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.
Operator was traveling on 4 lane highway using the far left lane. Vehicle suddenly and without warning lost all power and would not respond to accelerator pedal. Operator had to pull over to far left with traffic behind nearly crashing into vehicle. "wrench" symbol appeared briefly on dash display. Operator turned vehicle ignition off and then on. Vehicle ran normally for 10 or so miles, then went into fault condition again while traveling over 40 mph. Vehicle was returned to dealership for service and diagnosed with faulty throttle body. Repaired at owners expense for $514. Ford customer service would not repair vehicle or offer any assistance under powertrain warranty claiming that this condition was not covered. This is clearly a safety issue that has resulted in numerous complaints by owners of Ford Escape vehicles, as well as several reported accidents to include personal injury. Ford is and has been aware of this faulty part and has done nothing to correct it or respond to it's customers complaints. NHTSA should force an immediate recall before someone is seriously hurt or killed due to this defective part.
I was traveling on interstate at 65-70 mph, when my Escape's RPM's all of a sudden dropped to 1 and would not react to the gas pedal, luckily I was in the slow lane and managed to coast off the interstate. There was an 18-wheeler behind me and I started to panic at the speed he was gaining on me. I finally managed to get my hazards on to notify him that I was having issues. If I had not have been in the slow lane I would not have been able to get off the interstate before the car stopped completely. This is very dangerous, if I had been in the far left lane or the middle lanes the car could have stopped in the middle of the interstate. I took the vehicle to the Ford store and they informed me that it was the throttle body. I then googled the problem and found out that this is a real issue with a large majority of the vehicles not just a limited faulty part. I don't understand how Ford cannot see that this is a safety issue if someone goes to make a left turn and this happens another car could crash into them. Anytime your car does not react properly it becomes a safety issue. When an 18-wheeler is behind a vehicle that responds the way mine did today it is a safety issue. As you know a fully loaded tractor trailer cannot stop as easily as a passenger vehicle and if the vehicle in front of them all of a sudden looses power and cannot get out of their way there is going to be an accident. Once I got stopped my car did restart but getting to that point was very scary.
On August 29, 2013 driver of a 2011 Ford Escape was attempting to turn left and accelerate the vehicle from a stoplight when the car jerked forward and would not accelerate or go with flow of traffic, and with traffic moving behind the vehicle creating dangerous situation. The dashboard showed a wrench light, and driver found it hard to move car forward as it went into "limp home" mode, sputtering all the way. The car was finally moved to the side of the road, shut off, and restarted, and driven the 3 miles home. Owner will take car to the dealership (carmax). Driver assumes will find throttle body code. The part and service should be covered under extended warranty. However, driver/owner will be out of pocket for deductible $250. Family was in car and this is definitely a safety concern on this vehicle. When it goes into limp mode there is no warning and may cause an accident when the vehicle suddenly decelerates to snail speed. I believe Ford must recall the faulty throttle body in the 2009-2011 models as they are safety issues for drivers in the car and other drivers on the road.
Wednesday August 28, 2013-I was going down my street headed to work-I had just pulled out of the driveway. Maybe going 15-20 miles per hour. Then the Escape jolted forward like it was going to stall and shut off. It did not start back up right away like it is supposed to. Thursday August 29, 2013-jolted, stalled, and shut off 3 different times today. One of those times, the vehicle was on the highway and a semi truck was coming up behind me and almost hit me! very scary!!! unsafe!! as I have been researching this problem, I have noticed that this is a common problem with this make, model, and year. Is it going to take someone losing their life for someone to do something about this problem?! Ford needs to step up and right their wrong and quit ignoring it.
Stalling and surging without warning while I was in heavy traffic. Warning light came on looked like a wrench. This happened three times was able to get into parking lot and had car towed to Ford dealer for repair. Dealer indicated was throttle auto body problem and parts will not be in for 10 days due to a national back order on the same part (s). I have taken great care of this car and was livid it could have such a serious problem at age 2 and 65,000 miles, obvious wide spread problem with same make/model throughout the nation due to national back order. My complaint is the dangerous position the stalling put me in during heavy traffic, due to national back order I must rent car to get to work at a cost of $300 and the resistance of Ford to step up to the plate and do a recall. I am sure someone has been harmed by this fault and Ford must rectify the problem, I was lucky.
