general problems of the 2009 Ford Escape - part 2

My family were returning from vacation when the car deccelerated with no warning. We were on the interstate and we were inches from being rear ended by the upcoming traffic. I have been told the issue is with the throttle body and that it is not being recalled because you can still drive it. How about you tell that to my terrified girls (ages 6 and under) that it is safe to have cars and trucks flying past you at 70 mph and you can't accerlerate to move out of the way quick enough. A month later, the same thing happened to my wife returning from work. That's twice in 2 months. We have only the one car and have not been on vacation for fear of the car deccelerating. I guess instead of being in the business of preventing accidents, people have to die first before anything will be done to protect consumers.

P2111, throttle actuator control system stuck open, I had to drive to an auto zone to get this code while the car was in this condition. Otherwise these was no error code recorded. The engine run at an idle and will not accelerate when accelerator is depressed.

For the past 2 months my 2009 Ford Escape XLT has been jumping and shifting roughly, I thought it was transmission related despite that I flushed my transmission a little over 1 year ago. On 04/24/14 I was driving 60 mph cruise control on the highway and the cruise control cut off and my 2009 Ford Escape XLT began to lose speed, I notice when the 18-wheeler behind me was approaching my bumper rapidly, nearly rear ended me - had to coast 2 lanes over to get to on coming exit to avoid rear ending due to heavy traffic. My SUV would not re-start until the throttle control/powertrain light cut off however the engine light remains on. I had to coast lanes of a busy highway with 8 am traffic to the exit ramp and stopped in the middle of the street and was stranded until my SUV started again.

The throttle has failed four times in traffic. The engine has lost power and vehicle speed has been greatly reduced. I have taken it to a Ford dealership but was told if it did not occur when I brought it in that Ford motor CO. Would not replace or repair the throttle body. Here is my question ,how do I get the vehicle to a dealership when it occurs? Ford issued me a warning but want make repairs,what good is the warrenty?.

We had noticed that the transmission had started slipping and gradually got worse. We checked the trans fluid and it was very low. Come to find out we had been losing fluid and didn't know the problem so we took it to our mechanic because we bought it used from patterson in mt. Airy and the warranty had expired. Our mechanic found that the seal had blown so he put a new axle in also because there was wear on it. Well. . . . We have driven it a total of 2 weeks and the very same thing has happened so it is back to the repair shop again. After investigating this I am finding that other people are having the very same problem and it is very frustrating and getting very expensive. Right now I would not recommend this vehicle to anyone. Oh, and by the way, my mechanic said that this car had this same repair done on it before we purchased it!!!!! looking at my options right now because I can't afford to keep taking this to the shop. My fear is that we are going down the road with our grandbabies and this car stops and we are stranded. And also if it overheats because of no fluid. . . Could fire be an issue??.

As I tried to accelerate the vehicle went into a limp mode. I had no response from the accelerator pedal. The vehicle would move forward at a idle speed. Yellow wrench light came on. After engine was turned off and restarted vehicle ran as normal for a few days and it happened again.

This video demonstrates the exact problem I have. . Read more...

I was driving on a 4 line highway in the passing lane. My car lost power and the gas pedal would not work. I had to pull into the turning lane because a car behind me almost rearended me. Had to have car towed. This is the second time this has happened in a year. Last time the garage had my car for 5 days and could not find anything. My car was towed to a local Ford dealership. I had to get a loaner car for the second time in two years. Thank god that I was not in a wreck and could get pulled over onto the brim of a 4 lane dangerous highway. After looking o line last eve and today I found that other people have had the same problem some not as lucky as iam. The garage told me today that it is the electronic throttle body and will cost me 300$ or more. I am hoping that something can be down to prevent other serious accidents or even deaths due to this malfunction.

My wife had started the 2009 Ford Escape and was traveling at a speed of approximately 5mph, pulling into traffic. The car began moving, felt as if there as no power. She checked to ensure that the car was in drive. The car would not go over 5 mph. The wrench light came on, no speedometer reading, and she proceeded attempting to engage the car again. The car was drivable for three miles home, with no speedometer reading, limited power. As she drove, she needed to put the car in park to steady the car. A she proceeded to re-engage the car the shifter was "clunky, slipping, and did not feel secure". She did get the car safely home, however we checked the car about an hour after this experience and the car continues to not seem to engage the power train, is not shifting properly, has no power in the engine. There appear to be no leakage of fluids, the car has been properly serviced, has fuel, has a new battery, and we are wondering if this issue is now covered under any warranty. Please initiate an investigation to the many complaint that seem to follow a similar pattern with this vehicle.

