The one-way clutch prevents spinning the ICE in reverse. The black box was put in the '09 and newer Escapes. The owner's manual stated in '09 that Ford and the courts could authorize review of the memory, but I think it's for information leading to an accident mainly.

GaryG

 

Got a call back from Ford customer support today. It was quickly apparent from the conversation that Ford has zero interest in investigating this problem in any way. The rep. immediately launched into a monologue about how I was "out of warranty coverage", although I had not mentioned warranty.

So case is closed unless the problem reoccurs and I choose to have a dealer pursue it at my expense.

 

Just a silly question, but is your shifter super easy to move through the gears? Not totally related, but I had to replace my shifter cable (due to a rock jumping out in front of my vehicle But I had no park as a result of the damage. The shifter cable hangs low on the front of the vehicle and is only protected by a small metal guard under the plastic shroud. Not that you hit anything like I did, but if your shifter cable goes bad, it might cause some of these symptoms.
Perhaps you could have someone move the shifter through the gears (with brake applied) while you check the movement of the end of the shift cable. to see if it moves the eCVT lever.
just a thought

 

Chris,

I didn't realize that there's a cable involved in the shifting. I was thinking that the shifter was just a big switch with wiring connected to the eCVT, but apparently not.

The shifter is fairly stiff in moving through the gears, but I'll have a look for the cable at the eCVT end as you suggested.

I still think my problem was probably a computer glitch because it cleared up by cycling the ignition key several times. But having a mechanical cable running to the eCVT does make me wonder what the failure mechanism is. How could reverse be mistaken for forward within the eCVT?

 

Yea, it has both.

Reverse is all electric, though it has a detent in the transmission linkage. When that rock jumped in front of me, it broke my cable off in the D position. I could drive forward,,, AND revers without changing the transmission linkage because R is an switch below the shifter. I think L is a switch position too cause there is no low gears.

Your probably right about it being a computer glitch tho. I was just thinking that if the shifter and cable were not in sync, perhaps it was still in R even when the handle was in P.

Hope it doesn't happen again. May you have many trouble free miles!
Chris

 

Park has a parking pawl (pin) that goes into the gears to prevent the vehicle from rolling.

Everything else to best of my knowledge is electronic.
The gears are always in mesh to the wheels. Yes even when towing.
There is no true neutral, only simulated neutral.

I proved this by putting my front end on jack stands and running the car in neutral.
The wheels were powered very gently without the road resistance to hold them still.

Your problem does not surprise me.
The car did not get the signal to move in reverse.
The hand lever only moves the locking pin in park.

R, N, D, L are all done electronically.

Another proof a few have done is this:
While moving forward at highway speed, move the gear selector to R.
Absolutely nothing happens because of the computer logic.

hth,
John