CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2013 Ford Escape has been in the news quite a bit and for all the wrong reasons. Within a few months of its release the SUV was recalled three times, twice because of engine fires.
In July 2012, due to a fuel line that could split and leak, Ford told owners to park their cars because even driving to the dealership for repairs was deemed too dangerous. Instead, in a somewhat unprecedented move, Ford sent tow trucks to pick up the affected vehicles and handed out rental cars while the owners waited for repairs.
A few months later the Escape was recalled again because antifreeze could leak out onto the engine due to a freeze plug becoming dislodged. As the coolant hit the hot engine there was, once again, a threat for fire.
The 2013 is the first model year of the Escape's 3rd generation and proves once again that you want to avoid the first model year when at all possible.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 2
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
65,166 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.
Last night leaving from work, in the dark at 9;30pm, started car and started to pull off the shoulder onto the roadway, pressed onto gas pedal and car went slow then the ABS sensor came on and a short distance later the traction control came on along with hill assist not available. I had this exact problem earlier this year, only the addition of the 4WD not being available and it was a bad ABS sensor. I had it replaced and have had no problems until last night. Then this morning, I had to back up to go to work and the rear end stopped the car and had there not been enough room I would have been stuck. I was able to go forward the ABS light came on, short distance later the traction control came and then when I went to park the no hill assist came on. Nothing visibliy wrong again. Appointment in the morning to have the codes read again.
Today after 10 minutes of successful, normal Suburban driving, and a stop for lunch, my ABS, traction control, hill start assist, and auto 4WD systems all threw warnings of malfunction. The warnings appeared after having been waiting in a drive-through line for about 20 minutes, and power off in the vehicle for about 30 minutes thereafter. Audible and physical indications of problem were thumping noise in right-rear wheel, and difficulty in making forward motion at low speed in a zero-slope parking lot. Visual check found no problems with tire inflation or obstacles in straight path of travel. Manual check of lug-nuts by hand without tools found none loose. After conferring with a local shop I trust, I was able to travel 1/2 mile without incident to their location. Audible and physical indications were present at the beginning of the trip, but all cleared after I got underway. Warnings on dash remained present. Shop was able to reproduce indications, but could not find any cause during detailed visual inspection of chassis and brake systems. I have scheduled an electrical diagnostic on the systems for next week, to attempt to find the cause of this set of conditions. Shop thinks a faulty ABS sensor, tone plate, or wiring may be the cause, which makes the brakes engage intermittently without input from the driver.
Engine randomly shuts off while in motion. Ford surprisingly 'can't' reproduce the problem. It's very dangerous and most of the time leaves us stranded in the middle of the road. A couple times it has left us in the middle of busy intersections. Only 87K miles.
- Mobile, AL, USA
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Car cuts off/looses power also have to constantly put engine coolant in and change transmission fluid engine will run hot, electrical system issues doors unlock, can not drive over 35mph, fuel system putting gas in car will not start automatically have to pump gas pedal causing unsafe travel
I brought this 2013 Ford Escape truck in August 21st 2018 it had 77095 miles when it was under warranty still after we brought the truck the engine light came on in the beginning of September 3, 2018 I went up there to don davis Nissan when this truck was still under warranty and told don davis Nissan that the engine light on there was on they told me that I had to pay for it out of my pocket and I told them why should me and my day pay for something and the truck was under the warranty still they refuse to fix it I being calling them numerous of times from September 3, 2018 and 2019 about this truck and it was still under warranty at that time so around October 28, 2019 I was leaving from the library doing my homework and I have not eaten anything that day so I went to get me something to before I went home as I was driving I heard the belt broken off as I was driving I was almost in a accident when the cars were driving down the street so I pull over on a street I didn't have enough money for a tow truck so I slept in my truck which was October 27, 2019 until the next day which was October 28 2019 a good samaritan help push my truck to don davis Dodge so the people at don davis Dodge told me it was about 450 to fix my truck which means that I had to use my truck note money to get that fix so around in November I brought a sensor that goes on their which was causing my truck to leak oil which they didn't not replace the first time when I brought this truck in August 20, 2018 when I told them about this problem the first time and they refuse to fix it so I brought the sensor last month and put it on their so this year of January 7th 2020 I am on my way home and I hear the same response of the belt broken off again after I replaced the belt and the sensor now it is leaking oil again and I been complaining to don davis Nissan numerous of times about this truck
Car has been stalling out out of nowhere with a full tank of gas. Usually it will start to putter and then it loses power and completely stalls. I have to put it in park and restart the car. This happened to me while pulling onto a busy state route hwy out of my parents driveway, almost causing my 5 year old son and I to be hit by cars coming down the highway at 60 mph. Luckily I was able to roll into the driveway nextdoor before the cars could hit me. There is only 125,000 miles on my car. The Ford mechanic said this is a known issue and has to do with the electrical system and sensors. This is very dangerous and I couldn't be more upset.
