general problems of the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid - part 1

This has happened multiple times randomly without warning. I have been on a freeway, bridge, regular street, traffic. A red warning light will come on with "stop safely now" and the car will quickly slow down. It will go really slow regardless of stepping on the gas. Once I pull over I have t stop the car and put it in park then turn it back on. This is extremely dangerous especially when I am on the freeway or on the bridge (I work in san francisco).

It was been more than couple years ago when I had error message" stop safely now" on my Ford 2008 Escape Hybrid. During that time, I was driving interstate round 50-60 miles per hour and all of sudden, it stop the engine. I took the dealer the next day. They get it fixed. Until recently, may 22, 2016 and June 20,2016 the error "stop safely message" came back. I took to the same dealer I used to go but this time. I left it for 2 days but the dealer said it will take a while to diagnose whats is the issue. I had to rent a car for those days but my car was not fix or the dealer saying it will take a while. I am sure they know what is the error code. Is this a recall?I seen other complain in here almost the same like me.

In 2012, I was driving on freeway at approx 70mph when I heard the warning sound and red light warning me to "stop safely now. " I had to cross four lanes of traffic and barely got to the shoulder before the power shut down completely. I waited and it restarted, but it did it two more times before I reached my destination. I called and took my vehicle for repair, which was determined to be the coolant pump (cost $1010. 96). The next year a recall for this issue occurred and I was refunded the cost for repair. Today, 2015, the same issue occurred. This time I had just pulled off from a traffic light making a u-turn, so traveling maybe 10 mph when I got the same sound and warning red light as I felt the engine losing power. I got through the busy intersection and safely to the shoulder. I immediately drove the vehicle to the dealership. This time I was told the issue was the throttle body. It was cleaned and reprogrammed (cost $369. 15; I was told my vehicle is not in the VIN# group). While the costs have been high financially, we are mostly concerned about the potential costs from having the vehicle suddenly lose power and shut down. Both times I have been very lucky to avoid crashes. Same symptoms, different diagnoses; concerned about what might happen next.

Electronic throttle body failure equivalent to the customer satisfaction program but told my VIN number is not in the applicable group. Loss of all engine power while on the freeway traveling at 65mph with a semi tractor trailor behind me. I was barely able to get the vehicle onto the side of the road.

The contact owns a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. While driving approximately 30 mph, the "turn off engine immediately" warning indicator illuminated. The contact pulled over and waited approximately 30 minutes before the vehicle was restarted. After the vehicle was restarted, a lock with a key warning indicator illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, but was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact also mentioned that the vehicle was previously serviced per an unknown recall for the same failure in 2013. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 60,000.

The contact owns a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. While driving various speeds, the stop safely now warning indicator illuminated on the instrument panel and the vehicle decelerated independently. After shutting down the vehicle for several minutes, it resumed normal operation once restarted. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing. The technician determined that the throttle body would need to be replaced. The manufacturer stated that the VIN was not affected by a customer satisfaction program. The contact experienced the failure described in the program. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 106,000.

The issue has happened several times. Latest was 2 days ago. While driving, the car acceleration all of a sudden drops to zero and the car will not go. It does not shut off but it cannot be driven. After about 2 or 3 minutes a message comes on the dash that says "it is safe to shut off your vehicle now. " once the vehicle is shut off and I wait about 5 minutes I can start it again. It happens while driving down the road. There is a recall issued for this problem but because there isn't a yellow triangle warning on my dash Ford and the dealer will not do the recall because there is a shortage of parts. So I have to drive an unsafe car until there are parts available all because I don't have a code. Dealer claims there is a ground fault wire problem and refuses to do the recall. This is really unsafe when driving down the freeway and all of a sudden the car comes to a complete stop on me. They know it's a problem for people but won't fix it because they don't have the parts even though recall letters came out in October. It's now January.

My wife left our house to run errands in our 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. She didn't even get out of the neighborhood before she got the "stop safely now" warning, and the vehicle went into "limp home mode". She turned around in a neighbor's driveway and came back home. I took it to the dealership today thinking that it might be the mecs pump for which there is a recent recall. It turns out that it was the throttle body causing the warning. Even though there was a NHTSA investigation on the throttle bodies of these vehicles (dp12006), the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrids were not included in Ford consumer satisfaction program #13n03, which extends the warranty of the throttle body on some escape models (among other vehicles). So, I now have to spend $775. 00 to replace a part that was known to have issues. Luckily, my wife was not on the highway with our 2-month old daughter when this occurred. I don't quite understand how escapes from 2005 to 2012 were part of the investigation, but the preliminary evaluation pe13-003 only applies to 2009 - 2012 models.

Mecs coolant pump defect causes loss of engine power at highway speeds resulting in an extremely unsafe condition. Ford is aware of the defect in this "hybrid unique" component but refuses to cover it under their hybrid component warranty. In my case I was driving at 55mph on a public highway when the dash illuminated a red triangle with the message "stop safely now". I had to scramble to get to the right shoulder and create a dangerous condition by cutting off the drivers around me. I had to pay out of pocket for a redesigned mecs pump replacement and have not experienced the issue since. Pending lawsuit, macdonald v. Ford motor CO. , case number 3:13-cv-02988, in the u. S. District court for the northern district of California.

