Four problems related to manual transmission have been reported for the 1998 Ford Escort. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
While driving tansmission disengages. The dealer is aware of the this problem. Please provide any futher information.
I live in burlington ontario canada, yet felt that this issue needed to be addressed beyond contacting the ministry of transportation in canada, (of which I am in the process of doing). I belong to a large group of Escort zx2 owners who are on the second and even 3rd transmission! this model was first introduced in 1998(the year of my car) and should not have had so many problems with our transmissions. It is extremely weak and has frequent mis-syncing shifts. I feel this is not only a safety issue, yet one that deserves immediate attention. Please have Ford do a study on this transmission and come up with some sort of "fix" as the present is unacceptable. I have gone through every other channel of which I could in canada and am now coming to you. Please help.
Manual transmission intermittent malfunction due to possible compatibilty problems in association with motor.
Consumer states vehicle will not shift properly, it often revs at high rpm and does not return to a normal rpm unless vehicle comes to a complete stop, possible transmission problems.