general problems of the 2020 Ford Escape

By dong my own research, I found out it was the awd module. It's not grounded correctly. There are multiple, long detailed forum posts on this. Here is one: [xxx] I verified my awd drive module was indeed not getting enough power do to the grounding issue, which sends a cascade of other faults including the anti lock breaks, collision detection, driving modes, cruise control, auto hold, hill park assist. All are non-operational. Now my awd module does not even show up with a obd scanner. This should be a recall. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Unknownon my dash my awd fault warning has showed up followed by hill assist not available and traction control not available. I have looked for in formation online about it and it seems that it’s a recurring issue with 2020 Ford Escape and many others. I’ve seen that there was a customer satisfaction effective on April 9,2021 through April 30, 2022 but I have just gotten this car last year and dealer states that I am responsible for fixing a manufacturing issue. I’m not sure where my car was manufactured but my car is affected. I have about 83,600 miles and don’t seem to understand why I have to pay since in the customer satisfaction program it states that the module needs to be replaced before sale and customers that have already purchased the vehicle should have it replaced no charge to them. I’ve only just gotten this car last year February 2024 and not sure if the owner before got the notice or not but I have not received a notice stating anything about the awd system malfunctioning. It is definitely a safety risk if I was to be driving in a snow or ice storm and my traction control stopped working; without the awd the car is harder to accelerate and control sometimes. I haven't gotten if fixed since they want me to pay for something that they failed to make sure was working correctly. I can't afford to fix it since money is already tight but it is my only way of transportation. I have some photos of the lights/warnings and I have a document of the customer satisfaction program from 2021.

My car hesitates when driving forward from a stop and the rpm's jump up and down. It almost stalls when going up a steep hill. I have to leave it running when filling it up or it is very hard to start and sometimes will stall after starting. Check engine light is on and tire sensor light is on. The sound system doesn't work. Have read online about a lot of people having the same problems with their car.

Purchased certified vehicle from wray Ford on 2/23/24. Car was previously leased by fmcc and still listed as a Ford fleet vehicle in michigan as of 9/12/25. VIN confirms it falls under Ford safety recall 24s79, which was never performed. Vehicle experienced unintended acceleration and non-responsive braking, behaving autonomously. Fordpass connect, fmcc, and wray Ford all confirmed it was unsafe to drive based on 38 diagnostic codes from July/August 2025. June 2025 data and other dates were blacked out. No warning lights or alerts appeared in the Fordpass app prior to the crash on 8/25/25. Allstate insurance removed the vehicle from wray Ford without authorization, falsely claimed a $10,000 salvage offer, and altered the accident date in the online portal. Damage estimates were manipulated: initial $4,500 based on five photos, later inflated to $13,195 using the same photos. Shreve collision’s manager confirmed no estimate was performed, contradicting allstate’s claims. Allstate appears to be shielding Ford from liability. The vehicle is no longer in my possession, but documentation and diagnostic records are preserved. I believe Ford concealed a critical defect and suppressed diagnostic data, putting my safety and others at serious risk. I have contacted Ford and they are stalling and have misrepresented to me many things. They admitted that they can access Fordpass connect data remotely and their agent stated driving this vehicle is not an option. I have almost been involved in prior accidents because of hidden defect in my car. My son has audio recordings, transcripts, Ford pass connect data. We believe allstate changed the date of the accident to throw off a forensic examinator. I have proof of allstate changing the accident date and removing documents. This is really a serious breach by allstate and Ford. I am 80 years old, and if it was not for my son I would have never known this and my son is half owner of the car and is very concerned for my safety.

The contact owns a 2020 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving and coming to a stop, the brake pedal was depressed, but the vehicle accelerated unintendedly. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, but the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 41,000.

The front camera/ adaptive cruise control, pre collision assist, seems to have spontanteoulsy cut out while driving- a large bump in the road seems to have shook less the coaxial cable connections for the front camera in this car. This caused a fast and immediate deceleration that almost got me rear ended by the truck that was behind me. The car is at the dealership for a faulty cable/ ipma module. This seems to be a very common issue for these cars. There were no messages prior to the failure but the messages I am getting now are the front camera fault, and pre collision assist is no longer working. Adaptive cruise and even regular cruise control are no longer working either. Additionally, I am getting a system off to save battery message, even though I just installed a new battery. This faulty camera/ connection to the camera seems to be creating a parasitic draw. This car is not even 5 years old and only has 40,000 miles. Cruise control and pre collsion are massive safety features that are no longer functioning.

