I was driving with my family to see mt. Rushmore at night when my 2008 ford escape hybrid suddenly shut down. I was on the freeway going about 70 MPH when without warning a red triangular warning light came on and the engine stopped running. I pulled over, shut the engine off, and was able to complete my trip after this. However, when vacationing a year later in michigan, this exact same thing happened 3 times when making an 8-hour trip. Each time I've been going close to 70 MPH and I've had to carefully navigate my way to the side of the freeway... Very dangerous! It would seem that a recall would be in order for such a serious safety issue.
2008 Ford Escape Hybrid engine complaints
Page 4 of 5: complaints 71 to 100 of 111, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Does someone have to die before ford recalls these cars to fix the hybrid cooling system in these vehicles. I have fixed the problem once myself (two years ago) and now it is happening again. These cars shut down on the highway with out warning because of something going on with the hybrid system. This time my wife was in the passing lane when it happened. One day someone is going to die from this problem because it only happens when you are traveling at higher speeds (on a highway) the red triangle light comes on and automatically shuts down the car. Some family will be killed because of this and ford will be caught knowing about the problem and doing nothing to fix it.
I am the owner of a 2008 ford escape hybrid with approx. 50k miles. As with many complaints related to escape hybrid, I was driving on the interstate in perfect weather conditions at approx. 70mph when without any warning, the engine shut down and the master vehicle electrical hazard warning lamp lit up. Steering and braking were normal but I had to coast to the shoulder across several lanes of busy highway traffic to stop. It was terrifying. I gathered myself and my three terrified children and started the car again with no problem. The same incident occurred three more times before I was able to make it to my destination, but I was anticipating the issue and stayed in the right hand lane. This issue is being reported time and again yet no action is being taken to address this obvious defect. What is ford and the federal safety agency waiting for? This is an extremely dangerous issue! Please, before someone is injured or dies.
Driving at 55 MPH, engine stopped, kicked out of gear, loud beep sounded, and dashboard warning light came on. Triangle with bolt inside. Message said "slow down and pull over." this had happened 3 times before while in cruise control, but I was not in cruise control this time. First time it happened, I consulted the manual. It said to turn off the engine and restart. I did, and warning light went off. Same next 2 instances. I attempted this fix four times on this last occasion. Car would restart, then engine would shut down in a few hundred feet. Finally called tow truck. Ford dealer found bad auxiliary water pump connected to hybrid system. In researching this, I found this is a common problem with ford escape hybrids. Called ford customer service, but they refused to do anything about the repair, which cost $700. Felt very unsafe with the way the engine just shut down. Luckily, I was on a road with a shoulder. If I had been on a bridge, tunnel, or in traffic, I could have been killed, the engine shut down so quickly. Ford needs to issue a recall on these water pumps, as their failure causes a dangerous engine failure.
While driving on the highway during a long trip (9 hours) a triangular warning light flashed on: stop safely now, and the car decelerated quickly as though the engine had abruptly stopped, barely allowing time to pull off road. Fortunately, there was a shoulder at that spot on the highway. There is no way to safely stop a car this suddenly that is traveling on a highway! After reading the manual which directed driver to wait a bit and then restart car, the driver did so and everything seemed fine until it happened again, twice, on the highway again after driving for only 2 hours. Please; just because there wasn't a crash, injury, fire, or death does not mean this is "safe enough."
