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So, over the last couple of days (and one isolated-ish incident in Feb) getting the Escape to move away from a dead stop when cold was... interesting.

I knew it was definitely something transmission-related, and it went away when the transmission had warmed up. Yesterday it did it 5 times before lunch, so off to the dealer with it.

It ends up that the transmission cooler (stock on all 08+s at least) is integrated with the A/C condenser. The mounting brackets on earlier revisions of this part are weak and they actually make up part of the liquid-filled area of the part. When they crack under stress / thermic expansion / ferrets, a slow leak develops that isn't easily noticed due to the part placement. Indeed, I never noticed anything in my driveway or in my usual spot. The SA said it's quite possible to have this happen over weeks and never notice it happening. Perhaps even more telling was that they had it up on the hoist 2K KMs ago for my oil change and they never noticed it.

So, it's fixed... zero cost to me (thanks warranty!). You 08+ owners, and indeed ALL Escapes that may share that trans cooler design... you might want to check into it.

Did they say how much fluid had leaked and if there was a possibility of internal damage to the transmission? Its good that the dealer knew about the problem and that it has been noted on your service record just in case there are further problems down the road.

I actually asked about damage but their insistence was that no real damage could have been done. I'll be calling the service manager to air my concern about just that this afternoon. But yeah, it's definitely on the service record and was covered under the factory warranty (powertrain or comprehensive, not sure - but both are still active).

I just spoke with the service manager and they're confident that no damage was done based on how quick I caught it. Plus, it is indeed noted in the history so I have that to fall back on as well. They've done about 10 Escapes locally so far that had the same symptoms as mine.

my brother has one and exact same problem he had... dealer fixed no problems !