CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2005 Escape has problems where the engine shuts down while driving. Ford finally issued a September 2014 recall. Time will tell if the recall fix really solves the problem.
However the 2005 Escape also has a defect where the PCM (Power Control Module) fries at around 100k miles. Ford extended the PCM warranty to 80,000 miles, but only after most owners were past the mileage limit. Now owners are on the hook for the average repair cost of over $2,000 (!!)
1.5
hardly worth mentioning
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
117,363 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.
9/10/12, while driving on the freeway my check engine light came on and my car started running very hard and started shaking and I could feel the car loosing power. I turned the steering wheel towards the right to pull over and as I pressed the gas pedal I could feel the car had shut off. I was able to pull off to the side of the highway and my car smell like something was burning. After sitting for about 15mins the car started and I was able to start the car and drove it at about 40 mph until getting off the exit to go home which was about 10 more miles. I had to continuously press the gas making the car accelerate between 30 to 40mph because the car started to repeat the same thing as I stated earlier. I took the car to the shop 9/13/12 (my car had 153224 miles) and was told there was misfire on #2 coil, so I paid to have the coil changed. 2/15/13 my check engine light came back on and the car was repeatedly hesitating, I took it the shop 2/19/13 (my car had 163071 miles) and had the same misfire code, so I paid to have all three rear coils changed, the owner showed me the old coils & the #2 coil look burned and burst open from the top. After changing the coils the check engine light came back on with the same misfire code for #2 coil and I paid to have it changed again 6/18/13 (my car had 171459 miles). The engine light came back on with the same code and I paid to changed it again 7/12/13 (my car had 173095 miles) after I drove the car about 50 miles the light came back on. I had the code read again on 7/30/13 (my car had 173920 miles) and it gave the same code for a misfire on coil #2. the owner of the shop advised me to take the car to the dealer and explain the problem and check if there has been a recall on the 2005 model. I called the Ford dealership and was told I would have to pay for them to do another diagnostic quoted at $140.
I bought this used car from a dealer, I test drove it before buying, and it was great. Same day when I got home it showed an issue, the car would stall when put into gear. Either reverse or drive, unless U hit the gas pedal at the same time you put gear to keep it on. And it would also stall at any stop I make. I have to keep one foot on break and one on the gas. And the car might be running perfect for 2 or 3 days, and it goes back to stalling. I sign the car out the dealer as is, so I cant take it to them. I decided taking it to Ford for a $97 diagnostic. They said it needs throttle body or try to clean it. They are expensive, so I went to a mechanic to clean it.. it quit having the problem for almost 2 weeks, but when I got on the road to Chicago, 60 miles from home the problem showed back when I stopped at a gas, I really feel is a factory defect after reading all this posts from other customers having similar problems.
The contact owns a 2005 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving 65 mph, the vehicle began to stutter and stalled. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was determined that the transmission control module failed and needed to be replaced. The failure also caused fuel to flood the catalytic converter. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and the current mileages were 126,178.
While driving the car completely went dead. Everything turned off. Had to drift to side of the road. Technician told me it was a PCM problem and needs to replace, coils, plugs and PCM.
The contact owns a 2005 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving approximately 55 mph the vehicle began to decelerate and eventually stalled without warning. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where they advised her that the transmission would have to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 103,000.
- Cleveland, OH, USA
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Was driving my car at 45 miles per hour the car began to sputter and came to very quick halt in the middle of traffic. I had the car towed to my local garage, it was hooked up to a computer diagnostic tool. The trouble codes came up P0351, P0352, P0353, P0354 which I'm being told it will cost me $ $750 to replace all 6 coils, $1100 to replace the PCM module and I will need 6 new spark plugs. These prices don't include labor or diagnostic costs either. In doing some investigation this is a known issue with Ford Motor Company and the emission warranty only covers you for 8 years/80,000 miles. Not sure what a PCM module is or what coils do. Thank you Ford Motor Company for installing faulty parts in my motor when they built it in 2005. Now this is my problem and at my expense...... Ford sent out a tbs regarding the wrong plugs were installed which leads to this issue. Tsb 09-2-6 and tsb 10-18-10 is evidence enough they new there was clearly an issue with the factory installed spark plugs causing rfi damage to the cop's and subsequently the ECM. It appears they were betting that most vehicles would have issues outside the 80,000 mile federal warranty.
