2016 Ford Escape: won't start

Filed Mar 18, 2026 · Fuel system · IL

Transmission went out at 101k miles - transmission needed to be rebuilt which I had done at a large cost. There was no warning, the trans went out while driving. Purge valve for gas (EVAP) also went out without any warning and when I would put gas in the car, the car would not start.

Filed Nov 20, 2024 · Engine · TN

Ford is aware of a design flaw with the 2.0 Ecoboost engines. It impacts Escapes, Fusions, Edges, and some Lincoln vehicles. They issued TSB # 22-2229 about this. According to Ford, the only fix is to replace the engine. The engine block has a design flaw that causes the head gasket to blow and cause severe coolant leakage into either cylinder 2 or 3. Ford says to replace the Long block. My vehicle had less than 70k miles on it and started having issues just a month or so after the warranty expired. An engine should last much longer than this. Now our vehicle may be worth $500 instead of about $9,000. Ford knows this is an issue and there is significant information on the Internet about this. Ford should have been forced to recall these engines. From a safety standpoint, our engine fails to start at times. The cylinder is so full of coolant at times, the engine won't turn over for a while. We have to keep bumping the starter to get it to finally turn over. We purchased this vehicle new from a Ford dealership. The vehicle is otherwise in excellent condition and has had the oil changed every 4,000 miles, much less miles than required by Ford.

Filed Aug 11, 2024 · Electrical · AR

The rear back up camera works intermittently and the car will not start intermittently cannot find the issue it has left stuck at places because it would not start. Changed the battery and all electrical checked out ok.

Filed May 1, 2024 · Electrical · MN

Auto was purchased from a dealership on 5/31/2023. We drove less than a mile down the road and a warning for "hood ajar" came on. We immediately pulled over only to find the hood was latched. Over the next few months there were numerous other warning/electrical items that came up: trunk ajar warning, problems opening the trunk, back up camera would often go black when car was in reverse, car would start honking like the alarm was going off when it was just sitting in garage with nobody near the car. The car was brought to the dealer on 6/14/23 for a separate recall issue and an electrician was supposed to look at these issues but they weren't at the dealership when we arrived for our scheduled appt. Couldn't get a new appt for a few weeks so went to our local auto shop who confirmed the issues and felt we could try a new battery which he put in on 6/30/23. Went to the Ford dealership on 8/31/2023 and they said we needed to have the APIM replaced and the rear park aid camera and latch. We couldn't afford these repairs. Since then we have taken the car in for tire rotation/oil change. This past week the car will not start unless we jump it with a battery cable. We looked into recalls and found out our VIN isn't under the recall. Obviously, these are safety issues that we had hoped would be covered by the recall. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Filed Jan 5, 2024 · Engine, Fuel system · SC

While driving home going about 40 mph my Ford Escape lost acceleration and then completely shut off IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD! I was able to "limp" it to the side of the street where it would not start at all. I then placed it in reverse (as I was on a hill) to roll it backwards into a neighborhood to get it out of the way of on coming traffic. It was 10 PM at night! I waited for a few minutes and was able to get it to start but not change gears. I was able to get it to my neighborhood with hazards on going barely 10mph. It literally rolled into my driveway where it has been since (November 2023).

Filed Nov 27, 2022 · WI

Hi, we have a 2016 Ford escape ecoboost Titanium that upon ramping up speed to get on a highway, hesitates and loses power. Our son who was driving felt multiple tugs from the steering wheel and then very quickly had to get to the side of the road as a message appeared “loss of power”, the car was going into limp mode. He turned the car off but it was weird in that it didn’t seem to be fully off. We think the battery may be involved here but can only tell you that when police arrived we could not roll down windows or do anything electrical - when we outside, only one hazard light was flashing. We took it into the Van Horn Ford in Sheboygan, Wisconsin where it is currently. We’ve had it towed 3 times. The first 2 times the dealership said there were no codes to go by. Since it happened 2 times after stopping for gas then getting on highway we thought maybe it was the gas. We had the fuel tank emptied and flushed, the fuel injectors flushed and were returned the car. This last time, I had driven 2 hours to Madison, parked the car for an hour then started back. I was ramping up speed and I felt tugging on the steering and was terrified. I decided not to stop to get gas but see if I could make it home (2 hours). I did. After letting the car rest I went 1 mile to get gas at our local gas station. The battery light came on and the car wasn’t shutting down properly. I filled up with gas and got the car back to my garage. It would not start the next day, so we had it towed. Dealership said that because multiple codes came out due to battery failure. New battery installed and dealer was able to recreate problem with no codes. We are pulling our hair out. The info I find online seems EXACTLY to match problems that ford owners have resolved with a new ELECTRIC THROTTLE BODY. We haven’t tried this yet. This is a dangerous situation. Please advise. Our Ford person is [XXX] [XXX] please call him. [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

Filed Dec 1, 2021 · Fuel system · IN

My car has 25000.00 miles on it. This started last year. It is a 2016 escape. Runs fine until I put gas in it. The car will not start after I fill up. I thought I was crazy, as that is the only time it does this. Once I get it started it is fine until I fill up again. I look online to see if anyone else had this problem and found out it is common with this car. I spent 257.00 for new purge valve and it fixed the problem. The car never showed a check engine or code. This is a comon problem and should be recalled!

Filed Feb 4, 2021 · Electrical · 65,000 miles · CO

Starting back in the summer of 2020 my car would not start, like the battery was dead. The car was parked in my garage, always stationary. I had replaced the battery in jul of 2019. I've taken it to 3 mechanics testing the electrical system at $300 and also testing the battery at the other mechanics. After doing some research I found that the fob talks to the car even when it's not on or when the fob is not near the car. A couple months ago I purchased a trickle charger which I used for a month or so until I started to put the fob in a faraday cage to block the signal from the fob to the car. This seemed to help for a while until last week when I could not start my car. Again, acting like the battery was dead. I've also purchased a jump starter which was working when the car wouldn't start. The problem has gotten worse in the last week as I've had to jump it several times. I'm really at a loss as to what to do next other than sell the car.

Filed Nov 22, 2020 · Transmission · 112,000 miles · MT

Transmission will not shift out of drive into neutral reverse or park. Yet I am able to remove the key. Car also will not start because of this

Filed Dec 2, 2019 · Electrical · NC

I have a 2016 ford escape se and went to drive 15 minutes down the road to the store. After shopping I returned to the car and it wouldn't start. A person near me offered to give me a jump. However it was weird the car didn't seem like the battery was dead. A light was also flashing that I had never seen before. Have been told now that it is apart of the anti theft system. Then I noticed the dashboard said no key detected. I don't have a push start. I have a key that goes in the ignition. I'm sitting in front of the store with a car that wont start because it saying no key when I have the key in the ignition. I started looking online and found this was a known issues with ford escape and there was no fix. That makes no sense. Its insane that at any time my car will not start because of no key detected when I have the key in the ignition. I should not be forced to pay for new keys and batteries that won't ever solve my issue. What is ford going to do to fix this issue? Links to all other people having same issue: https://www.cargurus.com/cars/discussion-c22847_ds900555 https://www.focusfanatics.com/threads/no-key-detected-focus-se.580745/ https://community.cartalk.com/t/no-key-detected/109563 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0osbtbb4te

Filed Sep 16, 2019 · Transmission · 105,000 miles · MI

Car says it's in reverse but shifter is in park. Car won't start.

Filed Jul 20, 2018 · Fuel system · 75,000 miles · UT

While traveling vehicle began to lose power and begin to shut off. It became more frequent where it would not start. We had to let it sit for 10 minutes to restart back up for another 20 miles of travel.