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Hybrid Vehicles Ford Escape Hybrid Ford Escape Hybrid Maintenance & Repair Ford Escape Hybrid Brake Problems
131 messages, Last post on Nov 10, 2009 at 11:36 AM
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Replying to: bubkis (Nov 29, 2007 1:51 pm) No regrets about my FEH. Stephen |
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Replying to: bubkis (Nov 29, 2007 1:51 pm) if you use that logic.....you may never purchase any vehicle...because none of them are perfect and they all may have some technical/design weakness the can sound widespread and dangerous when discussed in detail conversely, you may be safer in an FEH if you purchased it and knew to have the brake system checked (?) when you purchased it I have read many postings from folks that live in the mountains of Colorado and have owned their FEHs safely for over 3 years now. 
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Replying to: mecheng1 (Nov 30, 2007 7:31 am) You bring up a good point. However, Brakes or lack of brakes is a pretty big deal. I am confident its not on all FEH but I don't want to be in that 1%to X% that have the issue. If it were a faulty window or even a stalling engine those are significantly less worry some than bad brakes. Looking around other small suv forums (i am researching for purchase) CRV, Rav4 etc, they have their own issue forums. But what seem to be Chronic Brake problems putting folks at risk does not seem to come up in the other forums so much. Brake are like air. You can't live (long) without it, especially going over Colorado mtn passes, not to mention driving hwy speeds in everyday traffic w kids in the back. Not to be overly dramatic, but bad brakes is troubling. I will do some more research and take your good advice. I really like the form and function of the FEH but seeing (and not seeing on CRV/Rav4) these posts on failing brakes (a staple feature for an automobile) does give me pause. Not to mention if bleeding the brakes is a possible solution, does one have to always go to Ford for this service vs a non-ford service station. I will indeed heed your advice to expand my data points though. If I buy a FEH it will be new so I know the history and warranty. Thx Bubkis.
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I am a cab driver and one night a week I drive an Escape Hybrid. We have a few of these in our fleet of cabs. This is the ultimate test of a car because they are driven continuously, about 20 hours/day 365 days per year. I am not sure what year model this Escape is but it is probably 2005 or 2004 and it currently has over 200,000 miles on it. We put over 100,000 miles on a car in a year. I have driven three of the Escapes that we have in our fleet and all of them have over 200,000 miles. I love driving these cabs and the only real issue I have is that when you break the car clunks. I don't know how else to explain it. You apply the breaks and instead of a steady slow down you get ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk. They stop ok but they both make this sound and it jerks the car as it make this sound. Yesterday I took my Escape cab out and as I got onto the freeway the car started to shake really bad. Sort of like the ka-chunk only continuous. This only lasted a few seconds so I continued on my way. I traveled maybe 2 miles, had exited the fwy, turned a corner and again the car started to shake. This time it would not stop. It was very scary, I thought there was something wrong with the axle but it felt just like it did when you break, only continuous. I headed back to the cab lot. Took the fwy since it seemed to run better there. Not so good this time, but I drove slow, 30mph, exited and was at a red light when I saw smoke coming from behind me. Then I heard people from the gas station I was next to yelling to me that I was on fire. I pulled over and got out. Sure enough, both back breaks were literally in flames. I do not know what happened but it was as if the brakes were engaged or something. Although I only say that because the shaking was so similar to what happens when the brakes are applied. So, if you keep your Escape Hybrid for a while be prepared for it to start the ka-chunk when you break and look to sell it immediately thereafter!! |
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Replying to: imacabbie (Dec 05, 2007 10:05 pm) Sounds like you had a malfunction of the rear foundation brakes or more likely a major misalignment of the parking brake components inside the regular rear brake rotors. Who services the brakes on your hybrids?  The ka-chunk was probably a signal that something was starting the fail ...the shaking was the ultimate failure...the flames were the result of continuing to drive on the failed brake components. Did you notice if any of the lights on the dash came on?
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Replying to: mecheng1 (Dec 06, 2007 8:52 am) So, if they had worked on the breaks and put them together wrong would this have caused this kind of failure? I would have stopped driving had I seen some kind of info on the dash lights or a message that there was some new problem. |
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| How many warning lights need to come on before you think there's a problem!! When the check engine light and the wrench light come on that means, IT NEEDS TO BE SERVICED! If those lights have been on for a while and then something else happens you wont realize it because the warning lights are already on!! | |
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I agree but as I said this is a taxi cab and when, and if, service is done is out of my control. However, I also had said that in fact the car had been in the shop the day before this occurred. I don't know if the service message is automatically cleared when service is done or if the mechanic has to clear them from the the computer. If it is the later I am willing to bet that they just fail to clear the message. Again, those messages had been there for the past three months. However, what I thought was something worth mentioning was the fact that ALL of the FEH's in our fleet that I've driven (three of them) do the same ka-chunk thing when you apply the breaks. It is not in any way a minor thing that can be ignored. I am constantly having to explain to my passengers what it is because they ask. Of course I really don't know but I just tell em that it's got over 200,000 miles and has something to do with the system charging the battery when the breaks are applied. Also, given that our FEH's are taxi's driven 20 hrs / day 365 days per year at about 100,000 miles / year it is very unlikely anyone driving a FEH for personal use will ever have this kind of usage. In addition, these FEH are being driven at those rates in San Francisco with all of the hills that most people don't deal with.
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Replying to: imacabbie (Dec 06, 2007 1:42 pm) Remember, the ka-chunk might have been happening in all 3 FEHs but they were being serviced by the same crew of mechanics. Easy to make the same maintenance mistake 3 times if you are not familiar with the vehicle design. Please let us know what they eventually find (if you can) was the cause of the brake failure(s). Has the fire in the wheels of that FEH caused the mechanics to take the other 2 FEHs out of service until the condition is corrected??? 
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Replying to: mecheng1 (Dec 07, 2007 10:08 am) |
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