CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2013 Ford Escape has been in the news quite a bit and for all the wrong reasons. Within a few months of its release the SUV was recalled three times, twice because of engine fires.
In July 2012, due to a fuel line that could split and leak, Ford told owners to park their cars because even driving to the dealership for repairs was deemed too dangerous. Instead, in a somewhat unprecedented move, Ford sent tow trucks to pick up the affected vehicles and handed out rental cars while the owners waited for repairs.
A few months later the Escape was recalled again because antifreeze could leak out onto the engine due to a freeze plug becoming dislodged. As the coolant hit the hot engine there was, once again, a threat for fire.
The 2013 is the first model year of the Escape's 3rd generation and proves once again that you want to avoid the first model year when at all possible.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
3 / 14
Injuries / Deaths:
6 / 0
Average Mileage:
50,644 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
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.
On 5/31/14, upon starting vehicle (2.0 L, sel), vehicle running rough, sputtering, lurching when accelerator was depressed, etc. Message on dash screen stated "engine fault - service now". drove car approximately 8 miles to a Ford dealer I was not familiar with. Turned car off but then decided to move car. Started car, all issues disappeared, so I left and drove car 35 miles to my home with no issues. Drove car until 6/20/14 when exact symptoms happened again. Drove car with symptoms occurring to local Ford dealer. Mechanic suspected cooing system problem, turned off engine without hooking up to computer for diagnosis. Minutes later, mechanic decided problem was not cooling system related since Escape was a 2.0 L (cooling system problems apparently occur with 1.6 L models), but was instead the map sensor which was replaced on 6/26/14. Next day (6/27/14) after map sensor replacement, same exact issues. No time to take to a dealer, so I shut it off and restarted it and all symptoms disappeared. Drove regularly until 7/16/14, when exact symptoms occurred again. Drove directly to local Ford dealer, left it running. They hooked up the diagnostic computer while running which showed error code related to map sensor again. Explained to mechanic that my research has indicated that tsb 13-12-12 might address the problem which is related to wiring in the "signal return splices." He agreed. Made appointment for next day, 7/17/14. Upon starting on 7/17/14, same symptoms. Turned off, restarted, symptoms cleared and I drove it with no issues to my local Ford dealer. Local dealer called and said they looked at the wire splices, made some "adjustments" (no new parts) and that vehicle is ready for pick up. If this occurs again, which I believe it will, I will ask for wire harness replacement to the signal return(s). Dangerous, well-documented problem.
First occurrence was nearly three months ago. 2013 Ford Escape as repeatedly, with increasing frequency but randomly lost power and with the engine shutting off. Car has lost engine power and with no ability to accelerate while driving speeds up to 40 mph. It has occurred while approaching a stop, sitting at a stop sign, accelerating post stop, turning left, turning right and while navigating around-about and crossing a railroad track. Car will restart once I place it in park. This is an extreme safety concern. I have had several near misses and only because I have learned to respond quickly with my hazard lights. I called don hinds Ford in fishers, in at the second occurrence and they failed to express the same level of concern telling me I would have to wait 4-5 days for an appointment. The frequency has increased, albeit still random and not daily it does occur multiple times a week. I made a service appointment with don hinds waiting again 4 business days on 7-8-2014. I was extremely disappointed as their report was based on their inability to not replicate the problem. The likelihood to replicate a random occurrence in a short test drive was not expected by me and I am disappointed they were foolish to think it would. The history of the last 10 starts and stops on the car's computer didn't report any error code. Don hind's states that Ford has no reports of any incidents and their technical support had no recommendations for the mechanic. The advice of the mechanic was to wait until it was more frequent in occurrence and able to be replicated and then bring it back. I am afraid to drive my car and to Transport my children. This needs urgent attention. This poses a high risk of injury.
Vehicle bucked, lurched and went into "limp mode" and would not accelerate over 40 mph on a 70 mph interstate highway (just as I was trying to enter the highway) engine service light came on and I called Ford roadside to have it towed to the dealership. This was actually the second time. This had happened previously but I cannot find the date - that time, I was entering the same interstate and the car did the same thing and I "limped" the car to the dealership (only being able to drive 40 mph on a 60 mph four lane highway.) on 6/3/2014, the car did the same thing as I was attempting to enter interstate 35 (70 mph) - again - bucking, lurching and then going into the "limp mode". very scared to drive this car anywhere as I fear being hit or killed on the highways because of the cars inability to go anywhere near the speed limit. This is very much a safety issue especially for the area that I live in because all the roadways around me are at least 60 mph or higher and Ford has not been able to fix this problem. The car's engine is now idling very rough, too, so there are other issues with this engine.
