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 / 8
Injuries / Deaths:
6 / 0
Average Mileage:
54,855 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.
My Escape likes to stall going like 10 mph. The vehicle starts to hestistate and wont go anywhere. It stalls and like it shutting off with the oil light and the battery light comes on. I restart the vehicle and it does it again like it dont want to move. It stalls like three to four times and it would run like normal. It's very dangerous cause it stalled right in the middle of a intersection. If there was cars coming which I was lucky I wasn't I would had hit on both sides. This is not normal for a car to do this. No one knows what is wrong with my vehicle and this is a very safety issue. It is to a point where I am scare driving my Escape cause of this issue. The stalling and hesitation issue. I was in motion when this does this. You can having idle and it wont stall only when you put it in drive. The turbo is also losing power when this does this.
The vehicle will randomly stall out while driving about 10 miles an hour without warning. It's butters like it's out of fuel the engine shakes violently and then turns off. Once the car sits until the engine gets completely cool it will run normal. Sometimes it takes a thousand miles sometimes it takes 10. It stalls under different circumstances but will not stall if it's in park idling. As soon as you put it in drive it shifts into second and then stalls. Taking it to several places and it's never acted up when they took it for a test drive so no one can figure out what's wrong with it. It is a huge safety concern if I pull out onto a highway and the car stalls I could potentially being a fatal crash. Here is the youtube video of the exact same situation, in the comments it's suggest replacing a fuel rail pressure sensor. The sensor has been replaced. Still experiences the same issue. Https://youtu.be/cnhrg4peoru. I've been experiencing this issue on and off for the past 6 months. It's the only vehicle my wife and I own and we are afraid to take our child anywhere due to this issue.
The transmission locked up in a kroger parking lot going 5 miles an hour. Only 81,000 mile and just had 80,000 manufacturers check up three weeks earlier. Would not go into neutral and sounded like crumpling paper underneath. Towed back to dealership. Dealership putting refurbished transmission into Escape. Does not have a timeline on when it will be finished.
- Inkster, MI, USA
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Car is completely dead when it rains and it takes several try's and it finally starts. Going down the road all dash lights including radio goes out and the off and on. This happens when it rains. When going down the road the car will shut off and then start back up. Happens on city and hwy. His has been happening for about 4 months now.
Constantly filling with antifreeze and cannot find a leak. Replaced water pump hoping to solve problem did not. Noticed many people have same problem on google search and found some cars did have recall for this reason. Not sure why mine was not
After stopping in my garage and exiting the vehicle from the driver's side door, I attempted to close the door. The door would not latch closed and basically just bounced open again. I attempted to close it again and it did the same thing. I open and closed the handle on the outside and on the inside. After this I could close the door. This problem has persisted for over a month.
Engine and coolant light on and the vehicle is stalling at idle state and while pulling off after waiting on traffic then proceeded to pull out, sitting at light and stalled when lift turn green, and stalled while merging on interstate. Very dangerous!! due to stalling I almost got hit! started to happen in December took to dealership in January happened again today 2/6/19
The 3rd time this happened was on Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. Cold morning. Warmed car at 4 a.M. no delay in start up. Drove about 3 miles. While driving down into a valley car made a ding noise. Lowercase I appears in center of dash screen. It is orange. Check engine light comes on and a message flashes across dash stating service engine...something about fluid. I proceed about 1 block lights turn red car shuts down. Foot on gas does not work. No time to pull off road. I shut car off. Sitting in car in valley no cell reception. Isolated. 5 below zero. I put flashers on. After 4 minutes I decided to try to start car and it did only showing orange lights. Car moved I drove to safe place and had towed to dealer. This exact thing happened 2 other times since I purchased in Feb 2015. Each time repairs were made and yet the same thing whereby the car acts like it is going to catch on fire or something and shuts down with only a few seconds to respond. At no time were there any signs of overheating. High readings steam etc. Specific dates for the first 2 incidents will be researched by me and reported. Each incident occurred in the same manner. One in 2016, one in 2017 and now in 2019. Incident occurred when car was moving, less than 5 miles from home. In the morning, winter weather. 2 lane road city driving snake like road going down hill. Cause nature not clear. Service staff each time feel they fixed it...happens again and again. Is it a sensor, computer error, engine"??"