My vehicle had been driving great up till about three or four months ago. It started losing speed, stalling and would not accelerate unless I pressed the pedal to the floor which I had to do in order to avoid an accident. All while this was happening the service light with the ?? would comes on, but once I cut the car off and started it up again the next day or after running multiple errands the service light would be gone and my car would drive normal so I thought it was just a fluke and I didn’t worry about it again. Until now!!! just today my car would not start and at the same time I would also get a warning saying, start the car or cut the engine off as I was trying to start the car so that was crazy. And in order to get it started I had to get the battery jumped, after that it would start right up. But later if I tried starting the car up again it would barley start up without multiple attempts of me pressing the push start, and pressing down hard on the brake pedal and to top it all off my car is losing speed and stalling again. . So because of this I had the battery, terminals, starter, and alternator tested and they said everything is fine so none of that is causing my car not to start up. While trying to find a solution and get a estimate on repairs, I found out my car model has three recalls on it but from what I can see non of these recalls should cause any of these issues. Still I made a appointment to drop it off tomorrow so they can fix the recalls and hopefully figure out what the problem is and fix these other issues. Any who, I thought I should share this just in case others are having these problems and maybe Ford will correct these hazards. Thank you.

I was driving to work like normal this morning when an error message popped up that stated my all wheel drive had been turned off. It then gave another error message stating my hill parking assist had been turned off, and my cruise control is no longer functioning. Due to this I feel unsafe driving. This has happened to many other friends and family members that have owned this vehicle.

The contact owns a 2020 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while his wife pulling into a parking spot, the brake pedal was depressed; however, the vehicle unintendedly accelerated and crashed into the wall of a dollar general store. The contact stated that his wife sustained injuries and bruises to both legs from the deployment of the air bags underneath the steering wheel. Medical attention was not sought. A police report was filed; however, the police report number was not available. The vehicle was towed to a dealer but was not diagnosed. The contact retrieved the vehicle, and the vehicle was taken to an auto body shop to be diagnosed and an estimate for the repair was provided. The vehicle was not yet repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, and the contact was referred to the NHTSA hotline to report the failure. The failure mileage was 45,000.

I'm getting warnings all of a sudden that the pre collision assist, advance trac and awd are either not available or have a fault and need service. There were some other warnings which I don't recall as when driving I wanted to keep my eyes on the road as much as possible. Right now, it is not showing those. I have lost all safety features like backup sensors, forward sensors, lane wandering and blind spot warning. I have lost convenience features such as cruise control and parking assist. Mileage is 29,726.

Awd module not working was on screen after starting vehicle plus other codes about adaptive cruise control.

The car was bought at matt blatt kia in July 2023 certified pre-owned with 164 safety inspection check. 2 weeks ago the check engine light came on and it was code p0420. Kia told me to call Ford and they told me I have to pay for the diagnostics and the repair. The car was smoking under the hood and didn't drive safely. It's at a shop and was told the catalytic converter needs to be replaced and it's 2300. He said Ford's responsible for it because there's issues and I just found out there's an active recall from before I bought the car that was never fixed which caused the issue now. Ford refuses to fix the car and I've had to pay for a car rental the past w weeks and my car payment. The cars sitting at the mechanic. Soon as the engine light came on, I tried to take it where I bought it they said I had to pay for it and Ford said it's not covered and neither dealer had loaner cars for me.

While driving the car on a busy fast-flowing road the message "stop safely now" appeared on the dashboard. The car lost power and could only be driven at 20 mph and would not speed up. I pulled over and when I stopped but did not power off, the car would not start moving again. After turning the car off for five minutes it drove again properly with no issue. This is the second time this has happened in two months.

There is an issue with the instrument gauge cluster upon ignition start-up. The digital gauge cluster screen suddenly turns off and restarts after a full minute of turning on the car's ignition. After an automatic software restart of the gauge cluster and driving on the highway through northbound mopac loop 1 in austin, the cluster shows a frozen black background with the blue normal drive mode. The gauge cluster works fine but intermittently goes blank after starting the car.

Check engine light came on Friday and 24 hours later started making a whirring sound lost power on the highway started smoking and smelled like it was going to catch fire. Was impeding traffic and almost caused an accident. Had it towed to Ford dealership where a diagnostic test was run. They determined that it was engine failure and ecoboost failure. Coolant was leaking into cylinders 2&3. They claim the code fired on September 9. They asked if I had taken it anywhere to clear the code. I most definitely did not. Ford motor company is unwilling to make this right and have quoted me almost $9000 to fix this issue. Certain makes and models of 2020 Ford Escape have had engine recalls. This is clearly a malfunction on their part.

Error message that awd, and associated sponsors are not functioning. This is failure of awd module lx6z 7p238 aanp. Ford has issued a minimum recall/service warning (but not all 2020 Escape models). All warnings and assistance related to awd are incapacitated/not functioning, including auto parking brake.

