As the title says, yesterday on my way home from work, I noticed that my car didn’t have the usual get-up-and-go behind the engine. No warning lights came on, but when I got home, I saw a warning in the Ford Pass app saying ‘powertrain malfunction/reduced power.’ Before buying the car, I had a trusted mechanic inspect it, and he said aside from the dirty transmission fluid and a small leak in the trans line, it was in ‘immaculate’ condition. When I told the dealer about these issues, the manager acted like I insulted him, calling my mechanic a liar and claiming they do a 200-point inspection. Well, here I am, 6 weeks later, with less than 1,000 miles on the car, and this issue. The car had just over 17,000 miles when I bought it. It’s at a Ford service center now, and I’ll update once I get more info. I’ve loved the car up to this point, but I’m really hoping I don’t get screwed. Fingers crossed my extended warranty is worth it! I’ll update soon.
Keep us updated. Supposedly transmission fluid changes color quickly, so it’s not a great indicator of condition, but still, make sure to change it at the right mileage. You have a warranty (maybe a CPO one?), so I wouldn’t be too worried.
@Hayes
I bought the extended warranty from Ford. The salesman just slapped a $3,000 warranty into my paperwork without asking, and I went along with it like a fool because it was my first car purchase. But now, I’m kinda glad I kept it, especially if it’s something to do with the high-pressure fuel injectors, which are under recall. If it’s an issue with the transmission or powertrain, that’s also covered. Just sucks because I’ve really liked the car. It has the 1.5L engine, but it’s the 3-cylinder, not the 4-cylinder with coolant intrusion problems. The diagnosis is $185, so I’m hoping it’s not something too serious. I’ll update when I hear from Ford, but the shady dealership I bought it from is definitely getting an earful!
I bought a 2023 2.0 Escape about a year ago, and it’s currently at 25k miles. It was just in the shop for a sway bar link failure, a transmission leak from the vent tube (they said it was likely overfilled from the factory), and it had the same powertrain warning. They fixed it by flashing an update to the PCM. The warranty might not have been a bad idea, though it would’ve been cheaper to get it from Granger Ford or somewhere that sells them closer to cost. For the transmission, I’d suggest doing a drain and fill every 30-45k miles to keep the fluid fresh.
@Rowan
I’m hoping whatever is wrong is covered by the warranty. I feel like I got scammed by the dealer. I’m an insurance agent, so I understand commission and sales, but I feel like they just told me what I wanted to hear to make the sale without actually caring about my needs as a customer.
@Rowan
Yeah, I think it’s still under the factory powertrain warranty. Issues like this are why those warranties exist. Did the dealer give you a loaner car?
@Rowan
No, unfortunately.
@Rowan
That’s a bummer. I had to wait 6 weeks for a loaner and kept driving on the bad sway bar. It took them 7 days to fix everything at my dealer.