This is the second of two incidents where power was lost and the car became unresponsive. First, was one week prior driving from la to san diego at 5pm. We got a flat on the highway in irvine ca. We pulled over and changed the tire but when we started the engine it would not start. The lights came on but with a warning light to "stop safely now". I thought this was from the tire and pressed the reset button but the warning would not clear. We jumped the car once and were unsuccessful, we jumped it again and again nothing, we towed the vehicle to a mechanic and the tow truck tried to jump it again and this time the lights would not come on. We jumped while holding the button for the high voltage battery which we found out about in the manual but the car would not start. We paid the tow and called for a ride home. I missed work and my mother took me back to la to wait for the car. The mechanic replaced the battery. I waited 8 hours for the mechanic to say that the car needed to be taken out of a safety mode and that this can't be done manually in the event it happened again. The next week, after pulling out of the driveway to go home sunday night the red triangle light came on and warned me to "stop safely now" and then I could not accelerate past 20mph and then 10mph as I slowed to pull over. I killed the engine, waited ten min. And restarted but the car would not accelerate and the light came on again. I waited until midnight to be towed to the dealer, got a ride, and I am now on the bus until something can be done. After researching other complaints I am sad to find that this problem is common, it is unresolved, it is dangerous for a safety mechanism to cause the driver to suddenly lose power, and it is inconvenient to be stranded and unable to troubleshoot the car if there is nothing wrong with the engine and it is a computer malfunction.
We were driving up I-95 from fl to va when the car suddenly gave a loud warning tone and displayed the message stop safely now. The car lost all power as we quickly tried to cross several lanes of traffic to reach the shoulder. Upon examination of the car we started it up again with no consequence and continued on our trip. About 30 minutes later it happened again. After reading the owner's manual I discovered the warning message involved a component of the hybrid system. I decided to try shutting off the econ switch (which activates battery) and all AC/ electrical components. This worked beautifully for 100+ miles until at nightfall the headlights kicked on and our troubles returned. Since it was sunday night we decided to stay overnight where we were and get it checked by the nearest ford in the morning. The diagnostics ($95) revealed it was the motor electronic cooling pump at fault which this dealer did not carry. We cautiously continued using the no electrical method and were able to successfully reach our destination 400miles away with no more incidents, where we then took it to our home dealer for repair. A very dangerous condition which upon research I'm learning is happening to many other escape hybrid owners.
The first time it occurred I was driving on the highway and the info screen told me to stop safely as the engine shut down. It happened several times that day, and then didn't happen until today, june 17, 2012. This recent time a high engine temperature warning came up on the info screen. I checked all of the fluids and they are full and all have been changed in the last year or so.
Traveling on freeway at approximately 70 MPH. Without warning, engine completely shut down. Chime sounded and warning message appeared on dashboard saying "stop safely now." red triangle with exclamation point in center appeared on dash. I was informed by ford service department during repairs that this is a known failure problem as related in ford tsb 09-18-6, affecting similar vehicles up to 2007.
While driving on the interstate at around 55-65mph the vehicle lost engine power, a warning light came on and a "stop safely now" message. The vehicle lost the ability to accelerate but we were able to coast to a stop at an exit that happened to be nearby. Due to construction and the removal of the shoulder lane, had this happened merely a mile earlier in the route there would have been no place to stop safely. The same warning light and engine power loss occurred about 10 months prior while driving on a two- lane highway. We were able to coast to a stop safely then as well, but we're again lucky to be in little traffic and in an area with sufficient shoulder space. After taking the vehicle to our dealership for service we were told no problem could be identified. Each time this occurs we have been able to restart the car and complete our trip. The inability for the vehicle to accelerate and the instant power loss with this warning is a serious safety concern that should be addressed in a recall particularly if this is the result of a faulty part.
While driving in the left lane of the highway at about 60-65 MPH in moderate/heavy traffic, the gasoline engine shut down and gave me a "stop safely now" message on the instrument cluster. I was able to get the car off of the road, but it was a rather frightening and dangerous ordeal to cross two lanes of moderate/heavy traffic after the engine shut down. After having the car towed to the dealer, they informed me that it was "a pretty common" problem amongst escapes (transaxle cooling pump / water pump). Researching this further, it appears that there are a number of others on message boards and the like that have this same problem.
While driving down the interstate at 70 miles per hour, the engine suddenly shut off and I received a warning light, and the message "stop safely now." this particular instance occurred on 1-95 south just south of washington on a portion under construction with no shoulder, it is extremely lucky that no major accident occurred. However, knowing that this issue is frequent as can be seen by fellow complaints, and from that fact that this has happened before, this vehicle should receive an immediate recall, as did the identically modeled toyota hybrid versions. The first time it happened the car was less than 2 years old. This is not acceptable, and it will eventually kill someone.
