Do these even have one factory installed? I read from some people that they don't and some say they do.. I have a brand new internal one to install but i don't know where to even start...My fluid was all chocolate milky so im prob gonna have the dealer change it but they didn't really seem to know know if they have one either... You can sure buy them everywhere it seems...

Have any of you done one of these? where is the filter located at? Pics would be nice.

 

There is no filter and the fluid never needs to be changed. If you have fluid that is chocolate milky, I hope no one has changed the fluid and replaced it with the wrong fluid. How did you determine the fluid is milky? There is no dipstick to check the fluid.

If you are right and the fluid is milky, I also hope your warranty has not been void and you're still covered. Sounds like you may have a serious problem or someone is trying to rip you off.

GaryG

 

Its at 143,000 miles and the book does say it can go upto 150,000 without it... But red fluid goes turns this color when it goes bad i believe..Its not a fully synthetic fluid car,Just regular mercon. Your right there is no dipstick but there is a fill plug and a drain plug. I let some pour out and brown fluid came out of the tranny and a ford tech told me thats its "really" bad.

Im not in a green state so no warranty for me.

 

The red color is a dye put in during the manufacturing process to keep ATF separate from other oils. The red color has nothing to do with the oil condition. It will normally lose that bright red color over time. Light brown is not necessarily bad. Dark brown indicates overheating. Chocolaty color bothers me, alot. I believe it indicates severe overheating and maybe a little water got in somehow.

Saying the oil never needs changing is not quite on the mark. If you read thru stuff Ford tells you to change fluid should the transaxle be submerged. Clearly there is a vent somewhere that would allow water in. Otherwise the manual does not schedule a fluid change.

There is no filter to change.

Ford's TSB on fluids has been posted on this site. I have an 06 FEH. What would I do? Drain the fluid & leave it to drain for a good while. Look at the drained fluid and look for suspended metal particles. Then leave the fluid stand and see if if anything separates. Refill with an appropriate fluid & run it for a couple of hundred miles & then change out again.

There are those who have asserted that synthetic ATF voids a warranty. Not so, don't take the bait. Just read the label when you buy your ATF & make sure it meets Mercon/Mercon V spec.

Ford's TSB is attached.

 

i guess dark brown is a little more accurate of what it looks like. Just got it changed today at Ford.. full flush and everything..runs and feels great !

 

Dark Brown for 143,000 miles isn't bad at all if its the OEM fluid, and I suspect it is. It's just been there awhile!

What did they say they did for the flush? This eCVT isn't like a normal automatic transmission. In those the transmission only drains about 5 qts to another 6 qts still up in the transmission. So the flush does some good (though I'm skeptical as to the true utility) by replacing most of the fluid.

In the FEH eCVT, when you drain the fluid you get it all. So there's nothing to flush. So what did they say they did?

 

Sounds like they flushed his wallet.

GaryG

 

Well it only cost $100 at ford so i wasn't really a bad deal at all. But basically they completely drained the transmission connected to the tranny fluid pump,cleansed, and added 9 quarts(give or take) and it honestly feels better to me with shifting and the fact that it is done makes me happy. lf it was routine maintenance (every 50,000 give or take) but since it hadn't been done in so long i felt the system should be completely flushed to get all the bad stuff.Doing it myself i probably wouldn't been able to drain it completely without the proper equipment. So im happy how it went down.

 

cje2310: the FEH transaxle doesn't hold 9 quarts of oil. I think you were scammed.

Draining the oil is not difficult... you remove the drain plug and let it flow out. That's it... and all of the oil drains out (unlike a conventional automatic transmission).

Then you put the plug back in, remove the fill plug, and put in 5.3qts (that's all there's room for). More precisely fill the transaxle until the oil level is at the bottom of the fill plug hole.

Then you put the fill plug back in.

So, as a minimum, you should go back and ask for a refund on the ~4 quarts of oil they could not have put in.

Bottom line: either you don't have an Escape Hybrid or the dealer didn't know what he was doing, or the dealer lied to you.

 

The extra oil charge was for flush.