Traveling about 70 mph in the right hand lane with the flow of heavy traffic along I-40 E coming into Asheville, NC my 2009 Escape suddenly lost power and seemed to lose forward motion. I immediately looked for a place to pull over as traffic was speeding up behind me while I was dramatically coming to a halt in front of it. I pulled onto the shoulder. Thankfully I was not traveling in the other direction, westbound toward Tennessee, where the shoulder is nearly nonexistent and the curving, narrow, mountainous passageway leaves little opportunity for evasive action.
The engine was running at very low RPM and although I depressed the gas pedal, the engine did not respond. I turned off the engine and called AAA. Fortunately there was a Ford dealer nearby. Diagnosis: defective throttle body. Supposedly Ford knows about this issue and will cover its replacement cost. However, if Ford knows about this I want to know how many lost lives Ford needs to count before they issue a recall. This situation could have been one of those that ends in a fatality. You know how those tractor trailer drivers put their front bumpers against the trunks of the cars directly ahead? Well, in that case the Ford Escape owner with a defective throttle body would not be "escaping" at all. Add the $250 that the Ford dealer is charging to recalibrate the computer and clean the fuel lines as well as my rental car for several days and an unplanned hotel stay. Ford should have recalled this. I don't think they have given me a gift at all when they offer to replace it for free.
I am going to write to the NHTSB, but doubt that they are going to see this my way.
- Kristen B.,
Apex, NC, US
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After having a late 90's F150 that went nearly 140,000 with little more than normal maintenance and minor repairs I felt good about buying a low mileage Escape. I have already found out that was a mistake, with only 44000 on the odometer the engine lost all power while driving, it returned to normal once I pulled over and restarted the engine, this happened several more times. Took it to the dealer and found it had a bad throttle body!!!
WTH I have driven some true hoopdys and never once had a throttle body fail!
The repair was $400.00 this is unacceptable for a late model low mileage vehicle, next time I will likely buy a Toyota!
Update from Apr 12, 2014: Finallygot a check from Ford to cover the repair, they admitted the throttle body was defective.
while accelerating the escape bogs down,won't put out any power,I have to pull over,shut it off,turn it back on and it will go again. upon looking into the problem it is very common and costs over 400.00 bucks to fix. It is a bad throttle body and off warranty. At only 45,000 miles this really piss's me off to have to replace a part that should last for over 100,000 miles. ford tough my ass, sissy is more like it.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
This is the 2nd time I had to change the Throttle Body! Its a vehicle part that shouldnt be a pain in the ass to a customer.
- placencia, Miami, FL, US