This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
I have a 2009 Ford Escape. This has happened many, many times, I do not even remember the first date of incident anymore (about 2 years ago) - the most recent was 1-27-2014. As I am at a red light or stop sign and attempt to accelerate, my engine stutters and chokes, occasionally gives a tiny little "pop" sound, sometimes stalling right in a traffic lane. When I restart it, there is no immediate problem. This is random, and does not happen every day. I have reported it to my dealer a couple of times in the past, but they could not find any failure codes, so they did not repair anything. I am taking it in again next week for this same problem - the service manager said it sounds like a throttle body issue, and will check it out once again to see if there are any failure codes showing this time. This is a very serious and dangerous condition !!
I was driving up a steep hill on a blind corner in my neighborhood today when the engine suddenly shut off. This is the first time my Escape shut off while I was accelerating. It stalled five other times in the past, each as I came to a stop sign or red light. The incidents are completely random with no warning, so I have no idea if next time will be at a red light or on the highway going 55 mph. When it shuts off I noticed that the dash flashes the battery and oil lights, but the battery is new and the oil is fine. I also noticed that when I'm idling in below freezing weather the engine will shudder, sometimes violently, but eventually stops when I start moving again.
The contact owns a 2009 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving 40 mph, the vehicle stalled. The contact had the vehicle towed to a dealer, who performed a diagnostic test but could not generate any failure codes. The vehicle was not repaired and the contact was not aware of the cause of the failure. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 84,902.
As I tried to accelerate the vehicle went into a limp mode. I had no response from the accelerator pedal. The vehicle would move forward at a idle speed. Yellow wrench light came on. After engine was turned off and restarted vehicle ran as normal for a few days and it happened again.
Driving at 50 mph on highway and car went into limp mode. This reduced car speed to 20mph and I had to immediately pull over out of traffic to avoid getting hit from behind. Turned car off for 30 minutes and started car up and drove home. This happened 2 weeks later.
- Alpharetta , GA, USA
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
Even prior to the date indicated the car would sputter and loose power driving along but would return to normal with no codes thrown this happened 3 or 4 times " approx. On date indicated while driving on the parkway at approx 50 mph the vehicle lost all power but was still running and would not respond to gas being pressed down or up ? car was in the speed lane with heavy traffic and almost caused a accident trying to pull vehicle off the highway ! no codes or anything were found " this has happened several times sense with on being today on the bronx river parkway, I think this is an accident waiting to happen, please help!
I was driving on a 4 line highway in the passing lane. My car lost power and the gas pedal would not work. I had to pull into the turning lane because a car behind me almost rearended me. Had to have car towed. This is the second time this has happened in a year. Last time the garage had my car for 5 days and could not find anything. My car was towed to a local Ford dealership. I had to get a loaner car for the second time in two years. Thank god that I was not in a wreck and could get pulled over onto the brim of a 4 lane dangerous highway. After looking O line last eve and today I found that other people have had the same problem some not as lucky as iam. The garage told me today that it is the electronic throttle body and will cost me 300$ or more. I am hoping that something can be down to prevent other serious accidents or even deaths due to this malfunction.
My wife had started the 2009 Ford Escape and was traveling at a speed of approximately 5mph, pulling into traffic. The car began moving, felt as if there as no power. She checked to ensure that the car was in drive. The car would not go over 5 mph. The wrench light came on, no speedometer reading, and she proceeded attempting to engage the car again. The car was drivable for three miles home, with no speedometer reading, limited power. As she drove, she needed to put the car in park to steady the car. A she proceeded to re-engage the car the shifter was "clunky, slipping, and did not feel secure". she did get the car safely home, however we checked the car about an hour after this experience and the car continues to not seem to engage the power train, is not shifting properly, has no power in the engine. There appear to be no leakage of fluids, the car has been properly serviced, has fuel, has a new battery, and we are wondering if this issue is now covered under any warranty. Please initiate an investigation to the many complaint that seem to follow a similar pattern with this vehicle.
While driving on highway at a speed of around 60mph my truck beeped and signaled a wrench light on the dashboard and my vehicle just stopped and lost speed and I couldn't accelerate to continue to move to a safe area. My vehicle just completed stopped in the middle of the highway while vehicles are coming at the same speed behind me. This has happened several times once entering a ramp on to highway accelerating on to the highway the vehicle just turned off. Also once driving heavy traffic the vehicle just stopped and a vehicle has to brake and swerve to avoid hitting me from behind. Just to know the highway incident was the most horrifying experience for me and my family. We were so shaken up from it thinking a car was going to hit us since they were coming up from behind us at the same rate of speed 60mph when my vehicle just turned off. Please look into this as it can cause a serious an accident resulting in someone or family being critically injured or loss of life. I have been reading all over the internet of the same problems and situation that occur because of this vehicle failure. Please make this a recall from the throttle body I've been reading about on these vehicles. Under affected parts didn't know what to put but have read its the throttle body.
