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.
Driving down a congested interstate the vehicle stopped working at the same time "stop immediately" was scrolling across the instrument cluster. There is not sufficient time to make adjustments in traffic. It is a very dangerous with little room for error in city traffic as I feel lucky to be alive after the vehicle stopped working a total of six times before making it home.
While driving at highway speeds for about 20 minutes, the gasoline engine died and a warning light came on saying to pull off the road safely. There was no other warning light (no high temperature warning). I drove slowly on electrical engine power until there was a safe place to pull off the road. After a few minutes parked there with the car turned off, I tried to start the car again. It started and I was able to drive home. I took the car to a dealer and he could see no reports in the computer and no evident cause for the engine to fail. He said to watch the temperature gauge. However, there is not a constant temperature gauge - it only comes up on the screen when there is a problem (and it did not come up when the engine failed). A week later, again on a longer drive (more than 20 minutes) at highway speeds, the car stalled and I was forced to pull over. The danger of pulling over on a multilane freeway is very scary. Over the next 30 minutes, I re-started the car and pulled back into traffic, only to have the gas engine die 5 more times. Eventually I was able to get home and take the escape in to a Ford dealership. The dealership immediately diagnosed it as a failure of the coolant pump and replaced it for $500. The mileage of my car was about 53,000 miles.
My 2008 Ford Escape hybrid (53,000 miles) is dangerous to drive. While driving 70 mph on I-5 I hear a popping sound and suddenly all ability to accelerate is lost. A red exclamation point within a triangle appears on the control panel and a sincerely bizarre message displays itself: "please pull over safely". this is quite the challenge with 18 wheelers behind me, to the side of me, and other cars all around. With quick reflexes, I am able to get over two lanes and slowly (I think only the electric engine is working, no gas) drive off the next exit. Sitting in the car, I am in shock. What just happened" will it happen again" because we are on our way home from Oregon to the East bay area in ca, we attempt to get back on the freeway and make our way South. Within 40 minutes the same failure happens again, only this time there isn't an exit ramp. We are on the side of an busy two-lane southern traveling freeway. Once safely to the side, the car restarts and appears to be functioning properly. Now I am afraid to drive it, but want to get home. I decide to go a little under the speed limit (a hazard) and stay in the left lane. After the car fails and tells me to "pull over safely now" for the 5th time, I decide I can't take it anymore. We call Ford's roadside assistance number and wait two hours (yes! two hours!) for a tow truck, only to be called back by an automated dispatch that gives us the name of a different towing service that estimates its arrival time in 2 hours (the first company apparently had to go to a police emergency tow, but I believe they didn't agree on a decent wage for the service). Not wanting to wait 2 more hours, I attempt to drive again. Within 10 minutes, the car fails and we are lucky enough to glide to an off ramp and into a gas station parking lot. Thank goodness we didn't get any further; the next stretch of freeway had no shoulder at all and the next part was a long bridge. Car is now at dealer waiting for mon appt.
I was driving my 2008 Ford Escape hybrid on the high way and it stalled 3 times at high speeds. "stop safely now" came on dash. I did tons of research and this is a huge problem with the motor over heating. Ford had backorders up to nearly 900 coolant pumps last year. This is very scary because you just lose power in the middle of he highway. Toyota just recalled theirs, why has Ford not been on this. It is all over the internet. I am bringing my car in to the dealership with printed research and a letter of concern. I am blown away that so many people have had this issue with the stalling at high speeds and Ford has done nothing. This is very concerning.
The contact owns a 2008 Ford Escape hybrid. While driving approximately 55-70 mph, the engine stalled and there was a beeping chime heard in the vehicle followed by a message displayed on the instrument panel instructing the contact to stop and pull over safely. The vehicle was coasted to the side of the road and the engine was restarted. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer where the electronic cooling pump was being replaced. The failure mileage was 63,000. The VIN was unavailable.
The contact owns a 2008 Ford Escape hybrid. The contact stated that the auxiliary cooling pump failed which caused the gasoline engine to shut down as it was electric. The electric motor still functioned but the gasoline engine would stall. When the failure occurred, a message on the instrument panel warned the contact to pull over safely. The contact was able to drive home but could only drive 7-8 miles before they would have to pull over again and let it sit. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer who stated that the cooling pump had failed. The vehicle was repaired at the contact's expense. The failure mileage was 52,961 and the current mileage was 53,045.
Driving off road up a steep incline (40-45 degrees), the vehicle came to a halt. There wasn't any power going to the tires even though I had the accelerator pedal to the floor. The engine RPM would only rev up to about 1200 RPM. It felt as if there was a disconnect between the transmission and the engine as there was no power being delivered to the tires. The tires did not loose traction or spin either. What was especially unsafe about this is that it was extremely hazardous backing down the steep hill I had tried to ascend. I was trying to back down slowly by using the brake, but many times the brakes would lock up causing the vehicle to shift and slide sometimes sideways which could have caused the vehicle to roll. I tried to again to no avail. This vehicle is used by the us forest service in which many times the vehicle is required to go of road on forest service roads. There is a section in the owner's manual about off road driving, but it makes no mention that the vehicle should not be driven up steep inclines.
The contact owns a 2008 Ford escape. The contact stated that the motor electric pump froze and caused the engine to shut down. There were no warnings prior to the failure. The dealer stated that the part was on back order since this was a common failure on the vehicle. The failure mileage was 81000. The current mileage is 83202. Updated 11/05/10 updated 11/05/10 updated 11/17/10
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Independence, MO, USA