CarComplaints.com Notes: The top problem trend for the 2014 Escape is transmission failure at around 70k miles.
This is relatively low mileage for an expensive transmission failure ($4,500 average to fix), but unless the trend becomes more established, we are only awarding the 2014 Escape our "Beware of the Clunker" badge for now.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 68
Injuries / Deaths:
2 / 0
Average Mileage:
52,697 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.
While driving at highway speeds, the engine began to miss resulting in a sudden loss of power that forced me to pull over. I had the vehicle towed to a garage where they found the code for a misfire in cylinder 4. When they looked in cylinder 4, they found coolant intrusion and a crack in the cylinder. I discovered this is a common experience with this engine in Escapes and other vehicles. The vehicle only had around 89,000 miles at the time of the incident.
We had our vehicle engine light come on, vehicle would shake and misfire, we had the spark plugs replaced. No sooner the vehicle light came on again, vehicle still shake and misfire and had it looked at with Ford service Ford service replaced the power packs. No sooner once again, the engine light came on, this time the vehicle over heated. The vehicle would shake and misfire. Took it in again to Ford service, they concluded that it was the throttle body they replaced and fixed. No sooner once again, the vehicle still shooked, but this time the vehicle started to lose power and would not go while driving on the highway, it over heated, misfired. Returned once again to Ford service whom finally revealed the truth and said these vehicles are notorious for a new engine. We were told that the design of the engine revealed that coolant was leaking into the block/heads. It was unsure if the blocked cracked and that we needed a new engine. If we just replace the head gaskets that later down the road we would need to replace the engine. We were left with replacing the vehicle with Ford service in replacing the engine at the mileage of 96,812
Car overheated due to intrusion of coolant into head gasket. Repair shop identified issue and warned it's a safety risk for fire when overheating. Only symptom before overheating was white smoke from exhaust on startup. Shop said maintenance looked fine, wasn't low on oil and coolant had just been checked less than 6 months earlier at a regular oil change. Mentioned that they have seen a ton of these from the 2.0L EcoBoost engines and it's a known risk in the industry.
The contact owns a 2014 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving 30-35 MPH, the vehicle stalled. The contact was unable to pull over to the side of the roadway. The contact was able to restart the vehicle and continued driving. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that the canister purge valve had failed and needed to be replaced. The dealer related the failure to an unknown recall and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.
The contact-??s mother owns a 2014 Ford Escape. While the contact's mother was driving at an undisclosed speed, the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed with coolant leak and engine failure. The contact was informed that the engine needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure but provided no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 117,000.
The car was smoking whitish gray smoke. I had something repaired. About 3 week later the smoke returned. Took to dealership told it needed an engine. Given a price of $14,000. With that info my car has been parked. I never received info that ford had a class action about engines until a month ago. Please advise.
The low coolant level came on the car. We were told that they sensor needed to be replaced. We paid $1500 to replace that. The low coolant level light has back on 5 times, then the check engine light comes on and the car shuts off. It has left me, and my daughter stranded on the side of the road and in the middle of the highway. We were told they are not sure what else to do, here is a bottle of coolant from the dealership and keep bringing it back in. Next issues are it won't go over 20 MPG, my daughter was crossing a major highway, she lost power and the car started to shake. We are now told that it is the transmission. There was a recall replaced on it back in 2023. Not happy at all with ford and very unsafe.
The prior reported issue of coolant intrusion of the Ford Ecoboost into the engine. They only recalled a select number and it seems from both own experience and reviews online that this is happening to a wide variety of years and people even though they "fixed" the issue. Had I not been diligent regarding my car this could have ended poorly and in this economy it's ridiculous to not have a reliable and SAFE vehicle
My car has a bad failure of the head gasket. Coolant leaking into cylinder 3 and 2 and using up my coolant. This has been ongoing despite me having had the recalls done to it for the coolant system. This is a pervasive, prevalent and common issue with these Ecoboost engines. I have spoken with many people who have this same issue. It happens subtly and then gets much worse. Causing overheating and undue wear on the cylinder walls. For the first year of the problem beginning, there were no check engine lights associated with it. But it recently has started throwing cylinder 3 misfire codes as a result of this problem. This has been checked by a mechanic and the dealer refuses to repair or replace the head gasket or engine due to no recall for the head gasket being made, however there is at least one or two service bulletins put out by Ford about it. This is putting me and my family at risk of being stranded on the road somewhere, ancient failure at highway speeds and unreliable equipment to keep us safe.