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 ford escape hybrid. The contact stated that while driving 70 MPH, the vehicle stalled and a warning light advising her to pull over illuminated on the instrument panel. The contact restarted the vehicle and the failure recurred. The vehicle was in the process of being taken to an authorized dealer for inspection. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 80,000. The VIN was unavailable.
While driving on a bridge at 65 miles per hour, I heard a beep and a triangle light came on. The car immediately jolted as it lost power and it displayed a message to stop safely. This was in late morning traffic and a semi was able to slightly swerve to the right in order to avoid rear ending me as I had sudden reduced power and little median space to coast to on my left side. I was able to restart the car after a few minutes. A ford dealer has run a diagnostic and confirmed it is a failure of the motor engine cooling pump and the overall cost for parts and labor, including diagnostic is $738. After reading all of the complaints to this agency and online entries, I cannot believe that no action has been taken about this safety hazard. There are two issues, the first being that the cooling pump is known to fail on these vehicles at different mileage levels, and is supposedly not covered by the hybrid warranty even though it is only found on hybrids. Ford dealers will not even acknowledge that this is a known problem. This part should be recalled as it is known as one cause that leads to the shut off of the car at different speeds. Second, ford's shutoff design itself is seriously flawed since it allows the car to unexpectedly shutoff at high speeds risking collision and injury. I am forced to pay the high cost of this particular repair because I cannot do it myself, however, I no longer consider this a reliable safe vehicle. I urge the federal safety agency to investigate these complaints rather than wait for one of these incidents to result in death or serious injury. At the very least ford should be notifying all owners of these vehicles about the defective cooling pumps and need for replacement.
Please issue an immediate recall for the motor electronics cooling system pump on all 2005-2008 ford escape hybrids. This is a known issue to ford and the subject of tsb 08-24-5. This part failure is extremely dangerous. While the cited complaints form an alarming picture of the mecs pump failure issue, this list is by no means exhaustive. A search of complaints for the 2005-2007 escape hybrids returns additional horrifying incidents involving this part failure. It is appalling that with so many reports of high-speed engine shutdowns and near-miss accidents that this issue does not even having a pending defects investigation. Please right this wrong before someone is seriously injured or killed.
While driving on interstate 75 in florida, the gas engine shutdown and a warning light/message appeared "stop safely now". Our vehicle immediately began to decelerate, running only on the electric motor, as we tried to cross two lanes of traffic "safely". We pulled onto the shoulder, and turned the car off. We were able to restart the vehicle without getting the error message. We experienced this same sudden engine shutdown and feh warning 5-6 times over the course of our road trip from wisconsin to florida and back. Upon return to wisconsin, we had the car checked out by our ford dealer, and they informed us it was a faulty motor electronics coolant pump (part #5m6z-8c419-a). Ford has issued a technical service bulletin about this problem (tsb 08-24-5), but has not yet issued a recall. Since the unexpected deceleration of a vehicle traveling at high speeds constitutes a serious safety issue (as many ford escape hybrid owners on edmunds.com can attest, http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f0ff5b5), I am strongly urging you to compel ford to issue a recall on this part.
While driving 65 MPH the gas engine shuts off, the stop safely now light appears and the master vehicle warning lamp comes on. Happened only a couple times the first 3 weeks. In the last 2 days it has happened 15-16 times. This is very dangerous to happen while in traffic on the interstate. To shouldn't this be a recall. Taking into ford dealer tomorrow.
While driving I noticed a lack of power and got the message "stop safely now". As the manual stated I pulled over, waited a few minutes. The car started up again but the event kept happening all the way home. I brought the car to a dealer who made a repair costing 642 dollars. The car ran fine for a month but when on a major highway I had the same experience except it was more difficult to deal with the loss of power in busy traffic. I was in the passing lane to allow another car enter the highway from an on ramp when it happened and I was lucky to be able to cross three lanes of traffic to bring the car to rest. Again, it happened all the way home causing me to finally drive in the breakdown lane with flashers on. I went online and learned that this is an ongoing problem with ford hybrids. My question is why no recall on such an expensive and dangerous problem?
