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.
I am really uncertain due to the fact that when I was experiencing problems with this car, ford and other licensed mechanic shops were not able diagnose what was wrong with my car. I was denied service by ford on 2 occasions and by time the car was past a simple fix I was unable to use my extended warranty.
More times than not, the car is stalling when started. It will stall or near stall when driving. No warning lights come on when this is happening. I have noticed that when the car started doing this, that the controls for the dashboard are now not working properly. For example; when you try to reset the trip milage, it will go through all settings on board and you are not able to reset anything. This has been on going since the odometer has hit 58,000 miles. The stalling of the engine is happening more and more frequently. I have had it to several repair shops, and no one can tell me why, even though they have witnessed it stalling.
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving 25-30 MPH, the check engine warning light illuminated. The contact was able to drive to her residence where she parked the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the engine wiring harness needed to be replaced. The dealer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 61,000.
I picked my car up tonight from Haley-??s in FarmVille va they fixed my door latches due to recall on latches. I told Them prior to dropping it off that the ABS light and traction control light and engine coolant light keeps coming on. When I pulled out the parking lot I almost got rear ended because the car didn-??t want to go it was moving so slow I had to slowly make myself across the road into kfc parking lot without getting hit. Haley refuses to fix these problems bc the light automatically goes off on its own and they say it-??s got to physically be on for them to fix it through recall but it keeps coming on whenever I have the car In my possession and it-??s very dangerous
As I am driving the car with speed 35mph I heard a very loud pop on the passenger side I was terrified and then the window dropped all the way in. As of right now the window controller is not functioning at a 100 percent and I bought this car less than year ago from a ford dealer ship. I will like to know how I can proceed with this situation and get it fix
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle hesitated while coming to a stop and then stalled. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and a case was opened. The manufacturer informed the contact that there was no recall associated with the VIN. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 15V813000 (Electrical System) however, the VIN was not included. The failure mileage was approximately 54,000.
The controls in the driver side door stopped working. No window or door locks could be activated. The car was taken in to the Ford dealership and it was repaired so the controls worked. A few months later, while driving on the interstate at 70 MPH the engine turned off with no warning. All the warning lights in the electrical panel lit up after the engined turned off. After getting off the road and sitting for a few minutes the car started with no problem. After driving 20 minutes, we stopped and tried to use the controls in the driver side door to put the window down. No controls in the driver door functioned. I took the car in for repair but there were no loaner cars and was told they would have to keep the car at least two weeks. I needed transportation so I waited to take the car in. The engine turned off two additional times while i was driving with no warning. I took the car in to the Ford dealership again. They said the door control problem was a fuse and they would have to try to find what was shorting out the fuse. They did not have any comment about the engine stalling out which I reported. They have had the car 4 weeks. I see that some 2013 escape models have been recalled for the engine stalling. I think my car should be added to the recall. I really need my transportation. I am borrowing my mother's car. There is no other car at my house.
Car will not start when temperature outside is near or below freezing. Message "no key detected" displays on the console. Lights flash with clicking noises while the car tries to start. This happened in 2020. It seemed to be resolved. In the past couple months it has happened multiple times. Each time the dealership returned car "fixed" to no avail. This has left me stranded multiple times.
My son was driving up a hill on January 26, 2022 and the car stalled. I called the Ford dealer and they said I had to take it in and pay for the repairs. This is a 2013 Ford Escape and I was reading on the internet that these cars have these problems. My son said there was no warning lights before this happened, it just stalled on a busy, dangerous highway. Thank God he was not hurt. I don't know what else to do. This problem should get taken care of with so many people having the same issue.
Case Number: CAS-34813627-B3B3D7 On January 2nd, 2022, without warning my ABS and traction control lights went on, my speedometer fell to zero, and all of the digits usually shown (MPG, miles to empty, amount of time driven, and miles driven) were replaced by dashes. After about 10 - 15 seconds, the information came back, the speedometer worked, and the dash warning lights went off. This has occurred multiple times a day since Jan 2 while I drive my car. The Ford website described a recall that fit the description of the issues I have been having and, according to my VIN, I was eligible to get the system serviced. I took my car in to Wade Ford in Atlanta, GA on January 5, 2022. A diagnostic test reported code PC0031, but only codes P1934 and P062C are considered eligible. I called Ford and opened a case (see Line 1). After waiting a few hours to hear back from Ford, I had to check in at work and perform a COVID test to remain eligible to work the rest of this week per their COVID protocol. On my way there, my throttle became unresponsive as I was getting on the highway. The acceleration came back a few seconds later, narrowly avoiding the car behind me running into my bumper. After testing, I returned to the dealership to find no progress had been made due to Ford being unresponsive. The agent has not responded or updated me, but she stated on an earlier call she was working on consulting her supervisor on my case. Further attempts to call Ford have been unsuccessful. Because this issue is not recognized under any Ford warranty, I have no lease or lease reimbursement options. The cost of having Ford fix the bug they downloaded into my car is into the hundreds of dollars. Even if Ford does decide to fix the issue, I have no assurance this issue won't happen again at the next software update. My vehicle is not safe to be driven at this point. Suddenly having no reliable vehicle is affecting my work and medical appointment schedules, costing me time and money.
