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 approximately 45 mph, the wrench indicator light lit up on my instrument panel and I lost power to the wheels. Had vehicle towed to dealership on 1/10/14 where the mechanics diagnosed a throttle body failure.
I was driving about 30 miles an hour and the wrench warning light came on my dashboard. My car started to coast to a stop. I could no longer accelerate or maintain my speed. Luckily, I was able to get to the side of the road safely as my car came to a stop. The electrical was still working. I turned off my car and waited. I placed several calls and found out how to reset. I turned the key, without turning the engine, pumped the gas pedal three times, and turned the car fully off. I then turned the car on, and the light was no longer on. It now seems to be working fine. I am very concerned that this problem will return and could possibly happen on interstate or on a crowded street, and I may not be so lucky.
I was driving along a road and suddenly my car jolted and almost all of my dashboard lights lit up. The engine was on, but nothing was happening. I pushed the accelerator down and nothing, still. As I was pulling off to the side of the road, the car died. I waited five minutes and the engine was able to be restarted. But the engine light stayed on. I had to turn the engine on and off multiple times to restart the engine. This had happened a couple of times before, but nothing as severe.
While driving on surface streets the "wrench" indicator light came on and the car went into limp mode. I got to a parking lot and shut off the engine. After about a minute I restarted the engine, the wrench light went out and all seemed ok. After driving about 6-7 miles on the interstate a repeat of the problem happened. I again shut off the engine. After restarting, I drove for another 6-7 miles and had the car again go into limp mode. After restarting the car the engine light came on and stayed on with no further problems. The next day all lights were off and have stayed off since then. I have made an appointment to have the car looked at on Jan 2, 2014. I feel that this is a very unsafe condition and should be looked at very closely by the NHTSA.
While driving at approximately 70 mph on the interstate, my vehicle suddenly lost acceleration and the gas pedal no longer controlled the speed. Steering and brakes were unaffected. A wrench display appeared on the instrument panel. After coasting to a stop, I turned the car off and back on. Everything functioned properly and the wrench disappeared from the instrument panel. I took the vehicle to a Ford dealership 2 days later and was told it was a defective throttle body assembly.
- Wilson, NC, USA
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My wife was driving are Escape and she was merging on the freeway. While trying to merge on the freeway she was traveling 60 mph almost to highway speeds she went to merge in front of a truck and the Escape stalled. We were almost hit by the truck because the vehicle had lost all power. We took the vehicle to a dealership and the vehicle was diagnosed with a bad throttle body.
Began to run very rough. On July 13, 2013, I experienced a similar problem. Malloy Ford in winchester, va, charged me $310 to clean the throttle body. After doing some research, I see this is a known problem, I'm disgusted with Ford and the dealership.
I was driving down a very busy 5-lane road when all of a sudden a wrench appeared on my dashboard and my car had absolutely no power in the accelerator. It began idling irrationally and my car was shaking. I had it towed to the Ford dealership to be fixed. It is the throttle body that is malfunctioning, and they guaranteed to me that it would happen again if not fixed. They informed me that there have been many vehicles with this same problem. Someone is going to be killed due to this! I was lucky that no one hit me- I could not even get over to the side of the road- my vehicle just had no power at all. If this happens on a highway, this could be horrific! I am extremely disappointed and upset that a recall has not been issued. There have been thousands of complaints, and nothing has been done. Someone is going to be severely hurt or be killed due to this issue!
While driving approx 20 mph in a community to car slowed down to a crawl. It would not travel faster than approx 5 mph. Happened again a week later. Took it to garage the computer read P2111 - throttle actuator control tac system - stuck open. Description; this powertrain control module PCM fault status indicates the throttle plate is at a greater angle than commanded. Possible causes; binding throttle body stuck open, tac motor circuit open, tac motor circuits are cross-wired, tac motor harness circuits are shorted together, damage PCM.
When trying to accelerate, the engine sounds rough. The engine won't accelerate when this occurs. A small wrench icon lights up on the dashboard. I have to pull over, turn off the vehicle, then restart it. It then sounds and drives normally, until the next time this occurs, which can be only days later. It is likely a defective throttle body. I have seen many mentions of this same problem on the internet. It should be a recall.
One night I was driving in a residential area and my car started to rumble, it shook back and forth and the engine started to splutter. Then, the engine choked and the car stalled in the middle of the street. The car shut itself off. Luckily, this happened before I entered the freeway. The check engine light went on and at first I thought it might have been a battery problem. However, after the car shut off I tried to start the car and I was able to drive it for a couple minutes until it started to stall again. This happened three times in one night within a thirty minute time frame. So, I had to wait a while for my engine to cool down. I took it to galpin Ford motors service and they told me they could not diagnose the problem. I went back the second time to get my vehicle re-checked after two days because the problem occurred again and galpin Ford was still not able to resolve the issue. I recently just took it back because my car choked in the middle of an intersection and I am still disappointed by the way galpin Ford services handled the situation. I feel like my life is at risk driving this vehicle. I have researched this make and model for incidents just like mine because I'm sure this is a defect with the Ford Escape models.