My car constantly stalls. It stalled periodically but I thought well maybe it's was because of how hot it was outside. But that it's the case. I can be at a light stopped, driving down the street/expressway and it'll start to lose stutter and stall out with only the battery light and oil lamp light coming on. Sometimes itll start right back up others it has it sit and cool down. Even tho my engine isn't reading hot or anything along those lines. Everything reads fine. I've taken to multiple shops and finally just 5 days ago to a Ford dealer who had my car for almost 3 days and all he could say is it looks like I could possibly have a cracked water pump! they need to do something for us with the 1.6 it seems to be the same exact thing going on with the 2.0. today when my car stalled my oil dipstick was smoking
My check engine light came on and I received an error reading stating my engine coolant is low. I checked coolant and it is full. My car started to stall while I was driving it. I looked up info on this website which mimicked my issues exactly. The Ford recall campaign number is 12S41. I called Ford Motor Compay customer relationship center and asked them about my car and explained the problems and how they mimicked the recall listed above. They said my car was not included in that. I informed them that it was a 2013 Escape which shows to fall under it and they told me that my car probably didn't get made with the same parts and may have been made at a different time. I will now have to pay out of pocket and I have a hard time doing that since obviously the symptoms mimic the recall. My vehicle is in motion when it stalls out and tells me my system is overheating and to pull over. It is a random thing. It can happen when just started or when I'm driving down the road.
I was driving my family from houston, tx to san antonio, tx on July 5th 2019 for the holiday weekend in my 2013 Ford Escape sel with the 6F35 transmission. We were about 1 hour & 30 minutes into our trip, 108 miles, from our home near the city of flatonia, tx when our transmission horrifically failed. While I was driving I noticed the transmission had a made a hard shift into 6th gear. It had jumped a couple of times until I accelerated and then it finally shifted into 6th gear. The next sign of trouble was when the dash screen told us the lane change sensor was failing. Next we started noticing a faint burning smell coming into the cabin, we weren't sure what it was. A minute later all the warning lights turned on in the dash screen. I immediately put on my turn signal so I could get to an exit and when trying to accelerate out of the way of traffic, I realized my Ford Escape was not responding to the acceleration pedal. It would not accelerate at all. So now I couldn't shift and my gas pedal was not functioning. I finally reached the nearest exit turned on my hazard lights and proceeded to coast into the nearest gas station since my gas pedal was not functioning. As soon as I stopped & turned off my SUV, white smoke was coming from the engine bay. I quickly got my wife and 1 yr old daughter out of the SUV and ran away from the vehicle. Thankfully the smoke stopped and I opened the hood and saw transmission oil all over the top of the transmission. It was so hot it was boiling in the crevices where it had settled. This transmission is supposed to have "a special blend of transmission fluid maintenance free for the life of the gearbox." A couple days prior the transmission would jump erratically when shifting from 2-3 gear and from 5-6 gear even though it was an automatic transmission.but I had taken it to a Ford dealer and they didn't help at all.
