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Ford Escape Hybrid Engine Problems

116 messages,  Last post on Mar 28, 2013 at 10:04 AM

You are in the Ford Escape Hybrid Maintenance & Repair Forum.

What is this discussion about? Ford Escape Hybrid, Engine, SUV

Messages Page 9 of 13

#74 of 116 Re: um ITS COVERED UNDER WARRANTY! [mschmal] by jimincalif1

Sep 22, 2010 (5:17 am)

Replying to: mschmal (Mar 30, 2007 10:46 am)
I just sold my 2002 Toyota Prius with 76,000 miles. Toyota had to replace the battery at about 8 years and 62,000 miles. In California they had a 10 year warranty. The only other problems I had that were covered by my 7 year 100,000 mile extended warranty were a new power steering unit at about 55,000 miles and new rear struts at the final 70,000 mile service. After almost 9 years I was becoming fearful of the possible cost. I was told the steering problem would have cost me around $3000 had I not had the extended warranty. The car was only worth around $5000 so it was time. I purchased a new Toyota Camry Hybrid. They now have new selections of extended warranties, Since we are not high millage drivers I purchased the 8 year 80,000 mile warranty. The cost being around another $2000. I should mention I am not one for purchasing all these extended warranties, however, with the expense of auto repair (especially hybrids) I found it prudent. It should also be mentioned that the hybrid batteries in California are no longer covered 10 years but are now 8 years.
     I also have a 2006 Escape hybrid with 28,000 miles on it. Unfortunately the extended warrarnty is only to 5 years 100,000. It is currently in the shop and has been for 3 days. NO engine check lights have come on but, the vehicle is idling faster than normal and longer when first started. There is a louder than normal engine sound at the time of this idle (kind of reminds me of older cars if you ran them without the air cleaner. I also find that every so often when I start out from a stop there is a smell of raw gas. I had this happen once after backing it out of the garage and found the smell coming from under the hood and not the exhaust pipe. So far Ford says they can not find a thing wrong. They felt the idle was high and checked with the factory and found it was within range. What the hell range I always found idles were always a close tollerance not several hundred to a thousand RPM's. Anyone else had a similar problem

#75 of 116 Another Hybrid Water Pump Problem by kapetan5

Jul 07, 2011 (11:21 am)

Hey folks, looks like I'm not the only one to have a problem with the water pump on hybrid. Same as the others I've read here. Driving along, a beep, red triangle of death and left running on electric only. Turn off the car and restart and the problem goes away. This is the second time this has happened with mine. The last was 10 months ago. I've contacted Ford and "they're looking into this". Anybody interested in joining a class action suit against Ford?

#76 of 116 Re: Another Hybrid Water Pump Problem [kapetan5] by tcm1

Jul 07, 2011 (5:13 pm)

Replying to: kapetan5 (Jul 07, 2011 11:21 am)
It's not the water pump. I had the same problem. The battery pack and computer are easily over heated. Both went out about 75k. ford covers both to 80k. In Cal they have to cover until 100k. Both battery pack and computer were replaced. 121k now sounds like a rod has gone bad.

#78 of 116 Re: Another Hybrid Water Pump Problem [kapetan5] by healinghands14

Jul 21, 2011 (11:58 am)

Replying to: kapetan5 (Jul 07, 2011 11:21 am)
I just ran into the same problem. It cost me $700 to get fixed at the Ford dealership. They charged me $100 just to diagnose the problem, and $600 to fix it. The electrical cooling pump had to be replaced. I no longer feel safe driving this car and am also contacting Ford as the computer coding that makes the car shut off while driving is flawed and extremely dangerous. I can't believe there has been no recall on this. I was driving in rush hour traffic on the highway in NYC with 3 lanes of traffic going 65+ bumper to bumper when I got the beep, the red triangle, Stop Safely Now message, and the engine completely quit. There was no breakdown lane and me and my 2 children were nearly killed trying to get off the highway with absolutely no power, never mind that I still had 180 miles to drive to get home to MA. Luckily the jersey barriers blocking the breakdown lane opened up for about 100 ft so that I had some place to stop but it was treacherous! And this is a safety issue that appears to have been happening since 2005! The engine also completely shut down 4 times on a 2 mile stretch while driving to work in rush hour traffic. That is what prompted me to get it to the dealer last week. My local mechanic would not work on it. He referred me to the dealership.

#79 of 116 Re: Another Hybrid Water Pump Problem [healinghands14] by tcm1

Jul 21, 2011 (7:14 pm)

Replying to: healinghands14 (Jul 21, 2011 11:58 am)
The battery pack and computer are already damaged, dump the car. The only reason Ford fixed mine is California made them extend the warranty on the batteries for 100k not the the 80k in most states. I recently sold mine. I was lucky I broke even on it. No more hybrids for me. New engine with install about 6k and I have yet to meet a Ford mech that knows how to do it. Run away, run away!

#80 of 116 dead ford hybrid by samai

Aug 08, 2011 (12:55 pm)

Don't buy this hybrid at all. Our fleet got 9 escape hybrids, all of them with problems. One of it turned dead won't start. The dealer cannot even find out the problem, why it won't start amazing. 2008 escape hybrid dead, may be in a year all of them will die, will be selling them to junkyard . Good thing is that our company figured it out and started to go towards toyota camry and highlander hybrids, superb cars. Lot better in luxury and maintenance. All of them who reads this, it is a warning, make a better choice for hard earned money.

#81 of 116 Re: Another Hybrid Water Pump Problem [tcm1] by stevedebi

Aug 10, 2011 (5:49 pm)

Replying to: tcm1 (Jul 07, 2011 5:13 pm)
"It's not the water pump. I had the same problem. The battery pack and computer are easily over heated. Both went out about 75k. ford covers both to 80k. In Cal they have to cover until 100k. Both battery pack and computer were replaced. 121k now sounds like a rod has gone bad."
 
It is not California, it is CARB states (I believe there are 13 states). The warranty is 10 years / 150K in those states, 8 years / 120K in other states. This ONLY covers the hybrid components.
 
The part in question is the MCES, which cools the electronics (not the battery, whch has it's own A/C). Since it is not used in the non hybrid Escape, I can't imagine how they get away with not classifying it as a hybrid component, except that it isn't directly part of the hybrid system.

#82 of 116 Re: dead ford hybrid [samai] by stevedebi

Aug 10, 2011 (5:52 pm)

Replying to: samai (Aug 08, 2011 12:55 pm)
"Don't buy this hybrid at all. Our fleet got 9 escape hybrids, all of them with problems. One of it turned dead won't start. The dealer cannot even find out the problem, why it won't start amazing. 2008 escape hybrid dead, may be in a year all of them will die, will be selling them to junkyard . Good thing is that our company figured it out and started to go towards toyota camry and highlander hybrids, superb cars. Lot better in luxury and maintenance. All of them who reads this, it is a warning, make a better choice for hard earned money. "
 
They Camry is a passenger car, not an SUV, so it really isn't comparable. As for the Highlander Hybrid, for AWD applications the FEH is vastly better; the Ford model uses a mechanical AWD, so that one always has access to driving the rear wheels. The Toyota uses electric motors, which will simply stop working when they overheat - as they will if used enough. This won't happen with periodic AWD, but may happen at the beach or other intensive AWD situations.
 
My 2008 is still humming along. Sorry you had a bad experience.

Messages Page 9 of 13

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