I heard a pop sound and there was no response when pressing on the accelerator. Idle was rough, I was able to coast into a parking lot.I let it idle and tried to increase RPM. There was no response to pedal. The car idle roughly. I shut car off and restarted. It cranked longer than normal, like it wasn't getting fuel. Then it ran fine. After about 20 more miles it repeated process, leaving me to coast off the road in traffic. I have a warning light (wrench) meaning throttle body or drive train on my dash during the shut down. I have had this vehicle in Ford repair shops over four times for powertrain repairs, starting before warranty was expired. The last one Ford would not cover the repair under previous warranty, even though the first repair during warranty period was never fixed. Now I am endangering myself and all those around me by the new problem. If the vehicle does this in a center lane a pile up could occur.
First incident: 05/03/2013: Ac stopped working properly. Car sputtered. Stopped. Would not accelerate. Dash lights came on: Battery, wrench, etc. Lost power. Then would accelerate. Pulled over and had towed. Dealer Ford service department inspected. Replaced bad floor actuator motor - CC42.. fixed under warranty as owner was only 3 weeks out of 3 year warranty, with a mileage of only 34,646 miles. (invoice receipt: Test codes performed by dealer: P2111, P2112, monitor pids. Oasis-ssm 32170. Replaced throttle body, reset kam, CC42.) second incident: 11/17/2013: Similar to 05/03/2013 incident. Ac stopped cooling. Turned off car. Tried to start and dash lights came on. Car acted like it would start, sputtered and would not start back up. Waited 30 minutes. Car started back up. Left parked, as felt dangerous situation if were to occur on interstate. Will have towed to my mechanic for inspection. Why, if dealer replaced actuator motor 6 months earlier would same situation occur? there must be another issue causing the actuator motor failure other than the actual motor failure.
The car stalled while driving. The first time it stalled I was driving 65 mph with children in the car with me. After I came to a stop, the car restarted and after driving 2 more minutes it stalled again at 45 mph. After the second stall the engine light came on. I had a diagnostic report done and the report said "throttle actuator control system-stuck closed" and "detected the throttle plate is at a lower angle than commanded." I hope this is resolved quickly. It is not covered under my warranty.
Driving home during rush hour, acceleration was acting odd. Fluttering in a sense. I thought the cold weather may be the cause and it was just warming up. Driving normal it sputtered and slowed down. Wrench light came on. I was able to creep along to a bus stop turn out. Idled rough. I stopped the engine, and waited. It restarted a few minutes later fine, and was able to get home. The whole way rough idle, rough acceleration as well. This could have been so much worse if I was on the freeway. It will be towed tomorrow to Ford to find issue and fix. I sure hope this is covered under warranty.
While driving approximately 70 mph on highway, veh lost power, no acceleration, wrench symbol and check engine light came on, had to coast off to the side of the highway. Turned key off and let sit a couple minutes, restarted and was ok, but intermittently problem recurred until unable to drive more than a few miles between occurrences. Diagnosis was a faulty throttle body. Replaced throttle body and no problems since.
After waiting for traffic signal, I began my turn left. Just past the intersection, I lost power with sort of a chugging motion in the vehicle. I was able to get off the road. The indicator on the instrument panel was of a small wrench, indicating throttle control/powertrain in the manual. I called the dealer and was able to start the car and drive in. The charge for installing ds7Z 9E926 D (throttle body and motor as) was $400.46 plus tax. With less than 38000 miles on this vehicle, I did not expect to have this kind of repair.
I am a homehealth nurse, I work in a very mountainous, rural area where I do not even have cellphone service. I was on a very narrow, curvy road, when the car just quit accelerating, the small wrench appeared on the dash, I was able to coast far enough to get to a wide spot where I could get the vehicle safely out of the road, barely missing an 18 wheel coal truck from hitting me. There was no warning, the vehicle drove fine all day and then it just quit. I was able to turn the car off and restart and attempted to drive it and again this happened 3 times before the check engine light finally came on. The nicest person in the world help me and he was able to detect the problem with his computer and he was able to adjust the throttle into the closed position and then I was able to get the vehicle home without anymore problems. I then took it to a Ford dealership and had the throttle body replaced before I did get killed if this was to happen again. I do wish Ford would just get this part recalled before someone does get killed.
While driving freeway speeds, I lost power. Wrench light came on, engine remained running and I limped to the side of the freeway. When re-starting car, problem disappeared. Took car to private mechanic ([xxx]) and he could not find a problem in the computer history. He suspected throttle linkage. Car drove fine until Oct 25, 2013 when it recurred on the freeway. While coasting in the hov lane, we put vehicle in "neutral" and tried to restart, problem did not resolve. Only after coasting to a stop and putting the vehicle in "park" and restarting would the problem re-set. Very hazardous losing power at freeway speeds and trying to limp to the side. Information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Skyland, NC, USA