Veh shows a caution sign (exclamation in triangle) with a warning (pull vehicle over safely and turn off engine). Veh loses all acceleration and I must pull over immediately to avoid an accident. Happens every time we drive on the freeway only, never on a side street or in stop and go. I pull vehicle over and turn off engine for approx 2 or 3 minutes, and it starts right up. Some times it will happen multiple times within a 20 to 30 minute time period, sometimes only once in several hours of driving. Dealer has no idea why and requires a tow immediately when it happens to determine cause. Cannot tow when on the way to dr, out of town, or other.
"stop safely now" appears in dashboard while going 70 MPH and you lose the accelerator - you cannot maintain / increase speed. The car basically dies and shuts off. This is incredibly dangerous, especially while driving on a highway or in traffic of any kind. This happened numerous times as we were driving to florida for spring break. Once we stopped, we were able to restart the car and continue on until the next "stop safely now" appeared, sometimes in less than 3 minutes, sometimes after 3 hours. Given that it was a sunday, we were unable to find a ford dealer with a hybrid technician on staff. The first ford dealer we took it to had it for 3 days and "could find nothing wrong". The second dealer we went to replaced the throttle body and water pump. This breakdown is unacceptable and dangerous. No car should simply stop like that. This design / flaw should be recalled and fixed before someone is killed on the expressway.
I started the car up and as it sat idling the stop safely now message displayed and the engine died. I turned everything off on the car, reset the message and restarted the car. As I pulled out of the driveway and stepped on the gas, the car again displayed the message stop safely now and the engine died. I had to again turn everything off in the car, reset the message, and restart the car. I have no idea what is wrong this time that is making the message display. There needs to be a recall on this vehicle. The stop safely now message kills the engine at any speed. This is a very serious problem. No car should simply shut the engine down while driving.
I was traveling through nyc on rt 95 during rush hour, bumper to bumper traffic. All 3 lanes were traveling at 65 MPH with no breakdown lane due to construction in the area. The car for no apparent reason displayed the "stop safely now" message and the engine died. By some miracle the jersey barriers blocking the breakdown lane opened up for about 100 ft and I was able to pull over. The car loses all power when the stop safely now message appears. This is a hazard and this car should be recalled for this problem. It turned out the cooling pump needed to be replaced. No car should simply shut off when driving. It creates an extremely dangerous situation. I had 18 wheelers and a stream of cars behind me and had the breakdown lane not been available, there would have been a multiple car crash with potential deaths. It is hard to believe that there have been no accidents due to this problem. This car is unsafe to drive because you have no idea when the engine will shut off. The car needs to be redesigned so that the stop safely now message never shuts down the engine.
I was traveling on the expressway in the left hand lane doing about 70 MPH when the engine shutdown and a stop now safely message appeared on dashboard. I was able to pull over turned off the vehicle was able to restart and continue to my destination. This again happened on the way home the same day there was no problem found at the times I pulled over and both times was able to continue. I had no ability to accelerate and fortunately was able to pull over, this was a scary.
Going from missouri to arkansas my car simply stopped running no indicator lights were on at the time and a triangle came on stating I could pull over safely now and stop. I turned off the engine after trying to make the electric battery engine work. Nothing happened. People helped me push my car off the road and then a man suggested I try to start it again. It started right up and ran for another 20-30 miles and then proceeded to do this about every 5-10 miles for hours. The temp was raining and about 60 degrees. Again on the way home in dry weather and at night it did the same thing for 136 miles. This was at night and I tried to keep it at 60 MPH. Finally dropping it to 50 and finally made it home. I'm taking it to my mechanic but when I called ford where I bought the car they said they never heard of this problem. I find this to be an untruth and ford ( which my family has sworn by for many years) refuses to acknowledge this problem.
Driving down a congested interstate the vehicle stopped working at the same time "stop immediately" was scrolling across the instrument cluster. There is not sufficient time to make adjustments in traffic. It is a very dangerous with little room for error in city traffic as I feel lucky to be alive after the vehicle stopped working a total of six times before making it home.