The car's computer system would not communicate to the car's speakers. This contributed to the radio not working and more importantly, calls not coming through via bluetooth. Phones would connect to the car via bluetooth, but no sound would come through the speakers. This caused a small safety issue, because the driver would have to disconnect the call through the vehicle in order to hear the phone call. A Ford dealership needed to order a new APIM and replace it for the speakers to work again. They were not aware of any recalls for 2013 Ford Escape APIM yet, and there were no messages prior to the speakers not working, all sound just stopped coming through one day. I did read of a couple other instances of the APIM failing in Ford Escapes.
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while coming to a complete stop, the vehicle idled and hesitated to stop. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic and diagnosed that there was no code or check engine warning light retrieved from the code reader. The mechanic replaced the spark plugs; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, and the dealer cleaned the throttle body. The dealer informed the contact that there was no recall associated with the VIN. The dealer did not diagnose or repair the vehicle. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 15V813000 (Electrical System) however, the VIN was not included in the recall. The failure mileage was 122,092.
Battery went dead for 2 days. Once charged up Imediatley the back light of the truck were off.Even the turn signals dont work properly. Gabe it a few minutes to charge up then when i tried to turn it off it wouldnt shutt off. Took the ignition key out and it still stayed running. It turned off only after 5-10 min on its on. I thought it had to do something with the back lights so I disconeccted the backup light and pluged them back in and And tried to turn it off and on again and the same problem presisted. Engine still kept on running without the keys inside.
I was attempting to move the vehicle which had been parked on the street in front of my residence into the driveway so it would be out of the way of the scheduled street sweeping. I could typically just reverse right angle the vehicle into the driveway. However, upon reversing the vehicle moved but not according to the way I was steering it. After a few failed attempts, I stopped to assess why this was happening. I know the emergency brake had been released, there were no alerts visible on the dashboard. I got out of the vehicle, no flat tire, nothing appeared different from when I parked the vehicle 36 hours prior. No signs that it had been struck since then. No obstructions behind or under the vehicle. I got back in and tried again. I was able to get it up onto the sidewalk but in a very unintended position. Further attempts did get it partially into the driveway but I nearly hit the picket fence in the front yard in doing so. With it now half on the sidewalk and half in the driveway, I put the brake on satisfied it was now off the street and no longer subject to city parking violation penalty. I had to cancel my work meeting and called the auto club for a tow. During the tow service pick-up, it appeared that the front driver side wheel was not aligning with the steering mechanism but we could manually position the wheel so we could get enough movement and position the vehicle and move it by chain onto the tow truck platform. Prior to parking the vehicle in front of the house, I had driven it without any problems. There was no evidence that it had been damaged or impacted by another vehicle or vandal.
This just so the information is sent in to someone I bought this car used from.day one had problems warranty did not cover anything. First when you would start it it would flash power steering assist fault on the dash you shut car off and restart it goes away. Then the turbo boost sensors keep going I have replaces these three different times find out there is a service bulletin out for it but ford won't fix it for free there is a short in the wire you have to pay out of pocket for. Next was driving down the road and lost all power it went into limp mode while we were driving. The transmission is all messed up in this vehicle it was leaking fluid and took it to a shop to see where and can't find it. There are other electrical issues with the car I have 157k on
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle, the message electrical fault was displayed, and the vehicle stalled. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer was not notified. The contact called the manufacturer, but no assistance was offered regarding the failure. The failure mileage was 121,000.
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the vehicle stalled with the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was towed and diagnosed however, the vehicle was not repaired. Upon investigation, the contact associated the failure with NHTSA Campaign Number: 15V813000 (Electrical System) however, the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was informed of the failure and the contact was referred to the NHTSA. The failure mileage was approximately 120,000.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Decatur, AL, USA