- Mount Airy, MD, USA
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On August 21, 2013 driver of a 2011 Ford Escape was attempting to turn and accelerate the vehicle from a stoplight when the car jerked forward and would not accelerate with oncoming traffic, and with traffic moving behind the vehicle. The dashboard showed a wrench light, and drive found it hard to stop car as it was sputtering and jerking forward. The car was finally moved to the side of the road, shut off, and restarted, and drive the 10 miles home. Owner took car to the dealership where throttle body code was discovered. This part is not covered under powertrain warranty, thus owner fix cost is $600. This is a safety concern on the vehicle, when it goes into safe mode there is no warning and can cause an accident when the vehicle suddenly decelerates to under 1000 RPM. I believe Ford should recall the faulty throttle body in the 2009-2011 models as they are safety issues for drivers in the car and other drivers on the road.
Since my first incident on 7/24/13 this has now happened multiple times. The vehicle loses power and the gas pedal does nothing. The small wrench icon comes on. I immediately thought power train and after some basic research see all of the documented issues concerning the throttle body. These issues exactly match mine. Today, the vehicle stalled and died in the middle of a very busy intersection while my wife was driving with our 9 month old baby. If there are this many issues this is unacceptable! after calling the Ford dealership there is no recall on this item. I can't believe I am having a problem on a 40,000 mile vehicle and that thousands of others have the same issue.
I was driving down the interstate at 65 mph and my Escape just started decreasing in speed, and I tried to accelerate and it would not gain any speed at all. I tried to make it to the next exit, but that did not happen because the power was continuing to decrease. I was glad I was already in the far right lane and could pull over to avoid an accident! once I pulled over the wrench light came on and the truck started to shake, I turned it off and let it sit for 15 min, it restarted and I had to have someone follow me to get home because it kept shutting off. I took it to the dealership only to find out it's not covered under warranty! hopefully Ford will find a solution to this problem and get it corrected asap!
Was at the stop light, light turns green press the gas pedal car did not move I was almost rear ended by another vehicle. Wrench light was on dash board car start to putter would not accelerate. Coasted out of the middle of the street and then the transmission light was on dash board, had to get car towed home. Found out it was the throttle body and it is a defect from the manufacturer, but Ford will not replace the consumer is responsible for replacing and it has an out of pocket fee of $548 to get the problem fixed.this is very dangerous, I was lucky I am afraid to drive the truck do not want this to happen to me again. Ford should at least try and come up with some type of solution to this problem.
I was driving on the highway when all of a sudden I could not gas my car. Traffic was heavy and I nearly caused two accidents trying to maneuver to the emergency lane. I an not able to drive my car far from home nor on a highway as it chooses to repay this at random.
While driving on the interstate @ 70 mph, I experienced a sudden loss of acceleration with a lack of throttle response and the illumination of a solid orange "wrench" symbol on the dash display. I was able to maneuver the vehicle to the break down lane and activate the emergency flashers. The vehicle was still running @ idle but still would not allow throttle response. I decided to shut off the engine since I was already stranded. Upon doing so, I restarted the vehicle and it performed the self-checks and seemed to be operating normally, so I resumed my journey. This occurred 7 more times within the remaining 40 miles I drove it (I was attempting to "nurse" the vehicle to my home, which was accomplished). During the last occurrence, I observed a solid yellow "engine" symbol in addition to the previously described "wrench" symbol. This is obviously an extremely dangerous issue which appears to be a wide spread problem and Ford Motor Co. Should stand up and take responsibility if it wishes to build it's repeat customer base and avoid responsibility for injuries or deaths.
At first, while driving, the car would shut down and not respond to throttle movement, a huge safety issue in traffic. After pulling over and restarting the car, the problem seemed to go away for a while. The problem seemed to be intermittent the first few times. Finally the car shut down to an idle and would not respond to throttle movement and the wrench and engine lights came on. The car would only run limp mode. The odb codes read a P2111 and P2112 (throttle actuator control stuck open, and throttle actuator stuck closed) respectively. We had to tow the vehicle to the dealer. We were told that the entire throttle body had to be replaced at a cost of $666. The problem is that the part is unavailable for 2 weeks and maybe up to a month. We have 39000 miles on the vehicle, the warranty ran out at 36000. This issue is also not covered under the power train warranty. This seems to be a widespread issue and I am disappointed that Ford is unwilling to make this right and produce a recall.