While driving at highway speeds for about 20 minutes, the gasoline engine died and a warning light came on saying to pull off the road safely. There was no other warning light (no high temperature warning). I drove slowly on electrical engine power until there was a safe place to pull off the road. After a few minutes parked there with the car turned off, I tried to start the car again. It started and I was able to drive home. I took the car to a dealer and he could see no reports in the computer and no evident cause for the engine to fail. He said to watch the temperature gauge. However, there is not a constant temperature gauge - it only comes up on the screen when there is a problem (and it did not come up when the engine failed). A week later, again on a longer drive (more than 20 minutes) at highway speeds, the car stalled and I was forced to pull over. The danger of pulling over on a multilane freeway is very scary. Over the next 30 minutes, I re-started the car and pulled back into traffic, only to have the gas engine die 5 more times. Eventually I was able to get home and take the escape in to a ford dealership. The dealership immediately diagnosed it as a failure of the coolant pump and replaced it for $500. The mileage of my car was about 53,000 miles.
My 2008 ford escape hybrid (53,000 miles) is dangerous to drive. While driving 70 MPH on I-5 I hear a popping sound and suddenly all ability to accelerate is lost. A red exclamation point within a triangle appears on the control panel and a sincerely bizarre message displays itself: "please pull over safely". This is quite the challenge with 18 wheelers behind me, to the side of me, and other cars all around. With quick reflexes, I am able to get over two lanes and slowly (I think only the electric engine is working, no gas) drive off the next exit. Sitting in the car, I am in shock. What just happened? Will it happen again? Because we are on our way home from oregon to the east bay area in ca, we attempt to get back on the freeway and make our way south. Within 40 minutes the same failure happens again, only this time there isn't an exit ramp. We are on the side of an busy two-lane southern traveling freeway. Once safely to the side, the car restarts and appears to be functioning properly. Now I am afraid to drive it, but want to get home. I decide to go a little under the speed limit (a hazard) and stay in the left lane. After the car fails and tells me to "pull over safely now" for the 5th time, I decide I can't take it anymore. We call ford's roadside assistance number and wait two hours (yes! Two hours!) for a tow truck, only to be called back by an automated dispatch that gives us the name of a different towing service that estimates its arrival time in 2 hours (the first company apparently had to go to a police emergency tow, but I believe they didn't agree on a decent wage for the service). Not wanting to wait 2 more hours, I attempt to drive again. Within 10 minutes, the car fails and we are lucky enough to glide to an off ramp and into a gas station parking lot. Thank goodness we didn't get any further; the next stretch of freeway had no shoulder at all and the next part was a long bridge. Car is now at dealer waiting for mon appt.
I was driving my 2008 ford escape hybrid around 70 MPH on a toll road when there was a sudden beep and a "stop safely now" message came up on the screen. The power to the engine cut out and I had to coast to a shoulder several hundred yards ahead of me. The car reduce it's speed; I was able to break but I was unable to accelerate. It sounded like the engine had completely shut off. I was able to re-start the car after being towed off the freeway and was able to keep driving the car as long as I kept me speed under ~60mph. This was a horrible experience and after seeing how well documented the problem is I can't wait to trade in for a different brand. This will be my last ford.
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 ford escape hybrid. The contact was driving 60 MPH when the vehicle stalled with the stop safely now warning message displayed. The vehicle was restarted without any hesitation. The vehicle was inspected by a dealer and they advised the contact that the water pump had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 80,000.
I was driving my 2008 ford escape hybrid on the high way and it stalled 3 times at high speeds. "stop safely now" came on dash. I did tons of research and this is a huge problem with the motor over heating. Ford had backorders up to nearly 900 coolant pumps last year. This is very scary because you just lose power in the middle of he highway. Toyota just recalled theirs, why has ford not been on this. It is all over the internet. I am bringing my car in to the dealership with printed research and a letter of concern. I am blown away that so many people have had this issue with the stalling at high speeds and ford has done nothing. This is very concerning.
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