2008 Ford Escape Hybrid: engine overheating

Filed Mar 6, 2015 · Electrical · 80,000 miles · AZ

Tl*the contact owns a 2008 ford escape hybrid. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle in very hot weather, the battery would overheat and a message to proceed with caution would display before the vehicle would completely shut off. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who diagnosed that they battery pump was faulty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired because the code identifying the failure was not available from the computer. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 80,000.

Filed Jan 30, 2015 · Driver assistance · OH

I received a recall letter from ford in october 2014 stating that the motor electronics coolant pump may fail causing the engine to overheat causing it to lose power and stall and increasing the risk of a crash. So far I have never received a notice to bring the car in to fix it. I did stop by the local ford dealer to find out why the haven't notified me and they said that they never received the parts from the ford company. We are planning on a long trip shortly but afraid to drive this car. [ its been 6 months since I received the letter ] I think its time they take care of the safety problem. Can you help??

Filed Sep 23, 2014 · Acceleration, Electrical · 122,500 miles · NY

Currently ford has a recall (14s19). The coolant pump may malfunction, which can cause the hybrid electronics systems to overheat and possibly lead to more serious problems. "when the hybrid electronics system gets too hot it will shut down the powertrain, resulting in a stall-like condition, increasing the risk of a crash," according to ford's filing with the federal safety agency. My vehicle has this problem. It has happened several times, and I have already notified this agency. Once again, on september 5, 2014, I was driving in maryland, near dc, in rush hour traffic, and I lost all power. It is really horrible losing all power when you are in the left most lane (no left shoulder), and lose all power. Several cars almost hit us...again. I don't care if my hybrid system is overheating. I would rather destroy the batteries than all of a sudden losing all power in dc rush hour.

Filed Sep 12, 2014 · Engine, Transmission · 71,000 miles · DC

When driving at higher speeds (approximately over 50 MPH), the car would suddenly lose engine power and the "stop safely now" message would come on. The car would go into limp-home mode and allow me to pull over to the side of the road. Turning off the car and restarting it would alleviate the problem for a few more minutes of driving. This happened about 15 times on a 60 mile trip home, allowing me to drive anywhere from one to 10 miles at a time before the engine shut off. This was accompanied at times with an engine overheating message. I took the car to the dealer for a repair. They claimed it was a malfunctioning electronic throttle body and replaced it for about $1000. A week later, the same thing happened twice on a 30-mile highway trip when driving at higher speeds, but has not happened since then.

Filed Jun 10, 2014 · Electrical, Engine · 68,000 miles · OH

As we were driving, a "hazard" light come on the dash, the engine shut completely off, and a message, "stop car safely," also appeared on the dash. We did so, and turned off the car and turned it back on. Car drove fine for about 5 minutes and the same thing happened. We did this for about an hour or so to get home. Had we been on a busy interstate. A sudden engine shut off could have been very dangerous. We took the car to the dealership and were informed that the electric battery had overheated because the water pump was not working. I have come across similar complaints while looking into my situation. Some examples: http://repairpal.com/coolant-pump-on-hybrid-may-fail-and-cause-celengine-shutdown-562.

Filed Mar 9, 2014 · Electrical, Engine · 85,803 miles · CA

Multiple incidents of the vehicle shutting down occurred on 3/8/2014 beginning while travelling along a 2-lane highway (ca-74 around idyllwild area) at approximately 10:30 p.m. Vehicle displayed red triangle icon with exclamation point inside the triangle and words in red "stop safely now", at which point power to the engine was disabled although power steering appeared to still be active. I then pulled over at a turn-out (luckily one was nearby since I was going uphill and losing speed quickly). I proceeded to turn the ignition to the off position and within minutes re-started without further incident until approximately midnight at which point I was travelling along a major freeway in san diego I-15 southbound at a speed of 65-70 MPH. At this point the vehicle became disabled after displaying the red icon and words described above. This happened again 4 separate times. These 4 incidents occurred within a 6 mile stretch of each other and within a 20 minute window. There was no other indication that anything was wrong with the vehicle - no system notice of overheating, faulty electrical, etc.

Filed May 31, 2013 · Engine, Transmission · 74,000 miles · GA

My 17 year old daughter was driving home approx 5:30 pm on a busy four lane road from an errand and the "stop safely now" light came on. At that point she could not get over due to traffic and the engine shut off in the middle of the road. She was able to coast down a hill into a turn lane nearly hitting an oncoming car and stop the car. We arrived on the scene and was able to restart the car and bring it home. We took it to the dealer where they wanted to replace the coolant motor to the battery which was defective and causing the hybrid battery to overheat thereby shutting down the engine completely. This is to prevent the hybrid battery from overheating. I do understand the need for this to eliminate the possibility of a fire, but these should be replaced every 50,000 miles to stop the engine from shutting off . We were getting ready to drive on a 600 mile trip in this car and would have been stranded on the highway. The way the warranty is written, it is not covered. After researching the problem, this happens more frequently especially after 50,000 miles. Please investigate and provide a recall and/or fix to this problem on these cars.