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:
9 / 60
Injuries / Deaths:
14 / 0
Average Mileage:
56,186 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.
Car shaking when I accelerate. Car jerking at times upon accelerating. Major oil leak to the point that a car place refused to change my oil due to liability.
Vehicle will completely turn off while driving, battery indicator light comes on, once pulled over the vehicle can be restarted. Had it checked it out and it-??s leaking coolant from a possible cracked block into #2 cylinder. Ford told me that they currently have no programs for me to get this replaced for free. These motors are dangerous and ford needs to address this.
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the Coolant Low message was displayed, and the vehicle then lost motive power. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The contact added coolant and was able to restart the vehicle; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and a case was opened. The failure mileage was approximately 110,000.
I HAVE A 2013 Ford Escape THAT HAS HAD TO HAVE A NEW TRANSMISSION DUE TO ITS SUDDEN AND UNEXPECTED AND WITH NO WARNING FAILURE. 6000 AT FORD DEALERSHIP. THEN THE PROBLEMS WITH COOLANT STARTED. IT WOULD SUDDENLY START OVERHEATING, AND START STALLING. DROPPED DOWN TO TWO MILE AND HOUR TILL YOU LIMP OFF THE ROAD. HAVE TO CONSTANTLY CHECK IT. WILL BE FINE AND THEN SUDDENLY START LEAKING AGAIN. REPLACED COOLANT CAP, COOLANT OVERFLOW TANK, NEW HOSE FOR COOLANT TANK, COOLANT HOSE THAT INSERTS INTO REAR OF ENGINE, STAND PIPE AND BYPASS VALVE.
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the temperature gauge indicated that the vehicle was overheating, prompting the contact to pull over to the shoulder of the roadway. After a visual inspection of the engine compartment, the contact observed that the coolant reservoir was empty. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who determined that coolant was leaking into the cylinders, resulting in damage to the engine and requiring the engine to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. After investigating the failure, the contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 13V583000 (Engine) but the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was 84,000.
- Eastampton Township, NJ, USA
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I have been reaching out to ford for over 9 months my SUV started having issues with shifting at 90,000 and I took it to my local ford dealer 2 (Jefferson Ford Motors) Jefferson Georgia and then once to the Ford office in Winder Georgia both said that until the vehicle broke down they did not see what the problem was however the last time I took it to Jefferson Ford Motor they said they can tell its showing signs of some type of transmission failure at which they could not tell why because they said it was not enough miles to cause that fast forward to November of 2023 I was driving down a busy intersection and the suv stops shifting completely and slammed to a stop in the middle of 6 lanes all coming at my vehicle and nearly causing a horrible accident and unsafe environment to even have it towed ford had recalls on the shifting that caused this very same issue with the same model as my vehicle and they should be liable for this I have wrote letters and called ford spoke to the NHTSA multiple times with absolutely no help from anyone how is this fair to me I can not fix my SUV because I can not afford it I am not asking for ford to cover anything else but do the right thing and fix the issues with the vehicle that caused a near death accident I NEED HELP for someone instead of being ignored!
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated that on two occasions while driving at various speeds, there was an abnormal gasoline odor inside the cabin of the vehicle. Additionally, the contact stated on another occasion while driving at various speeds the vehicle lost power. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 127,000.
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated that when the vehicle was started, the engine started driving roughly. In addition, the contact stated that she continuously had to keep refilling the coolant reservoir because the vehicle was consuming excessive amounts of coolant. The vehicle was taken to the independent mechanic where it was diagnosed with internal coolant leak. The contact was informed that in order to provide a full failure diagnosis, the engine would need to be taken a part. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 144,000.
The transmission will sometimes fail to engage immediately after putting the vehicle in drive or reverse. If the driver steps on the gas pedal, the transmission jerks violently to engage. Also while driving, the transmission will have a slight slipping before allowing acceleration. No OBD codes appear and no dashboard warning messages appear. In addition to the transmission problem, I obtained a P0234 and P0299 OBD code. This code is for the turbocharger overboost solenoid, which I had replaced, but the code has returned.
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle failed to exceed 30 MPH. The engine overheated message was displayed, and the check engine warning light was illuminated. The contact was able to drive to the residence. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who replaced the water pump. After the repair was performed, the contact and his passengers detected an abnormally strong oil odor while driving. The contact and his passengers suffered from headaches; however, medical attention was not received. Additionally, while driving, there was smoke coming from underneath the hood. The vehicle was taken to another independent mechanic, who determined there was an oil leak. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 13V583000 (Engine); however, the VIN was not included in the recall. The failure mileage was approximately 133,000.
The Turbocharger Wastegate Regulating Valve Solenoid has been intermittently forcing a OBD2 code P0234. The solenoid location has not been determined and why the code goes away and then comes back later after driving the vehicle after clearing the code is not determined either. Ford charges more for this part than any other parts houses. The dealer labor is also costing just as much as the part ($200). This is a problem that is currently happening to quite a few Escape owners.
- Valve cover needs to be replaced - Spark plugs needs to be replaced - Power reduced message pops up probably from spark plugs - Says transmission fault probably from valve cover leaking transmission fluid - Left rear speed sensor - Turbo charger/super charger underboost - invalid data received from steering angle sensor module message popped
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated that after driving the vehicle for an extended period, the vehicle would hesitate without warning upon depression of the accelerator pedal. The contact initially took the vehicle to a dealer where they informed the contact that the turbo booster needed to be replaced. Despite the turbo booster replacement, the failure persisted. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer for a second time; however, the dealer was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and the contact was given a case number. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was unknown.
I had issues with my turbo in July. It needed to be fully replaced. One week ago, is started leaking coolant. White smoke was coming from the exhaust. Last night while driving on the highway, it would not accelerate and threw an error code saying cylinder three misfire detected. I had to stop on the side of the highway in the middle of the night in pitch black with no streetlights due to no fault of my own. Car is no longer drivable until fixed.
2013 Ford Escape SE, So according to my local Ford dealership, which is where this vehicle was purchased, this particular year/model has an issue with the engine where coolant will leak into the head and warp the head seizing a spark plug(s), which customers will not find out about until it comes time to actually replace the spark plugs. Our vehicle has less than 100,000 miles on it, and was purchased in full (no loan/lease). This is a pretty BIG manufacturer's defect. It is also (according to my local Ford dealership), a common problem, but not common enough for ford to do anything about it. Someone buys a product and it has a manufacturer's defect, but won't do anything to correct it that's pretty crappy, leaving people like me that is laid off to try to foot a bill of several thousand dollars for something that again, should be fixed by ford. Again according to my local Ford dealership, Ford changed some things in manufacturing after learning about this. After calling my local Ford dealership and then Ford corporate, all they told me is A. there's no extended service program on my vehicle and that it was only offered on select VINs, and B. Call NHTSA. (So basically pushing this off on other's/another agency.). Also note, my local Ford dealership, NOR Ford corporate are willing to give me anything in writing. (I wonder why). (Note to NHTSA, I am Joe, filling this out for my father, the vehicle owner.)
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Wooster, OH, USA