While traveling along at 55 mph, the engine suddenly lost all power and started running rough. The "wrench" warning light identified in my owner's manual as "powertrain" lit up and the vehicle just would not respond to accelerator whatsoever. I managed to coast to a side road and exit to the right. Once stopped, I put it in park and restarted the engine. It immediately restarted and I was able to continue with no further problems that day. I contacted the dealer, but they informed me since it was out of warranty, there was a $95 charge to just check the codes! I took it to my regular mechanic who scanned it and no codes appeared. It has since happened 5 more times, progressively getting more frequent. This past Friday (16 Aug) I had it back at my mechanic who cleaned the throttle body/system and changed the oil. Yesterday (19 Aug) it again lost power and then again today - and today I narrowly avoided a collision due to the sudden drop in speed while driving in commuting traffic! I drive a significant amount daily to/from work and I am now extremely nervous about starting home after the incident this morning. This is most definitely a safety issue and Ford needs to address it immediately! I researched the problem online and there's a huge amount of other people with the same issue!!!!
Vehicle shuts down or does not respond to accelerator. You turn it off wait a few minutes, start it again and it gets moving. Problem occurred twice in one day. 10 days later the problem re-emerged three times.
On four separate occasions, while accelerating the throttle gave out. The vehicle had no power to move forward, except what was left from the original speed. On one of theses occasions, I was on a major highway in the DC area when the throttle gave out. I turned on my hazards and pulled over. Thankfully the cars behind me had enough room not to crash into me. I then turned off the car. Once restarted, it seemed to stall a bit and then drove normally until the next incident. There have been 4 incidents within 5 days, all seeming to happen at random. The "wrench" flashes once the throttle goes out, but then doesn't appear once the car is back on and everything seems normal. Ford has given me problems, saying this falls outside my warranty and I may have to pay for the repair myself. They also wont see me for a week, when this merits immediate attention. I just bought this vehicle in March 2013, after this problem had already been reported by thousands of existing owners. Had I know about this problem, I would not have purchased this vehicle because it is so unsafe.
While driving at interstate speeds (65 mph), the vehicle just seemed to stop, but the engine was still running. I had just gone over a bridge and was able to coast down and pull off the side of the road. A yellow wrench was displayed in the instrument panel. I turned the vehicle off and removed the key. After waiting for a minute, I was able to start the vehicle and return home. This has happened three times now. I called the dealership who informed me that this was not covered by warranty and they have had several repairs related to this. So much that the technician knew the part number by heart and was able to provide a quote without doing any paperwork or even looking at the vehicle. I live on the coast where there are several bridges and tunnels. Had I chose to drive through the tunnel instead of taking the bridge, I have no doubt that this issue would have caused a very bad accident. There needs to be a recall on this and Ford needs to step up and fix the problem instead of making a killing off the unsuspecting consumer at the sum of over $400 a pop.
I was driving on an interstate at approximately 75 mph, when the engine of my 2011 Ford Escape seemingly shut down. The gas pedal stopped working. A small golden wrench icon lit up to the left of the RPM gauge. I pulled over and as I slowed, the car jerked. I turned the car off; took out the keys and waited a few minutes. The engine had a little extra trouble to restart; but it did within 30 seconds. Two days later, a diagnostics test at my Ford dealership showed the throttle body needed to be replaced; but I was told the part was on a national back order. The same incident repeatedly happened for a total of about 10 times, before the part was at the dealership and able to be replaced. The part was replaced more than two weeks after the diagnostics test and initial incident.
While driving my 2011 Ford Escape suddenly lost all power (almost felt like a stall) and the wrench light on the dash was illuminated. I pulled to the side of the road, turned it off, and after turning the vehicle back on it operated as normal. This has happened three times over the past week.
Engine suddenly reduces to high idle - throttle totally unresponsive. Turning engine off and restarting temporarily restores performance. I endorse the ongoing NHTSA investigation of this well known problem which is a severe safety threat as the vehicle unpredictably looses all power in the middle of other traffic.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Chantilly, VA, USA