Driving at 50 mph on highway and car went into limp mode. This reduced car speed to 20mph and I had to immediately pull over out of traffic to avoid getting hit from behind. Turned car off for 30 minutes and started car up and drove home. This happened 2 weeks later.

My car lost acceleration in an intersection going about 15 mph. The engine was running slow and rough. The throttle had no effect on engine speed. After about 10 minutes of rough idling, the vehicle was turned off and I was then able to immediately restart the engine and it was able to drive home. This appears to be a known fault with the Ford Escape and could result in accidents. My understanding is that this is a known design problem with the throttle control system on the Escape.

Driving along, engine loses power, car is jerking, wrench light comes on, idles quickly. Coasted off side of road. Turn car off, turned back on - wrench light off - drive away as if nothing happened. Drive for another couple hours, same thing. This has happened quite a few times in the past 2 weeks.

While driving on highway at a speed of around 60mph my truck beeped and signaled a wrench light on the dashboard and my vehicle just stopped and lost speed and I couldn't accelerate to continue to move to a safe area. My vehicle just completed stopped in the middle of the highway while vehicles are coming at the same speed behind me. This has happened several times once entering a ramp on to highway accelerating on to the highway the vehicle just turned off. Also once driving heavy traffic the vehicle just stopped and a vehicle has to brake and swerve to avoid hitting me from behind. Just to know the highway incident was the most horrifying experience for me and my family. We were so shaken up from it thinking a car was going to hit us since they were coming up from behind us at the same rate of speed 60mph when my vehicle just turned off. Please look into this as it can cause a serious an accident resulting in someone or family being critically injured or loss of life. I have been reading all over the internet of the same problems and situation that occur because of this vehicle failure. Please make this a recall from the throttle body I've been reading about on these vehicles. Under affected parts didn't know what to put but have read its the throttle body.

While driving the vehicle lost power and wrench light came on. When came to a stop the vehicle ran rough at idle and surged. Car taken immediately to Ford and they misdiagnosed. After that it continued to do it multiple times on city streets and interstates. The car would have no power and the engine would not accelerate when I would step on gas. Had to shut the engine off and restart to make anything work. After that I took it to Ford again. This time they replaced throttle body-air intake and also throttle body and motor assembly.

Vehicle suddenly lost power and slowed down. Symptoms match what others report to be a bad throttle body which Ford has changed design of. Has happened twice now. Ford says we have to pay for this repair but it sounds like it should be a recall.

On Monday November 5th, 2013 I was driving my 2009 Ford Escape down the freeway at 9pm going home. I had been driving for about 10 minutes when the engine felt like it hesitated and stumbled. I realized that I could not get the vehicle to accelerate so I pulled off to the side of the road. There was a wrench symbol on the dash board. I experienced the same issue on Sunday November 11th, 2013 I was driving for about 15 minutes and the vehicle stumbled again and the symbol came on the dash. I turned the car off and waited 5 minutes. It started up and did not have any issues until today Tuesday November 12th, 2013. I was driving on the freeway at about 70 miles an hour and the engine stumbled again. I pulled off the side of the freeway and turned the vehicle off, waited 10 minutes and the car started up with no fault code on dash. I drove home the back roads. After investigating online I came across the article that this is a recurring event for the Ford Escapes.

Vehicle lost power up steep hill almost resulting in rolling backwards down hill. Car had previously and intermittently lost power surge when accelerating onto highway into a merge situation.

As exiting a highway the car just lost power. The gas pedal was useless and the rpms were about 1000. Pulled off to shoulder and shut car down, waited 5 minutes and started car and it was ok. Three days later it did the same thing while driving in the middle lane of highway. Had to coast to the shoulder did the same thing of shutting car down and starting again. Took car to dealership service and was determined it was the throttle body through diagonistics. The throttle body was replaced and reprogrammed. This defect may and will cause serious accidents and potential fatalities due to the way that the throttle just stops and the car is unable to speed to a needed speed for safety on highways.