A warning appeared "stop safely now. " we pulled over and restarted. We were able to drive the vehicle in for service without the light coming on again. The diagnosis was a bad throttle body and it was replaced under warranty and listed as a recall in the service report.

Received the red master vehicle electrical hazard warning lamp, immediately followed by engine shutting down while on highway. Cause was a failure of the mecs pump Ford pn 5m6z-8c419-a. After it happened I researched and found other reports issued for same issue. See 10597458,10604791,10596349,10592073,10588181,10588170,10568053,10567619,10567234,10566464,10565177,10560868,10557567,10554859,10548328,10547463,10537539,10533928,10531556,10525970,10523932,10523371,10521436,10521116,10516178,10514445,10513916,10511202,10505543,10504308,10500579,10500159,10461261,10462036,10462214,10463235,10468355,10474060,10475192,10476583,10477359,10485797,10490135,10460373,10459919,10459596,10459518,10458744,10457505,10457488,10456830,10456625,10455257,10455049,10454894,10453205,10448469,10448468,10409310,10409374,10410388,10411980,10412392,10416615,10419367,10430477,10326667,10329839,10348540,10349760,10352951,10360029,10361122,10393862,10393924,10399209.

Starting in may of 2014, my car's performance has been untrustworthy. Some days there's no problem-- I push on the gas pedal and the car moves accordingly. At a stop sign, I can go. While moving at 50 mph on the freeway, I can easily accelerate and move around a monster size 18 wheeler. But on the days when I press the gas pedal and the car doesn't respond, I sweat. Here's a description: foot on the gas pedal, no response. . . So I press down further, without any acceleration of the car. Finally, now freaked out that the car is not moving (and that another car is right on my tail) I press the pedal to the floor-- with no immediate reaction. Then-- bam-- surprise! it works and the sudden surge sends me flying beyond intention and I must press on the brakes to slow. At stop signs this happens and people behind me get frustrated, probably thinking I'm on drugs or something. But really, it's not me; it's my Ford Escape Hybrid 2008. The rate of incidence has gradually increased from may to the current date of July, and consequently, I am afraid to drive this car.

Car engine turned off at 70 mph. I was able to drive the car to the shoulder of the road. Prior to the engine shut-off, only the "wrench indicator" was on; it comes on occasionally. Service centers can never diagnose the issue once the car has turned off. Warning light on dash said "safety mode" at the time of engine shut-off. I was able to restart the car after about two minutes. Dash warning indictors turned off. Got back on the interstate only for the car engine to turn-off again at the base of an off-ramp about four miles farther up the road. I was driving the car at 55-60 mph before the second incident. I was able to pull into the Ford dealership.

Car goes limp. Ford has TSB 08-24-05. Mecp fails. Poor design. Has gone limp on me ~8 times. Each time car drifts to a stop regardless of location, speed, etc. . . (eg, can be going 75mph on highway) and it goes limp. Cannot move afterwards for minutes. Many cases of this happening have been reported. TSB 08-24-5 states that some 2005-2008 Escape Hybrid and 2006-2008 mariner hybrid vehicles may exhibit a red triangle light and codes indicating a transaxle overtemp. This condition may result in reduced power as the system activates fail safe operation. Codes p1a0e, p1a0f, p0a3c, p0a3e, p0a7a, p0a7c and p1a0d may also be set.

Multiple incidents of the vehicle shutting down occurred on 3/8/2014 beginning while travelling along a 2-lane highway (CA-74 around idyllwild area) at approximately 10:30 p. M. Vehicle displayed red triangle icon with exclamation point inside the triangle and words in red "stop safely now", at which point power to the engine was disabled although power steering appeared to still be active. I then pulled over at a turn-out (luckily one was nearby since I was going uphill and losing speed quickly). I proceeded to turn the ignition to the off position and within minutes re-started without further incident until approximately midnight at which point I was travelling along a major freeway in san diego I-15 southbound at a speed of 65-70 mph. At this point the vehicle became disabled after displaying the red icon and words described above. This happened again 4 separate times. These 4 incidents occurred within a 6 mile stretch of each other and within a 20 minute window. There was no other indication that anything was wrong with the vehicle - no system notice of overheating, faulty electrical, etc.

We were driving on highway 80 going about 70 mph when the engine suddenly shuddered and quit. A red triangle with an exclamation point in the center appeared on the dash with the message "stop safely now". Fortunately, there was a shoulder and no traffic in the right lane, so we pulled off. We shut the engine off and restarted it a few minutes later. We proceeded, staying in the right lane and the same thing happened. This occurred 5 times including once on the san francisco bay bridge. In researching this, I found that this is a common problem with Ford Escape Hybrids and that it is a faulty motor electronics coolant pump. Ford has issued a technical service bulletin about this problem (tsb08-24-5), but has not yet issued a recall. Since this is a potentially serious problem that could lead to injury or death, I strongly urge you to force Ford to issue a recall.

