".
Ford has a problem with this transmission and I hope they don't drag their feet until Derf's car is out of warranty.
We have several Escapes at work but none as new as Derf's.

 

Tricking the 4T45 into raising line pressure with a resistor? Tell me more!

 

Let me talk to my tranny guy, I'll get back to you.

 

that bs tsb ssm is from July 2015 referencing back to 2013-2016 Escapes (guess they know what tranny they were putting in).

 

derf
I'm not going to be of any help at all. The new engine/transmission technology is over my head. Having replaced my 2007 T&C with a 2016 Doge Grand Caravan it is a totally different animal.
6 speeds forward and while it must have a torque converter and it must lock up it seems to engage at a very slow rpm as the vehicle will easily creep in gear and off of the brake, yet feels as if there is about as much slippage as a clutch would have. I have a 2200 rpm stall converter in two cars and the engine rpm has to be up before it moves, this feels locked up at idle, but still slips when you put the brake on. It works different.

When I bought the car the shifts were harsh and I had the thing re-programed by a dealer which softens the thing up. It has "FUZZY" logic so it learns how you drive and shift levels and speeds self adjust as a function of time to your driving habits and it has.
And it has an economy/sport mode like our Saturn which makes a big difference in how the things shifts.
I like it, and it has taken some getting used to but at the moment I am not aware of problems with the mopar unit yet they must be similar in theory of which I know next to nothing.
It is bigger and heavier than my Chrysler and in performance mode it sounds like a drag racer taking off. RPM shift points up around 7000 rpm and all 6 gears get a shot at being placed in service.
Of note, the 3.5L V6 has rated HP with in 10HP of my 390V8 AMC Javelin. , that's 210 cu inches for those who can convert.