# Ford Escort transmission jerking when shifting

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/ford-escort-transmission-jerking-when-shifting/5750>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Tags:** transmissions, shifters\
**Created:** [October 10, 2007, 4:10am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ford-escort-transmission-jerking-when-shifting/5750 "2007-10-10T04:10:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![628952](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/9fc29f/32.png) [@628952](https://community.cartalk.com/u/628952)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2007, 4:10am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ford-escort-transmission-jerking-when-shifting/5750/1 "2007-10-10T04:10:19Z")

</div>

My wife’s 98 Ford Escort, when accelerating normally jerks and hesitates sometimes when it is shiting gears through the automatic tranmission. It acts as if it can’t find the right gear to be in. However, if you floor it, it shifts flawlessly without any jerking or hesitation. I have changed out the fluid twice now. The car has about 90k miles on it. Could this be a transmission filter problem or something else?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![transman618](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/transman618/32/24_2.png) [@transman618](https://community.cartalk.com/u/transman618)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 3:17am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ford-escort-transmission-jerking-when-shifting/5750/2 "2007-10-11T03:17:34Z")

</div>

It could be something as simple as a TPS (Throttle Position Sensor). Have you had it scanned for codes yet???

transman

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pleasedodgevan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/51bf81/32.png) [@pleasedodgevan](https://community.cartalk.com/u/pleasedodgevan)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 5:49am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ford-escort-transmission-jerking-when-shifting/5750/3 "2007-10-11T05:49:39Z")

</div>

I had that on an 85 Tempo and the trans needed a rebuild a few months later.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![628952](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/9fc29f/32.png) [@628952](https://community.cartalk.com/u/628952)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2007, 6:01pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ford-escort-transmission-jerking-when-shifting/5750/4 "2007-10-12T18:01:10Z")

</div>

Thanks for the replay. I have heard of that. Is it something that can be fairly easy to replace?