The contact owns a 2005 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving approximately 35 mph, a rumbling noise was heard from around the console area. The contact merged to the shoulder of the road and shifted into neutral. The rumbling noise then ceased. The contact also stated that the vehicle was shifted back into drive and the rumbling noise started again. The following day while driving uphill, the noise became louder and all of the gears failed. The vehicle was towed to the contact's home and was not taken to a dealer for a diagnostic testing. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and advised the contact that the vehicle was not included in any recalls. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure and current mileage was 71,104.
I was driving to work on us 41 South when my 2005 Ford Escape just started to buck and would not accelerate, I was going approximately 45 mph and the car just shut off. I could not steer or start it again and was almost hit by an 18 wheel vehicle and killed. I immediately put my flashers on and kept retrying to start the car to get it off the road. This could have killed me and others this morning! this is a Ford Motor Company mechanical issue and they knew about this problem with this model vehicle and choose to not recall it!! how many people have died from this problem that we are not aware of"?" I took the car and had it checked out and they said that Ford issued a bulletin on this exact issue and how to fix it! only now, its going to cost me, the consumer $2000 or more to fix!! I am so upset from it, I am almost paid off on this vehicle and I feel that this issue should be looked into by the attorney general and by the transportation department of safety!
Prior to the incident in question the car had a few days of abnormal behavior including hesitation and rough idle. The incident occurred on christmas eve while I was driving down a two lane highway. While traveling 50 mph the car lost power and although I was terribly scared, I managed to get off the highway safely. I was told that the computer failed (PCM) which is very expensive to fix hence the reason it has been almost a year. I am a retired widow raising my 12 year old granddaughter feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place; not able to afford the repairs and unable to do things without a car. I see that many many others have had this same issue, please help Ford face their neglect with regard to this issue. Thank you
On way home, car shut off while going 35 mph. Coils started to smoke. Towed to nearest dealer and was told all coils, plugs and powertrain module needs to be replaced at $2500. Researched legitimate websites and found many owners with same problem that had fixed more than once at $2500. Was told by dealer that NHTSA only recalls for safety & emissions. This is clearly a safety issue, especially if going a high speed on interstate and car shuts off without warning. Thankfully my kids were not in car.
While driving 45mph the car just cut off is a high traffic area. The car behind me had to swerve to miss rear-ending me! I had my 3 year old daughter w/ me at the time! our mechanic has informed us that apparently Ford Motor Company is aware that bad plugs were installed in these cars and would cause computer failure! nothing was told to us regarding this issue when we purchased the car! when emailed fmc they informed me that this is not a safety issue & a recall is not required. How can this not be a safety issue when the car completely dies w/out warning"?"
The car stopped moving at the posted speed. The catalytic converter disintegrated, and blocked the airflow. The warranty expired 4 months earlier. Ford did not seem interested in either the issue or/ helping resolve it. Should there be a recall?
The contact owns a 2005 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving 10 mph, the vehicle stalled without warning. The vehicle was restarted and it resumed normal function. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection and they stated that the power train control module needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified and they stated that the vehicle was not under warranty. The failure mileage was 100,000.
[xxx] 2005 Ford Escape XLS, fwd had issue with throttle body. It got to the point where I would have to stop the gas pedal just to make it accelerate from a stopped state. This first happened back in November of 2011, and now I can feel it start to get to that point again... I was able to clean it last year with B-12 chemtool which took care of it right away. It was completely gunked but worked like new once I had it cleaned. Guess it is time to do this again... I figured I would report this after seeing a news article on abc regarding the exact same things. Information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
Was driving down the highway, and the vehicle just shut off. Was able to start it, but it would not run right for the first 5 minutes. After leaving it off for a half hour, worked fine. Also happened on 9/6/2012 and 9/23/2012. Loss of all power steering, power brakes, and vehicle hard to control when it is shut off. Asked Ford dealership about what could be done, and they just want me to bring it in. Now impossible to take any where because it wont even start back up. Read online how this has happened to many people, and all the dealership does is take them for 6000 dollars and the problem does not get resolved.