"takata recall" the car will stall while im driving and the dash window will state faulty engine. The car is able to turn off and im able to turn it back on.
Informational display behind steering started flickering and now does not light up so I cannot see mileage or anything else thats going on with vehicle. I have attached a pic of what my display shld look like, however the middle display in my vehicle is black, nothing will display. The flickering started last month and now my display is completely black/blank
I have a transmission fault service soon error ! the car seems to think its in park while driven. It staules seems that it is slipping out of gears by its self
At every fill up the car stalls.now I have to hold the gaz to a certain level to avoid stalling after every fill up.if I ever let the pump to automatically fill the tank and stop itself I get in a lot of troubles for day.the idéale is bad and the car stalls now in stead of filling my tank to 12 or 13 gallons I have to stop the pump at 10 or 11 gallons to avoid the inconvenience of having car idling hard and even stalling
02/03/2019 I purchased the car 12/31/2018. These things occurred in the vehicle when it was stationary, taking off and excelling, in motion, on a city street and on a highway (interstate), driving straight, turning, braking, and on inclines and down hill. It also involves fuel/propulsion, engine, speed control, suspension, wheels. It started with the dash lighting up with no key in it. Then it started a hard idle almost shutting down the vehicle. Since I had it in last week, there is rattling, popping, grinding sounds with grabbing and pulling under the back of the car. Now it is the traction and intelligence control all wheel warnings and shutting down the control on its own. It stalls in traffic while the computer attempts corrections that fail to correct it. It has slid from one side of an off ramp to the other side, because the traction/all wheel intelligence could not get traction. I could not control the car. Grateful there was no one in the other lane. It is putting my life and everyone around me in serious danger of being killed. I have mentioned some of the issues prior to the last service on it and taken it to (purchased from) jarrett gordon Ford winter haven, fl and (work done at) jarrett scott Ford plant city, fl. I am told they can't diagnosis it unless it is doing this with them. I will be taking it back in tomorrow with all the new issues going on with it. It is seriously dangerous and getting progressively worse. I've already had the oil changed, transmission fluid drained and refilled, fuel induction, injector serviced (it did not help with fuel consumption), tune-up, plugs changed (did not help), coolant flush. This needs to be addressed before I die or any others die as a result of this vehicles issues. These liability issues belong to Ford company, not me. All this since I purchased it 12/31/2018 proof of contacting 6 + members of the dealerships.
This car showed a problem around March 2017 when it randomly stalled and did while in park at a parking lot. After that it would run fine for months at a time and then I would have the same problem of it stalling out and dying while parked or when the car was in park. I have replaced the battery 2 times in the last 2 years and something keeps frying my battery. The problem has escalated in the last 6 months to the point where the car now just dies while driving without any real warning and is unsafe to drive. I tried taking it to a Ford dealership and they could not figure it out and had a hard time recreating what I had described was happening. They told me to replace the fuel pressure sensor, but it had already been replaced 2 weeks prior to it going to that dealership. They basically told me to throw money blindly at the engine to the tune of 3K to 4K or trade it in on something else. Those were the options given to me by Ford. The problems did not really start until after 80K miles and the car is worse once it has been running for a little while, gets worse when you run the heater and game over if the ac or defrost are on. My mpg are horrible but I dont even know for sure because I will look at the gas gauge turn the car off and when I come back from letting it sit the amount of fuel showing has gone back up considerably. Also my mils to empty randomly went from the gas light turning on at 30 miles to empty to 50 miles to empty. My car acts like it has a traumatic brain injury and one moment it seems ok and the next is all over the place. We cant even drive it anymore because it is too dangerous and unpredictable.
Engine hesitates, stumbles, or loses power. The check engine light will be illuminated. Have replaced ecoboost sensor and still have the same problems. I do not feel that it is safe to drive this car.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Warrenton, OR, USA