general problems of the 2004 Ford Escape

My 04 Ford Escape has a 4 cylinder and is a manual. It has begun to accelerate by itself. It will accelerate whether it is in gear or in neutral. I assumed there would recall for this problem, as I know other vehicles have been in serious accidents with similar problems. I can take my foot off of the pedal and it will stay at a steady speed, or accelerate, on its own. Often when I'm switching gears, put it in neutral, it will self-rev itself up to 4000+ rpms! I will have to wait and coast for about 10 to 30 seconds for it to bring itself back down to a reasonable rpm to get it into the next gear. So, it is intermittent, but happens about 50% of the time you are driving it, and at times can be very dangerous. I assumed Ford might pay for the repair as this is a dangerous situation, however my dealer says "no" because there is no recall.

Driving 25 to 30 miles per hour throttle sticks at 3 rpms . I had to ride brake to pull over safely. I shut car off and restarted, idle went up to 3 rpms and slowly went to 1 rpm I drove car home with no problem. I started car today with idle sticking on 2 to 3 rpm before going back to 1.

While driving, the throttle stuck. Applied the brakes, but vehicle was difficult to slow and tachometer indicated high engine speed. Shifting to neutral, the engine rpms put the needle in the red beyond the gauge. After shutting off the vehicle, and opening the hood the problem did not persist, but returned after driving again.

The car stalls after putting it in gear /.

I first noticed a surging and squeal type noise while coming to a stop. Spouse had repaired 3 times yet it continues. During this time I also heard a clanking noise from rear end as if hatch (window/door) was not securely closed but then assumed it may be related to the aforementioned issue. I mentioned noise increased, loud, frightening (steering difficulties). He contacted Ford by phone (x3) and emailed however their reply was no fatalities or incidents had been reported therefore we have 2 options. 1) take it to a Ford dealer for repair at our expense, 2) trade in for a new Ford vehicle. Both school/city/govt employed and cannot afford 2000. 00 to repair. Yesterday my husband removed the entire right shock when I returned home from work after a 12 hr day & told him I felt as if the back end was going to fall off & clanking sound intensified. At 8pm he was laying under car on garage floor and found the shock hanging! he was forced to remove as I had to work the next day at 6am. I am driving without one shock, new tires, rusted rear frame and surge continues. I would appreciate any suggestions as to other avenues for reporting. I have 2 coworkers with similar issues, both Escapes. The removed shock is rusted, near crumbling of sort but saved along with several photos. Thank you in advance for reviewing my lengthy email and look forward to any input and recommendations. With gratitude, cheryl c.

I would like to add my complaint to the acceleration problems of the 2001-2004 Ford Escapes which my 2004 has also experienced. There have been a few situations over the last 2-3 years where my cars engine would suddenly start racing while parked at idle. When the issue first began I was able to tap the gas pedal with my foot and the car would return to a standard idle. The more recent instances now require turning the vehicle off and it would idle normal again after being restarted. I believe this problem is connected to a current investigation and the letter dated 7/10/12 written to Ford from the center for auto safety. This may also be connected to a prior recall 04v-574 that I was recently made aware of. Please keep me advised of your efforts or anything I can do to help. Thank you.

As I was accelerating to pass a slow moving vehicle, I pressed on the gas petal and after I was back in my proper lane, my vehicle kept speeding and not backing off on the gas. I then put the car in neural and the engine continued to keep racing. I tried to stomp lightly on the gas petal to see if it would come back up but it didn't. I then shut off the engine and called the tow truck company.

At first, my Escape only started hesitating on rainy days when I got to about 45-55 mph. At first I thought I had bad gas so I stopped at auto zone to get dry gas for it. This seem to work like a charm and I thought the problem was fixed. Then it happened again; spudering, not accelerating, car shaking, and engine light began to flash once I reached 45mph. This had been an issue for a few months on and off, then one sunny day its began hesitating and misfiring very badly now not only in 5th gear but at idle and 1st gear. It misfired and hesitated every time I drove it for a week before the mechanic could get it into the shop. I did a lot of research on the two codes that the engine was pulling p0305 and p0316 pending. I found out that there were a lot of people who had the same problem as me when their Escapes reach 90,000 miles or higher, some even worse. People are saying that the issues being caused are a result of Ford putting in the wrong spark plugs which is causing the computer chip to burn out leading to misfires in the coil packs. My mechanic just informed me that it will cost $400 to fix two of the coils and there is only a 50/50 chance that it will fix the problem (for now). He said it will probably happen again but there is no telling how long that might be, it might be right away, a week from now, or a year. Will all these people having the same issue with no way to tell if it is actually going to fix the problem there should be a recall or at least a warning to owners saying what may happen once the car gets over 100,000 miles.

All three of the catalytic converters failed to operate in the car. We were initially told that the converters were under warranty both for mileage and time (8 year/80,000 mile warranty). Dealership requested car be bought, which we did. After the car arrived, we were told that the car was manufactured in January 2004 and that the warranty expired in January 2012. Additionally, they want to charge us over $3,000 for the repairs. I also advised them that we purchased an extended warranty in November 2007 when the car was purchased from carmax. We were advised that the extended warranty would not cover either. My car remains at the dealership because we can not afford to repair it, however, we are still making the car payments on it. I contacted Ford motors, filed a report and was later advised that they could not do anything for me.