My car is exhibiting the exact same symptoms as described in NHTSA campaign number 12V-551, Ford recall 12S41 and this vehicle was made in the same time period as other 2013 Ford Escapes which are affected yet Ford is telling me this has nothing to my vehicle. Same time frame, same symptoms but not affected" how does that make any sense to anyone with a shred of common sense" the incident occurred driving home from the iga store which is approximately 1.5 miles from my home. The drive there was fine, driving back the car stated high temperature stop safely, along with it trying to shut down. Shut the car off, waited approximately 15 minutes started the car, drove home, pulled in the driveway same message. Parked the car, now unable to drive the vehicle due to reading this error it is a fire hazard. This model and year is in the time frame this particular recall was put in place.
My 2013 Ford Escape sel titanium 4X4 has less than 69,000 miles. The SUV stalled for no apparent reason and without warning right after starting it up during warn starts. It never seems to happen when the vehicle has been sitting for several hours. It happens after you've driven it for a while and stop at a store, post office or gas station start it up and drive about 15 to 20 feet at low speed out of my driveway, parking lot, and without notice it stalls. I recently pulled out into traffic, and it stalled on me I pushed turned on my flashers and started honking my horn to get people to slow down so I wouldn't get hit. I feel like I'm in a death trap. The first day it happened to me was on December 9, 2018, which was four days after purchasing the vehicle. The fault, problems and component parts are unknown! also, I keep getting a computer message. It's random also but doesn't always happen before or after the stalling issue. "battery saver _ system off please turn ignition off or start the engine.
My 2013 has exactly the same issues as my of the complaints that I have read on this website. Soon after starting the vehicle the engine light comes on the vehicle stalls and it tells me the engine is overheating. This has happened 4 separate times now and I have taken it to 5 different repair shops. None have found anything wrong. Please issue a recall before someone is seriously injured or killed.
2013 Ford Escape has been leaking coolant over the past few months. I have been filling it and the coolant low indicator continues to come on in increasing frequency. Today(12/20/2018) it came on while driving, started to shake, displayed overheating, and then stalled on the side of the road. Filled it with coolant and it was driveable again. I read that this is currently under investigation and beg that a recall will be issued to include the 2013S along with the 2014 and newer Escapes.
Escape shudders and stalls soon after starting car, when pulling forward after backing out of parking space. Shut off completely twice, lights remained on once. Ford dealership service department was unable to determine problem, no check engine light, no error codes, brand new battery. Has happened 3 times.
Gas smell in cabin. From the time its turned on to the timeline its turned off. Sometimes its overwhelming. Headaches and even bloody noses appear to be the side effects. Research indicates it is a PCV hose and is a common problem with vehicles like mine. Some sort of information regarding the safety and solution to solving the problem should be availiable but instead it takes a 40+ page thread on an non-affiliated website to kdiscusses the solution. If that is even the official solution and I have kids, something official regarding the safety is a bare minimum. Please address this. Thank you.
Penny November 2, 2018 at 3:06 pm my 2013 Ford Escape has quit running while driving on three different occasion and has stalled several times once I had my daughter with me pulling out into the highway barely coasting out of the way of traffic then again turning at a intersection. Just this week left me stranded out of town pulling out again into a highway then quitting and had to be towed they could not find out what the problem was only changed oil and filter because couldn't duplicate problem out several hundred $ for tow bill and rental car for four days and I'm scared to drive it please help I should be able to drive what was E expensive purchase and I not fear for my life every time I leave home or to be stranded and out $ and my children has drove my car that won't happen anymore
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Washington, DC, USA