I have had 2 incidents where my power steering has gone out. The first was at about 25 mph and the other about 15-20 mph. Both times I got a message across my information screen that said "steering assist fault". it was really hard to steer the vehicle I was able to stop and turn off the vehicle since I wasn't on a busy street either time. When I restarted the vehicle the message went away and power steering was restored as if the computer just needed to restart.
My wife was pulling out of the parking lot at work when the vehicle switched to a "low power state" as described by the dealer (spitting, sputtering shaking. Barely running as described by my wife). She had get to the side of the road turn the car off then back on to turn around and pull back into the lot. I went and got the car. It ran ok. And I called Ford and made an appointment to get in. (4 day wait over holiday weekend.) over the weekend it did it once more. This time leaving a service engine light on. By the time we took it to the dealer it had gone back off. They found a faulty wire harness. But since the bumper to bumper warranty is out and it's not covered by power train. It cost us $400 for the repair.
- Henderson, KY, USA
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While turning at a speed of approximately 5 mph the car stalled causing the loss of power steering and power brakes. This was the third incident of the car stalling. "williamsburg Ford and preowned" serviced the car today and found no fault codes. Claim that they can not service the car without Ford's authorization via "recall". this vehicle is potentially dangerous once a stall occurs to a driver from side or rear impact. This needs action from the NHTSA and Ford.
Recall 13V583 for the 1.6L eng fire was accomplished 05-12-14.I drove the Escape home and noticed the lower left corner of the trip display page, the hours driven was replaced with mpg display. The numbers kept recalculating a set of numbers every second, this continued as long as engine is running.the upper right corner of trip page also has mpg which is the normal location from day one.but now counts down in tenths as car is at idle.the dealer told me all this is part of new software. The fix should be to have the upper hand corner show mpg holding at idle and lower left corner display hours driven not another mpg calculating new numbers every second.this has been reported by other owners of the Escape to dealer.
My 2013 Ford Escape has had a issue of stalling while at intersections or driving at slow speeds the radio and ac is still working but the engine is dead if you are not paying attention you could roll out into and interception and you car be dead and you have to put it in park to restart it this has happened many times to my wife she has almost got hit multiple times with the last one being a semi truck everytime I take it to for they tell me they cant find in fault codes they don't know what to fix so they just tell me to go with it I have filed an official complaint with Ford Corp. Office still with no results basically what they are saying is if they cant find a code they cant fix anything so am I just supposed to let my wife drive a unsafe car and get her and my son killed and if you look online there has been thousands of people saying the same complaint and Ford telling them the same thing so something is wrong we need help.
For a year I have been getting oil burning fumes inside of the vehicle when idling or traveling at slow speeds. The smell also lingers outside the vehicle for many hours after parking it in the garage. This smell is giving headaches to people in the car. I have taken it to my dealer twice and they have said nothing is wrong this is a normal smell caused because the turbo operates very hot. I have found many posts on the internet about others experiencing similar problems. I am concerned about a possible fire since some models of this vehicle have had oil leak fire problem recalls.
Driving in parking lot fan speed accelerated and then engine shut off. I tried starting again 3 times and the same thing happened. I called aaa and had the car towed to Hyundai dealership in reno where we purchased the car. There was a smell of burning in the engine. The dealer reported the smoke was coming from under the hood of the air compressor clutch coil is internal short cause burning smoke. They recommended replacing the air compressor. Ford said my car is not included in their recall list.
The left light went out. Went to dealer to get the light bulb changed. After an hour, they updated me that "some" electrical failure occurred and that it could take "hours" to fix. It for sure is covered under warranty, but now I am skeptical to drive this car. And this car is new, and under 3 months old with about 3500 miles. Incident occurred on Friday evening. Took to dealer on Saturday morning. Was told they were out of bulb, and to wait until Tuesday. Took to another dealership. They were kind enough to get the needed part (bulb) by Monday. Took to them on Monday. They put in the bulb. Then realized power wasn't reaching the bulb point. So had me get it back in on Tuesday. Checked on Tuesday, to find out it was the BCM (body control module) that was out. So had to wait another while they got the part. Finally got the vehicle delivered on Wednesday evening.
