[All Coasts]

Hi guys!
I have a 2007 Ford Escape FWD with an automatic transmission. When I put it in D or R position it shifts with a very loud click(snap). A weird metallic noise(metal to metal). After that it runs smooth, no problem with shifting at all. I have the feeling though that it would brake the transmission or something. It has just 15000 miles on it and I have no idea what the problem could be.

I followed these steps:

. Drop and clean the transmission pan, change the filter, and refill with either Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF or Amsoil Universal Synthetic ATF. You will be glad you did. Do this every 30,000 miles, particularly on Ford Escapes. The first change is the most important.

. When parking the car, apply brake pedal, shift into Park, and then apply the parking brake. Apply the parking brake before taking your foot off the brake pedal. This prevents undue force having to be applied to the gear shift selector, in order to shift into Drive or Reverse.

. Disconnect the negative battery cable overnight. This will force the PCM to relearn all shift points, etc.

I also checked the mounts. Everything's fine however, nothing's changed. Still have the loud click when I shift the gear.

If anyone could help me out it would be greatly appreciated!

[TxGreaseMonkey]

You may be hearing noise from the half-axles. On the driver's side, for example, there's a female spline on the half-axle that fits over the male spline, coming out of the transaxle. In this connection, there's a certain amount of slop. As you shift to Drive or Reverse, and the direction of rotation changes, you are hearing this metal-on-metal noise. Personally, I coat these splines with Valvoline Synthetic Grease (with moly). This quiets this noise somewhat, among other things. If I'm right, there's little you will be able to do to eliminate the noise.

I'm impressed with the service you've provided your transmission. You should notice improvement in mpg and how smoothly it shifts (particularly downshifts), especially in cold weather. I'd recommend that you use full-synthetic oil in your engine, also. If you take care of the engine and transmission, everything else that can go wrong will be relatively minor. I also use Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF, in the power steering unit of my Ford Taurus.