general problems of the 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid

As I was approaching an intersection and red light, my brakes suddenly stopped working. I literally had to stand on the brake and it finally stopped moving. I continued to drive home at less than 10 mph and had to let off the gas in order to slow the vehicle down to attempt to use the brakes and car would shake when brake was applied. Took to mechanic who checked the code and it was the travel sensor.

I was driving at a normal speed, approximately 35 mph, on a city street. As traffic slowed I began to depress the brake pedal and suddenly I got several alerts on my instrument cluster (brake, abs, and regen disconnect). At the same time I lost all or most of my braking power. I was forced to use the park brake to stop the vehicle, and barely avoided a collision with another vehicle. This was a very frightening experience. After the vehicle sat for a short time, with the engine off, the system apparently reset itself and when I re-started the engine all functions were operational once again, and all the alerts were gone. However, this period was brief. Thinking this might be a system glitch, I cautiously drove the vehicle home. The next day this failure returned after about 20 miles of driving. At this time I realized that there is a serious flaw in the hybrid braking system of this model year Ford escape, and possibly other model years. I contacted a local Ford dealership and I was shocked when they informed me there are no recalls on this vehicle for this particular failure. As a mechanic I find this ridiculous. After a brief search online I found many hybrid Ford escape owner's that had the same problem as I did. At this point I deemed my vehicle unsafe to drive and decided the best thing to do was to report this failure to the NHTSA with the hopes that the Ford motor company will do something about this failure before somebody gets seriously injured or killed. My opinion is the problem is in the hydraulic control unit. (hcu). This is a complex electronic brake control unit that is specific to the Ford Escape Hybrid. For the record my vehicle had about 146,000 miles on it when this happened.

Abs brake system.

I was driving along the highway coming up to an intersection, preparing to stop at a red light in the left turn lane, when my breaks completely failed. The break pedal was stiff, and would not budge. We hit two cars that were sitting at the intersection, totaling my Ford escape as well as one of the other cars. In the past, the "service breaks" light would go on occasionally in the summer during the hot months, giving the car slightly less break pressure. This was never a serious problem, and has always corrected itself anytime I turned the car off for a while. In addition, whenever having the breaks checked, they could never detect a problem. In addition, my car had routine inspections done during an oil change a month before the accident, and a full service inspection before this. This car is unsafe for the road, and the accident was out of my control. After research, I found many 2004-2006 hybrid Ford escape owners to have the exact same complaints and experiences.

Brakes stopped working, dash lit up like a christmas tree.

The contact owns a 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid. While driving at various speeds, the vehicle stalled and several warning indicators illuminated on the instrument panel. Also, when the brakes were applied, the brake pedal would be very stiff, and the vehicle would skid. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the fan was changed in the hybrid system; however, the failure recurred. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 75,000.

Driving approximately 35 mph, suddenly received warning message about the brakes and heard warning beeps. Immediately I lost all braking ability (brake pedal felt soft and give very little resistance) but still had acceleration and steering control of the vehicle. I navigated the car to a side street and was able to slow the car down to an eventual stop on the shoulder using the emergency/parking brake. I turned the car off for approximately 5 minutes. Tested the pressure on the brake pedal and it seemed normal. I then started the car up and moved a little bit forward and depressed the brake pedal and everything worked fine. No warning messages or sounds. The car operated normally as I drove it back to a safe spot.

Was driving to work in the morning. Had been in the car approximately 10 minutes when the abs, brake, and service brakes, indicators came on all at once. Depressed brake pedal only to discover that I did in fact not have any brakes. Turned on emergency flashers and began to merge over into right hand shoulder, repeatedly stomping on brake pedal. Was able to come to a stop. This incident happened while I was approaching a very busy 3-way intersection, off of a major highway. Turned car off and back on to see if this was a malfunction, but all three indicators came on again. Had vehicle towed to Ford dealership. Paid $5280. 03 in parts and labor to have faulty hydraulic unit repaired, and hcu and hybrid system bleed. Had not had any problems with this vehicle in the past. Very thankful that this incident did not cause an accident or injuries to myself or others.

Feel for a moment like you are driving in ice(slippery). Then service brake system appear with the triangle with the admiration sign inside.

While driving home from work on the highway this afternoon my car suddenly jolted to a stop while traveling at 65 mph on a major us highway. The car flashed a "stop safely now" message on my dash and I had to coast to the end of the exit as I get off on a left handed exit. I believe this is a safety issue and from reading several posts online I have learned I am not the first. Ford should be held liable for fixing/diagnosing this issue as it is a safety concern for the general public.

Driving along in traffic when all of a sudden the brakes wouldn't function at all, even with two feet pressing on the brake pedal with all of my strength. The brake loss seems to occur about once a month, and now occurred twice in August. After shutting the vehicle off and restarting it, the brakes work again.

The contact owns a 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid. The contact stated that while driving approximately 40 mph, the brake warning indicator illuminated intermittently. The failure recurred numerous times. The vehicle was taken to the dealer four times. The technician informed the contact that the electronic hydraulic brake system would need to be replaced. The vehicle was scheduled for repairs. The manufacturer was notified of the defect. The approximate failure mileage was 86,000. Updated 11/19/lj.

1/25/13 pulled out of driveway taking daughter to school ~ as I approached stop sign I had no brakes. Pedal to floor . . . Thankfully no cars were coming ~ yanked wheel to the right and pulled up emergency brake to stop. Dropped car off at 5 star Ford nrh, TX and now have been quoted over 4600. 00 to replace hcu abs module on a car with less than 60k miles?! the part alone is 4100. 00 . . . . Are you serious?! I am digusted that I have now seen and read so many instances of other consumers with exact same issue and with no recalls or liability on Ford's behalf! this should not be tolerated and is a huge safety issue, to say the very least.

I was driving about 35 mph when the red "brake" word appeared, and the red "service brake system" message came on. Brakes seemed fine, so I continued driving about 3 miles. Stopped at a store. When I came out about 30 minutes later and started the car those light messages did not come on, so I drove toward home about 3 miles away. As I was about 3 blocks from home I drove over a recessed manhole cover in the street and the red brake word, the "service brake system" message came on again when I hit that bump, and also a white "abs" word. The brakes immediately felt like they were going out as I slowed down to turn a corner ahead. I didn't accelerate any more because the brakes felt unresponsive, so I coasted the rest of the way through the turn and tried to pull over and stop in a space where there were no parked cars, but brakes were not working and I realized I wasn't going slow enough toward a parked car ahead. I was about to swerve back out into the street but pressed the brake down hard all the way and felt it stop like a manual brake, and I stopped before hitting the parked car.

While driving, the abs comes on and the brakes basically are unresponsive. I had to slam on the brakes just to get the car to slow down. Luckily I wasn't going any faster or there might have been a very serious accident. I took the car to midas, and they fixed a few things related to braking and said that the car would be fine now, but just a few days later the same issue happened again.

"abs" warning light illuminated and "service brake system" appeared on display. Applied brake pedal and anti-lock engaged causing a "chattering" sound from brakes and severe vibration. Extra pressure on brake pedal needed to bring vehicle to a safe stop.

Letter from senator dent on behalf of constituent regarding a 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid (dot/I # 2010-2203) the consumer stated a warning light illuminated to service the brake system. The consumer stated it cost $120 to diagnose the problem as a faulty hydraulic computer module and the cost to replace it would be $ 5,000.

Catastropic failure of the brakes.

No special circumstances. Under daily driving the tone ring a part the abs braking system relies on frequently fails. Previously this required the replacement of the front axle. Currently just the tone ring is replaced.