During a basic oil change, we were informed the oil pan needed to be replaced because the threads for the plug were stripped. The service manager, I am basing this on what we were told by trained Ford technicians, stated "the oil pan is made of aluminum and it has stripped out. " when asked what the plug was made of he said, " steal. ". So now we have a car that has an oil plug that could come open at any time because it has become unsafe due to steal on aluminum creating a hole larger than was designed. We have a piece of the pan that has been stripped by the plug. So, I am going 75 mph down the highway and the plug comes out because it no longer fits correctly. Suddenly my engines freezes up. I'll be lucky to keep it on the road. We are very concerned that we will have an engine issue due to the engineering of the oil pan/plug. As of now they want us to pay $485 for anew oil pan that was poorly engineered. A steal plug on an aluminum pan is asking for trouble. We request Ford be required to replace the pans with steal ones.

On the way to school around 7:50 am, my son (new driver) stopped at a traffic light in the middle of our town. He was first in line. Once the light turned green, he pressed the gas pedal and the truck started to move forward slowly and then stopped in the middle of the intersection. He said he was pushing the gas pedal, but the engine wasn't responding. The engine was still running, so he tried pressing the pedal multiple times and still got no response. He put the truck in park and turned off the engine. He restarted the truck and the gas pedal began to respond and he was able to proceed through the intersection. Upon doing our own investigations and research, we had the throttle body replaced last weekend (not inexpensively). So far, the problem has not returned, but the incident has shaken our faith in that vehicle. We're very concerned that it could leave him in a very dangerous situation again. This seems to be a known and extremely dangerous problem. Please recall this vehicle and fix this part before someone is seriously and unnecessarily injured (or worse).

I had just come off a highway exit ramp and drove about 100 yards at 40mph, when the car suddenly slowed down to a stop. The odometer dropped from 40mph to zero in about 4 seconds when I just coasted to the side of the road. A wrench light appeared on the dash. I place the car in park and the only power I had was the electric that powered the headlights. I shutoff the ignition and restarted the car after about 15 seconds. The start was sluggish and when I placed the car in drive, it jerked forward. The car acceleration was poor for about 10 seconds before it finally caught the proper gear. I drove the car another two miles at 30mph with a little bit of hesitation in the engine. At this point the wrench light on the dash shut off. I have had no further issues since.

I was traveling 60mph in my 2009 Ford Escape on the highway and all of a sudden an orange wrench warning light came on and my car immediately drops to less than 10mph. I was fortunate enough to be able to get to the median with out incident. The car did start up again and was able to get to a mechanic after it did the same thing about 10x in a 15 mile drive. The mechanic said this was the second time in less than a month he had replaced the electronic throttle body in a 4 cylinder Ford Escape. This is very dangerous!!.

While driving the vehicle at around 50 mph it lost all reaction to the accelerator and coasted to a stop while in heavy traffic. I turned the car off and waited 5 minutes, then started it again and began to drive. Within seconds the vehicle repeated the incident. I managed to get it into my driveway after repeated stops and restarts of the engine.

We have been having issues with the car since August of 2013. The car would lose power while driving slowing down to a crawl without notice. This issue happened about 5 times since that occurrence. Car has been in the shop 5 times since that time with about $2000 in repair bills that included engine work, new battery, new alternator, etc. The car was towed each time to mongos auto repair in cinnaminson NJ. On this occurrence I did a google search and found that this model is having common problems as per the above and the throttle body needs to be replaced to repair the issue. Mongos checked and there was a recall by Ford to repair this issue. We never received a recall notice from Ford. We were informed it would have been covered under the drive train warranty if the car had 60,000 miles or less. My wife drives the vehicle and was put into very dangerous situations due to this faulty defect in manufacturing. Can I contact someone about never receiving the recall and get reimbursed for the $2000 in repairs plus the new bill to replace the throttle body?.

When driving on a busy 4 lane road, the vehicle suddenly lost fuel power and began creeping down the road at less than 5 km/h the wrench light was flashing and it was a few hundred meters to the nearest side street, fortunately I was able to make it to the side street without getting struck by traffic moving 60 km/h faster than I was, I thought that the computer may have had a one time failure but this happened again 3 days after with my young son in the back seat. That was Monday oct 14 2013, I am super mad at Ford for not recalling this throttle body problem already it seems like a constant point of failure and it is unsafe to drive these cars when this is happening.

As I was driving and the cruise control was set the road I was traveling had slight hills. It seems as though when the car went to down shift and speed up is when it lost power and went into limp mode. The last occurrence was on 10-17-13 while I was driving on a flat road. I had to brake for traffic when I went to accelerate is when it lost power and went into limp mode.