The problem first arose as the car started going through engine coolant very quickly. Usually the warning would come up saying the engine coolant was low. I would refill, but the car would need more within a day or two. So, I scheduled an appointment to get it checked. In the meantime, I would refill every time the warning came on. Soon after, as we were waiting for the appointment, and as my wife, infant son, and I were driving (with no warning of low coolant), the engine overheated and the car started shaking and would not respond (with a warning that said to pull over safely). Thankfully, we were on side streets in a neighborhood. But with no warning of low coolant beforehand, this is absolutely a safety issue.
Check engine light in 2023 for P1299, Cylinder head overtemperature protection code. Coolant was heavily leaking, and engine overheated while in use on the interstate highway. I had a red error message telling me to immediately pull over and shut the vehicle off, which I did. I called for roadside service and had my coolant topped in a safe location. Car was towed to the dealership where a leak was found as well as a crack in the degass bottle engine mount, which sprayed coolant directly onto the engine. The degass bottle and mount were replaced, and the issue was fixed. Now, in 2024, I pulled a P2681 engine light error for an issue with the coolant bypass valve. I drove the car into the same dealership, where they're currently assessing it for issues. Mentioned that the coolant bypass solenoid is out of spec for a resistance issue and needs to be replaced, otherwise the engine will overheat due to improper temperature regulation. Both issues above have been confirmed by Ford mechanics, and neither issues have pulled recalls, though this seems to be reminiscent of a 17S09 recall with coolant sensor issues, engine cylinder head overheating, and subsequent leaks.
Unknown. Something at the backside of the motor caught on fire. The car overheated and would not drive. Pulled over, cooled off, added coolant, drove home. Car won't go over 40, shakes, and makes noises. Took it to automotive place. They took the manifold(?) and stopped! Called and told us there had been a fire in the motor, we need to call our insurance company and take it to a Ford dealership. Warranty and insurance company are both fighting with us. Neither one wants to pay!!! This is total BS!!!! No recalls"! Google this cars problems and their #1 problem is they catch on fire!!! WHY IS THERE NO RECALLS?!?!? Does someone have to die to get a recall"
The contact owns a 2014 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the engine overheated. In addition, the contact stated that at times the vehicle stalled. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed with a failed coolant valve. The contact was informed that the coolant valve needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The contact stated that while the independent mechanic was driving at an undisclosed speed and test-driving the vehicle, the independent was flagged down by a nearby Police Officer. The independent was advised to pull the vehicle off to the shoulder of the road. The independent mechanic was advised that flames were exiting the rear undercarriage and the front undercarriage of the vehicle. The independent mechanic drove the vehicle to the shoulder of the road and exited the vehicle. The Police officer extinguished the fire. The local Fire Department arrived on the scene. A Police report was filed. No injuries were sustained. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or the dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure but provided no assistance. The contact was advised to contact the NHTSA Hotline to report the failure. The failure mileage 63,000
Has to replace the Fan Assembly Coolant sensor three years in a row beginning in 2022, 2023, and 2024. 2023 January, also has the Right Side CV Axcle replaced because a/c coolant was leaking. This leaking went in to the transmission and the transmission also had to be rebuild. Then in 2024 of May the transmission fault service light came on again after being rebuild in January 2023. Took it back to AAMCO and was provided the following codes as errors: P0087- Fuel/Rail system pressure; P0217 engine coolant over temperature; P0219 Engine over speed condition, P0732 gear 2 incorrect ratio, P0733 gear 3, 4, 4 all incorrect ratio. They stated my transmission needed to be rebuilt again and was out of warranty.
the instrument panel cluster gets inoperative including a blank multiple functional display (MFD), and non-functional warning chimes, messages and warning lights. The engine cylinder head overheats crack and leak oil. Other 2014 Ford escapes have had recalls for the same issues but they are saying mine isn't affected. Obviously it is.
While driving this vehicle in traffic, the engine began to fail causing the car to abruptly stall. During this incident, the engine light and low coolant indicator illuminated. Vehicles behind my car nearly slammed into the rear of my vehicle due to this engine failure. Upon inspection, two independent certified service centers confirmed engine coolant had been ingested into the cylinder block causing this engine to fail. Upon full investigation, numerous Ford Ecoboost engines have a manufactures defect on top of the cylinder head that causes this problem. This particular engine only has 52,000 original miles.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Hummelstown, PA, USA