I was driving on the nys thruway with lane assist and cruise control enabled. This is after already having an issue with my computer where the car a couple of months ago just stopped in the middle of the road. This morning I was driving on the thruway when suddenly, if felt like the collision impact system was engaged and the car shifted to the right slamming into the car next to me. No airbag deployment but extensive damage and collision system was completely engaged. The car issued no warnings or other issues afterwards. Nyspd arrived and completed report. Another car was involved. Only side damage.

Driving on freeway at 70 when cruise went off and car slowed down “power train malfunction,detecting erratic signals from timing sensor” came on tried to get speed back up could get to about 67 and exited 1st ramp. Stopped in parking lot called dealer. They said it would be fine after turned off an back on. “wrench repair light went off service light stayed on. After time both lights were off and drove home safely. Next time I drove was fine until drive home didn’t take freeway but busy road with 55 mph limit. Started. Losing power again then when stopped at light stalled. It took eight tries to restart and slow acceleration finally got to speed but was hesitating . Took to dealer next morning said was probably reset on gear code. After he said that may not the be problem but drive and see. At first stop had only very slow speed, rpm we’re high but only going about 3 mph. I had to cross a busy 55 mph road and was so scared it would stall again. Got home safely dealer cannot get back in for 5 days. I drive 70 or on 55 mph roads usually with at least 1 or 2 children the youngest 5 months. I am too afraid of driving this car again incase it looses power or stalls and someone isn’t paying attention. Also when these cars stall and you are in traffic you can’t just put in neutral and push out of the way. You feel like a sitting just waiting to get squashed. This problem is very dangerous for driver passenger and other cars. Please help.

The vehicle has a safety system called hill assist start and auto hold braking. When activated the driver can take their foot off the brake pedal when fully stopped and the car should stay stopped until the accelerator is engaged. The first incident occurred about 5 months ago. I had started the vehicle and put it in drive. A warning then appeared on the dashboard saying hill assist start fault and then immediately switched to auto hold fault and the car started moving on its own. After stopping the car and resetting the transmission the fault message went away and the car held in place. About 2 weeks later this same fault happened but I was unable to stop the car in time before hitting a pole on the left front quarter panel. This caused a large dent. I was able to take a picture of the fault message on the dashboard. I had to take the car in for another issue and told the service advisor about the auto hold faults. The dealer ran a diagnostic and found no issues. The issue did continue after this visit. About 2 months ago the fault occurred when the car was next to a wall and the front left side was heavily damaged when it hit the wall. I was able to take another picture of the fault message. At the same time, we had issues with getting the car into reverse on the transmission dial returned to the dealership and informed them of the continued issues. I also opened a case with Ford over the issue. The dealer again ran a diagnostic, drove the car but could not reproduce any of the issues or faults. I showed them the pictures of the fault message and they did not take it seriously. A Ford engineer also inspected the car and could find no issue. We reluctantly took the car back. Now the auto hold will turn on and off by itself when the car is stopped. The car will start to roll forward until the brake pedal is engaged. I informed Ford of this, and they said there is nothing else they can do for us. All of these issues happen at random. The car is unsafe.

The contact owns a 2020 Ford Escape. The contact stated while at a stop light, the vehicle inadvertently shifted into reverse independently. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact also stated that the driver’s seat would go down and go forward while driving. The contact stated she could not readjust the seat after several attempts. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who diagnosed that no issues were found. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring while driving. The vehicle was taken to the dealer several times and the dealer test drove the vehicle but could not determine the cause of the failure. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 2,000.

While cruise is engaged when driving down the highway, it will randomly get "cancelled" and then will reengage randomly. This occurred 4 times in a 5 minute period even when there is no traffic around.

Under unknown circumstances when attempting to accelerate the car experiences significant lag which puts me at risk of collision. I attempted to associate it with the air conditioning but it does not seem to be associated with any system. Vehicle seems to lost half the power and I am unable to safely move into traffic.

While driving down highway at approximately 45mph a warning appeared "stop safely now" with a hazard sign. The vehicle suddenly and unexpectedly lost power and slowed to appx 5mph. Was unable to regain speed and accelerator did not respond. Approximately 30 seconds later an oncoming ambulance appeared over the hill in the opposite lane and proceeded past. Power still was not restored. Continued short distance until able to safely pull over to side of road. Unable to shut off vehicle. Arranged for vehicle to be towed to dealer friendly Ford poughkeepsie NY. Vehicle had recently been serviced due to complaint that backup camera intermittently failed and because there had been a service notice indicating a service update was needed as vehicle could suddenly lose power. Vehicle was serviced.