Ford CD4E (LA4A-EL)

The transverse four-speed automatic in the Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner and Cougar — another Ford and Mazda gearbox with two names, the CD4E and the LA4A-EL.

It has a poor reputation and the reason is specific rather than general: it runs hot. The unit is compact for the vehicles it was put in, and heat is what kills the forward clutch and the torque converter — which is why an Escape used for towing or short urban journeys in traffic fails far earlier than one that does motorway miles.

The symptom sequence is worth knowing because the early stage is cheap. A shudder at light throttle is the converter's lock-up clutch and responds to fluid; a flare on the 2–3 change that comes and goes with temperature is the forward clutch beginning to slip; once it slips from rest the fluid is already carrying the material it has shed.

An auxiliary cooler is a preventative measure on this transmission rather than an accessory, and fluid intervals should be treated as real regardless of what the handbook implies.

The solenoid pack accounts for most of the electrical faults — harsh engagement, a limp mode — and is a bolt-on part behind a symptom that reads as terminal.