Ford Escape had started to stall and quit suddenly when slowing or at a speed below 40mph. There have been 10 occurrences. About half of the time, the entire dash becomes black and it is some time (longest being 4 minutes) before the dash is lit up again. During this time, I am unable to get any response from the car at all. The other times I am able to get the car to restart after about 15-30 seconds. The occurrences have been in high traffic situations, after dark and in sub zero weather. I am a single parent and purchased this vehicle for peace of mind and safety of myself and my children. I am now afraid to drive the car for fear of being hit or rear-ended. Others have attempted to assist me and I fear they are also in great danger as well. The dealer claims that the car does not throw a code. It suggests to me (I am not an engineer or a specialist to make this evaluation) that the computer may have rebooted itself. After the first few occurrences, the dealer had this car for 5 days and it did not stall for them. I was told that I had to take the car because they cannot find anything wrong with it. After the occurrences this past weekend, I spoke with a service advisor who did some checking to see if there were any new data on this issue. There was not. I am told that unless they can pull a code and find something to fix, that I am to keep the car. They will not let me out of my lease unless I pay the balance of my lease payments. After reading the many entries here, I am adding mine.
My Ford touch / sync program and display screen are erratic, unreliable and dangerous to use. The system will randomly cease operation resulting in a blank display screen. Occasionally it will resume operation and reboot itself. Most other times, the vehicle must be stopped and restarted for the system to resume operation. When the screen is blank, the driver must take their eyes off the road to operate radio, climate control and other vehicle functions or at times cannot operate them entirely. My dealer has twice updated the software to newer versions and now tells me no new updates are available, but these problems continue. The value of this vehicle has greatly diminished due to this ongoing significant defect.
Now that it is colder out, my car has gone from overheating to misfiring from the defective cac/torque converter in this car. I've noticed that the misfiring does not show up on the check engine light or was able to be read by my obd reader. Misfiring can ruin the catalytic converter and cause emission issues. It is illegal in California (where I'm a resident) to not follow the obd II protocol for reporting emission problems since we have this inspected for registration. When my car has overheated, only Ford was able to pull the code & I also didn't get a check engine light. It's apparent now that Ford has rigged the obd in this car so that only they can retrieve codes. Misfiring is easy for you to replicate to verify my statement. Unplug one cylinder, start the car, see if you get a flashing check engine light and a P030X code.
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while stopped, the front collision chime began to sound. The contact stated there was snow on the front end of the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnosis where the technicians were unable to duplicate the failure. The contact was informed where to disconnect the fuse in order to stop the chime from sounding. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 11,000.
Purchased Aug 2012 had nothing but problems since day one wipers, rattles in front end steering stalls on take off also a gas smell strong makes eyes water wife will not drive car I am a retired Ford tech 20 years experience with Ford.
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving at an unknown speed, the driver began to smell an electrical burning odor. The vehicle was stopped on the shoulder and before the keys were removed from the ignition, flames engulfed the vehicle. The contact was able to exit the vehicle without injury. The vehicle was destroyed. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 15,617.
My wife and 6 year old grand daughter were traveling East bound highway 190 and vehicle started smoking from the vents and shut off in traffic. My wife wrestled the stalled car to the media where itt died. I had just traded a 2011 Escape with a similar problem. It only had 28 K in mileage and it never made warranty.\ Ford wont even return my calls.
Was driving on manetto hill road in plainview, NY when vehicle stalled. No power to the accelerator. Kept pressing the gas, and the car didn't move. No warning chimes, no appearance of anything wrong-radio was playing, ac, etc. Was able to pull over (roll to the side of the road), put the car in park and restarted it. The computer then showed "engine fault service now" drove to a local gas station, though the car was bucking and difficult to drive. Car was then towed to dealership service station. Have learned that there are multiple tsb's issued for my car, but no recall. Parts are not available so the car remains at dealership service station. I was lucky I was not in rush hour traffic or on/getting on or off a highway when the car died. I shudder to think what would have happened then.
2013 Ford Escape sel 2.0L. Recurrent issues with "engine fault service now" displaying when car is started (first instance at 5817 miles, now at 11K and still happening). Results in rough idle, poor shifting, harsh acceleration. Can be reset with restart so the error must be visible and the car driven (in terrible and unsafe condition) so the dealer can validate the condition. Condition validated at dealer twice (has occurred five times total) computer has been reset twice, map sensor has been replaced. Issue still occurring with no proposed repair to resolve.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- State College, PA, USA