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Hi all,

Been a while since I wrote--or read--anything.

Congrats Debbie on the 51.6 tank! I only dream of numbers like that. I did recently get 40.0 MPG on a 130km (80 mile) trip on the highway. Was drafting and wind was behind me all the way. Was able to drive at about 110KPM (68MPH). On one recent short trip I got 63.9 MPG on the SGII...not sure whether to believe it or not.

Anyway, I do have a short story and some advice to ask:

My 2005 FEH is just about to hit the 50,000 km mark. I got it at 44,000 km and this was the first milestone for me that 'required' service from a Ford Dealership (a 'hybrid qualified' one): oil change, inspections, etc. I know very little about cars so I asked if the "hybrid technician" if he would show me around the engine after they were done so that I could learn any tricks or be aware of any special maintenance that I could do on my own in between visits. Needless to say, he had very little to offer. He didn't even really seem to know all that much about the FEH and how special (I think) it is. He did say that they present with next to no problems and he thought that was pretty unusual considering the 'new-fangledness' of the car (he didn't actually use that word, but I got the jist of it). I asked him tons of questions that I realized either went over his head or that he simply didn't care about--especially when he finished up our conversation with "you know, your brakes charge the battery".

All this to say Thanks yet again to Wayne and Gary for their articles here. And to all the other CleanMPGers here who have made me more knowledgeable about my car than the Service Techs at my local Ford Dealership.

So, the advice:

Ford "recommends" a full transmission flushing (I think that's what they call it) as well as few other things at 50,000 km. They offered this to me at the bargain price of $460 odd plus tax (can you hear the sarcasm?).

1. How necessary is this?
2. Should I just get someone else to do it for (a lot) less?
3. How important is it that Ford look after the car consistently...particularly in light of the story above.

Thanks in advance,

Andrew

PS That car is so amazing I actually think it learns about my driving...it seems to anticipate what I want to do. I wouldn't be all that surprised if one day it started talking to me...thankfully I look nothing like David Hasselhoff.:rolleyes:

Hey, I took my 01 Escape in for a brake job and state inspection to a blue oval Ford dealer once. The service techs eyes lit up when he saw I was at 60k miles and started spouting off a litany of services I would require done to the car. He wanted to flush the tranny, flush the coolant, do an alignment, brakes on all corners, blah, blah, blah. The original brake job was in the $100 range, the extra services they were trying to push pushed it up a good $700 more. I laughed, hard, and after I got a chance to catch my breath declined ;).

If they're still using the same tranny on the Escape (CD4E?), you may want to look at escape-central.com. They have several posts detailing how to do a drain and fill on the transmission. They're a pretty friendly bunch over there. Someone did the math, and by doing three drains and fills, you can get 95% or so of the original fluid out of the tranny. It'll cost you more in time, than in materials.