I was stopped waiting at a red light at the top of a very steep hill. The light changed to green and I let my foot off the brake and went to push the gas and my Ford Escape lost all power and stalled. The battery light and oil light came on as it stalled and I started rolling backwards down the steep hill. I had no ability to steer the car and I also didn't have any brakes, I tried to slam the brakes as we were accelerating more quickly downhill but I had no control. In a matter of seconds my SUV veered off the road and hit a brake wall and at that impact my entire vehicle flies over onto the drivers side and stopped. The side airbags deployed and I was unable to open any doors. A passing car stopped and helped my son and I out of the back hatch.
My car lost acceleration in an intersection going about 15 mph. The engine was running slow and rough. The throttle had no effect on engine speed. After about 10 minutes of rough idling, the vehicle was turned off and I was then able to immediately restart the engine and it was able to drive home. This appears to be a known fault with the Ford Escape and could result in accidents. My understanding is that this is a known design problem with the throttle control system on the Escape.
Driving down the street and the wrench light came on all of a sudden. Then my car dies. Put it in park then started it and as I tried to accelerate the car started to jerk then died. I repeated this till I got to the nearest repair shop and after $600 later found out it was the throttle body sensor. Ford won't sell the plastic sensor by itself, you have to buy the whole aluminum unit at $400! plus labor! I will never do business with Ford again! horrible quality parts. The worst part is I had my 11 year old son in the car when this happened.
While driving steady at 50+ mph on an interstate, there was slight on again/off again hesitation while keeping constant pressure on the gas pedal. Without warning, the engine seemed to lose all power, and forced me to coast to the side of the road. A 'wrench' warning light appeared on my dashboard system, and while the engine had not stalled, it was running very low and rough. I again tried to apply pressure to the gas pedal and it was completely unresponsive. I turned the vehicle off, waited a few seconds and restarted it. It ran as if there was nothing wrong, and there were no more warning icons showing on the dashboard. It ran without issue for another 15 minutes on the highway, until it again lost all engine power, and this time the engine warning light came on instead of the wrench icon. Restarting it let me drive a few more miles to reach my home.
While driving on Monday 11/18/13 my wife was stopping then went to accelerate and the vehicle stalled. Upon turning it off it restarted just fine. This happen 3 more times from then to Tuesday evening. I drove it to work Wednesday 11/20/13 and while accelerating on to hwy 94 the vehicle stalled. It did hesitate upon restarting but started and ran. Wednesday evening on our way home doing approx 30mph the vehicle stalled and again hesitated to start but did and ran ok. Thursday morning 11/21/13 while on my way to work I was at cruising speed doing approx 60mph on hwy 94 the vehicle stalled. It hesitated to restart again but started after leaving the vehicle off for a few seconds.
Vehicle suddenly lost power and slowed down. Symptoms match what others report to be a bad throttle body which Ford has changed design of. Has happened twice now. Ford says we have to pay for this repair but it sounds like it should be a recall.
Drive South on I-95 at rush hour heading home. With no warning engine power just goes away, check engine light came on and no matter how much the gas pedal was push there was no power from engine, hurried as it slowed down to the right lane and was able to exit. Shut off engine for 5 minutes started it up and all was good. 2nd time was light came on and engine just fluttered, service tech stated that the codes in computer were throttle actuator open.
On Monday November 5th, 2013 I was driving my 2009 Ford Escape down the freeway at 9pm going home. I had been driving for about 10 minutes when the engine felt like it hesitated and stumbled. I realized that I could not get the vehicle to accelerate so I pulled off to the side of the road. There was a wrench symbol on the dash board. I experienced the same issue on Sunday November 11th, 2013 I was driving for about 15 minutes and the vehicle stumbled again and the symbol came on the dash. I turned the car off and waited 5 minutes. It started up and did not have any issues until today Tuesday November 12th, 2013. I was driving on the freeway at about 70 miles an hour and the engine stumbled again. I pulled off the side of the freeway and turned the vehicle off, waited 10 minutes and the car started up with no fault code on dash. I drove home the back roads. After investigating online I came across the article that this is a recurring event for the Ford Escapes.
Vehicle lost power up steep hill almost resulting in rolling backwards down hill. Car had previously and intermittently lost power surge when accelerating onto highway into a merge situation.
As exiting a highway the car just lost power. The gas pedal was useless and the rpms were about 1000. Pulled off to shoulder and shut car down, waited 5 minutes and started car and it was ok. Three days later it did the same thing while driving in the middle lane of highway. Had to coast to the shoulder did the same thing of shutting car down and starting again. Took car to dealership service and was determined it was the throttle body through diagonistics. The throttle body was replaced and reprogrammed. This defect may and will cause serious accidents and potential fatalities due to the way that the throttle just stops and the car is unable to speed to a needed speed for safety on highways.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Kirby, TX, USA