While exiting highway, all lights on dash came on, vehicle started sputtering. Ford dealership hooked up to diagnostic and indicated that the PCM had "blown" and taken all six coils with it. Thus, resulting in upwards to $2500 for repairs for not only a new PCM but also all six coils. Of which, I had 2 replaced less than a year ago. Dealership also indicated that Ford was aware of the problem but it was not classified as a recall. What the heck as I read up on internet and this is indicative to a problem they are aware of and also that occurred in previous years.
While driving home from work, I went to accelerate. Upon reaching 40. I heard a substantial backfire noise, and the engine shut off in the middle of a busy road causing me to block traffic as I coasted almost into a busy intersection. I was able to put it in neutral and restart the engine after coasting for 100+ feet. After which, the engine began running very rough and rugged never being able to accelerate about 30 mph and causing major traffic problems. I took it to a dealership (varsity Ford in ann arbor, mi) and have been told that my 2005 Ford Escape was in trouble. Apparently, my spark plug after being clogged, caused a backfire which blew my ignition coils and sparkplugs and my PCM. I am being quoted $2,200. At my last oil change (3 months ago) varsity Ford told me I was getting close to needing a tune up but it was not necessary that day and that I could wait until my next oil change. I was planning on going this weekend because I was heading out of town. Had I been told the risk was a $400 tune up vs. A $2,200 blown engine, maybe I would have changed the spark plugs. I'm very distraught at the Ford dealership, and now am questioning whether I will ever buy a Ford or work with a Ford dealership.
Our 2005 Ford Escape was purchased new in May 2005. It has been serviced by Ford technicians at Ford dealerships every 5,000 miles, including a recommended transmission flush last year. On a cross country trip, the SUV's transmission exhibited a problem Ford Motor Company (fmc) knows as engine stalling on engagement/stopping. According to a service bulletin dated March 19, 2007, SUVS with this faulty transmission "exhibit an engine stall when coming to a stop or when engaging the engine into drive or reverse. The condition may be intermittent and often occurs after extended drives. There may be no diagnostic codes stored. This may be cause by internal wear in the torque converter which prevents it from locking." This exact failure caused us to be stranded in dangerous heat conditions for hours as we waited for help. However, fmc has known about this problem transmission since 2007, yet as an owner of a car less than two years old, I was never told about it. If I had been informed, I would have taken it years ago for repair prior to going on an extended trip and putting my family in danger. Instead, fmc knowingly allowed vehicle owners to drive with this faulty transmission. Ford-certified tech's failed to diagnose the problem even though they were given the exact symptoms and the potential problem, the torque converter. After techs told me the transmission was fine, the stall occurred repeatedly until total failure just over 1,200 miles later, again, stranding my family on the highway. I became aware of the fault only after a search of other drivers who experienced the same problem. Fmc behaved negligently in failing to inform customers like me, likely to shield itself from costly repairs. In 2007, my car only had 24,500 miles??well within warranty limits. A recall for vehicles of this model year should be ordered and I should be refunded cost of repair.
We were accelerating to get on the interstate when the vehicle suddenly died without warning. No telling what would have happened if we were driving at freeway speeds. We coasted to the breakdown lane and had the vehicle towed to the Ford dealer who stated the computer (PCM), all the coil over plugs (cop) and spark plugs were damaged and needed replacement. This is a known issue as it is described exactly in Ford service bulletin tsb 09-2-6. the spark plugs in the 2005 and 2006 cause radio frequency interference with the PCM which damages the PCM and the other components. The least Ford could have done was notify us that replacing the spark plugs could have prevented this very expensive repair. The problems don't end there. A few days after the repair we were again accelerating to get on the interstate when the vehicle lost power and would not go over 50mph. We brought the vehicle back to the Ford dealer who stated the catalytic converters (there are 3 of them) were clogged due to raw fuel coming in contact with the converters probably due to the previous engine problems. The cost to fix the converters is even more than the cost of the initial repair. We've decided to not have the dealer repair the vehicle as the total cost of all the repairs would exceed the value of the vehicle. We called Ford customer service and they were of no help in this situation. I think Ford should cover the costs of these repairs for an issue knew existed. I don't understand why there hasn't been a recall for this problem as I see that it has happened to a lot of other 2005 Escapes listed in your database. I imagine we will more of these failures as these vehicles age.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Vallejo, CA, USA