The first time I had a throttle failure (first time wrench light came on), I was on the free way going about 65 mph. My acceleration quickly died and the gas pedal was inactive and useless while my car slowed down . I pulled over on the side of the freeway left shoulder going north on the 5, and after a few minutes, my car turned back on and worked fine . I took my car to firestone to cleanup throttle , only to find myself experience another car breakdown for the same reason the next day on the freeway going the same speed , this occurred 2 more times going about 25 mph the next day . All 4 times ,, my wrench light came on my Escape as well as completely dying as far as acceleration . Each time, I had to pull over to the side. The last time this occurred was earlier today 10/10/13 as I was makin a left at a red light. Where I was afraid my car would not make it through the intersection.

While driving at highway speed I lost acceleration. SUV shook then lost speed quickly. Was able to pull onto off road. Wrench lite on dash. I turned off SUV then restarted and lite went away. Drove to next turn off so I could turn around to head home. Samething happened on way home but after restarting SUV the wrench lite changed to engine service lite. Was able to get home from there. Took for service which concluded electronic throttle body was dirty so it cleaned. Was able to drive for about 20 days when issues accrued again. Throttle body needed replaced.

I was driving appx 50 mph and out of the blue the car briefly sputtered and the wrench light came on. I pressed the gas but couldn't accelerate. I coasted to the side of the road and turned the engine off. When I cranked it back up everything seemed to work, and the wrench light was off. I called my Ford service department from the roadside and immediately drove it in for diagnostics. They said it was the throttle body, and the part was back ordered. Left car at Ford because I didn't want to take the chance of this happening again on a road or highway with no place to pull off. Bought the car new in 09 from this dealership and have had all scheduled maintenance done at this dealership. No mechanical issues until this one. Driving habits are normal.

While driving the Ford Escape under normal driving and road conditions at 60 mph, I lost complete acceleration and had to steer the vehicle to the shoulder off the freeway to avoid traffic trailing behind and beside me. It was a dangerous situation to say the least. The engine was still running but I had no power to accelerate. I turned off the vehicle and restarted it. I was able to drive the vehicle slowly off the freeway with intemittent loss of acceleration and into a parking area. I was able to drive the vehicle to my home slowly with intermittent losses of acceleration,having to stop multiple times to turn off and restart my engine. I attempted to drive the vehicle from my home to an auto mechanic shop and the same situation occured on the way to the shop. The engine check light and the wrench light was on the dashboard. The mechanic performed a computer diagnostics and it indicated a dirty or damaged throttle body. The mechanic cleaned the throttle, and I test drove the vehicle again. Within a short time of driving the vehicle the loss of complete acceleration occurred multiple times again. At that point the mechanic indicated that I would need to replace the throttle body. I called the Ford dealership and explained my situation, whereby they responded that they could examine my vehicle to determine the cause of the problem. They also indicated that the throttle body is not under the powertrain warranty. I strongly feel that this defect which poses a life threatening situation for owners, should be under recall as it has become a common problem with this make & model of Ford vehicle. I have read many on-line testimonials of other owners having the same problem and even some that had serious auto incidents.

Tl - the contact owns a 2009 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving approximately 45 mph, there was a sudden loss of engine power. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic and the dealer and no failures were found. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 89,700. - ll.

The Ford Escape lost power when we were driving on the highway. We had to limp back to home. It was really dangerous. Dropped the car in a Ford dealer. The technician told us the car has a failed trottle body. We are out of warranty and the replacement will cost us around $700. The car has less than 30,000 miles on it. Why could this happen?.

Several times, driving at high speeds, lost complete control of acceleration. Engine throttle revved but pushing pedal made no difference. One occasion we almost wrecked at high speed. The car remains on, but acceleration pedal does nothing. Turn car off, turn back on and it works fine. Has happened in park, slow speeds and high speeds. Ford won't do anything. Please help!.

I turned on car, proceeded to drive, yellow wrench illuminated on dash, tried to accelerate, vehicle was bucking and losing power, turned vehicle off and it was fine. Until 9/23/13 when the car repeated this action again.

I had my 2month old great granddaughter with me as I was taking her home. I was a block from entering the freeway and the car just quit running. I tried to start it but it kept dying. Finally it started and I went 10 miles an hour back home which was only a few blocks from there. I had it towed to Ford the next morning. They called today 9/20 that the problem was the throttle body. They would have to order it and it was on back order as alot of Escapes have this problem. There should be a recall on this part as this could cause a very bad accident and we could have been killed if we were on the freeway. I have done my research and there are alot of complaints on this . I still have a warranty but this is not covered. I feel they should fix it as it a dangerous thing.