Throttle body failure; acceleration issues.

While traveling at highway speed, the car suddenly loses all power and the stop safely now light comes on in the dash. I had to pull over quickly while avoiding being killed by highway traffic. No warning at all. During my road trip, this happened 3 times on the highway. During my return trip, it happened 3 more times. Problem will only occur at highway speeds and during long road trips. My 20-min drive to work has no issues. This is a serious safety problem and a flawed design on Ford's part. My family and I could have been seriously injured or killed during any one of the six times the car mysteriously died on the highway. From my research, this problem can be caused by several components and is difficult to diagnose in the shop. For older models, there has been TSB's issued, but not for 2008 and later models. I have known several 2008 models that experienced the same problem around 60,000 - 70,000 miles. Browsing though this website shows many have complained about this issue. Ford needs to address this ASAP before someone gets killed or injured on the highway.

While driving 65 miles per hour an alarm sounded and the odometer read "stop safely now. " I lost all power to the vehicle and was able to pull over safely. I was able to restart the vehicle with no problem and continued on my way. When I reached 60 miles per hour the same thing happened. This continued to happen 6 times and then the odometer read "high engine temp" and the vehicle then died and made a "whirling" sound. I had the vehicle towed to the dealership and when I got there they told me "I was able to start it right up. " the dealership found it to be TSB 8-24-5. The coolant pump was not working and needed to be replaced. Ford is well aware of this problem and still have not placed a recall on this!! what will it take, people to die when this happens? for me, this was the last straw. I traded in my 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid as I no longer felt safe in this vehicle!!.

Driving on the highway, engine decelerated, red triangle warning light appeared on dash, with direction to get off of the road. I did so, turned off engine and waited a few minutes. Engine then restarted without warning light coming on. Between that event and arriving home (approximately 10 miles), this occurred 5 more times. This had never happened before. Researching this online, there appear to be hundreds if not thousands of people with the same experience. This needs to be investigated and Ford needs to take responsibility for resolving this issue.

Driving along, my wife suddenly noticed that braking was extremely difficult. Dashboard states abs system failure, and regen system failure. She pulled over and turned car off. Restarting, failure lights still come up, braking still extremely difficult. A look under the hood, and the brake fluid is almost completely gone! it'd been filled at last oil change (less than 1500 miles ago) took car to Ford dealership. After 2 days, they determined that the master cylinder and hcu needed to be replaced, that they would be special order parts and that it'd cost extra $ for repairs due to the complexity of the repair. (I'd told the dealership that I'd researched and this is a very common issue, Ford has many tsbs out for this, calls into question the training or the ability of this dealership to properly do the repair) Ford is the only supplier for parts for this particular repair, and they charge a premium price for them! $7000 for parts and labor to repair a safety related problem that Ford should be voluntarily recalling. If they're not going to issue a safety recall, they should at least make the parts available for a lot less money!.

While driving on the freeway, the "stop safely now" lit up after I felt a jolt to the car, which then slowed down. I reached the side of the road and turned the car off for a few minutes. Upon restarting the car the red ssn light was off and I was able to reach a qualified auto repair. They ran the diagnostics but were unable to see a problem after going through their code process, nor recreate the ssn alert. This first happened on February 27th 2013. Again, having three children in the car with me and to have this happen on the freeway was (on the way to disneyland) quite frightening and hazardous! I have read many many stories of feh owners with the same issue! this is a defect to the car, and not due to normal wear and tear. It is a huge safety concern and while I was not injured, the fact that I had to suddenly slow down and pull over could have resulted in other car owners on the freeway being in an accident. Seriously.

I was driving down the highway and the vehicle abruptly lost power, a triangle with an exclamation point came on in the dashboard and the data system said "stop safely now". This happened multiple times during the same drive. The dealership replaced the mec pump. About one year later the same issue began occurring multiples times per day until I was able to get it to a dealership. They replaced the throttle body, the issue occurred again. They replaced the transmission, the issue occurred again. It is now at the Ford dealership getting diagnosed yet again. This is a very serious safety issue and must be resolved.

While commuting to work traveling at interstate speeds, the vehicle indicated a red triangle with exclamation mark enclosed, a message in the driver message center reading 'stop vehicle safely', and an immediate loss of power on both fossil fuel engine and electrical motor drive components. Coasting to the side of the interstate was stressful and exceedingly dangerous during rush hour traffic at speeds in excess of 70 mph. Without extensive driver experience, this incident could have become a fatality. This powerless action should be investigated due to its very potential of fatality.

Car started and after backing out and moving forward, stop engine now message came on with a red triangle on dash. Slowly moved to a parking space. Turned engine off and waited for one minute and restarted. Message was gone and car driven home. Brought to dealer following week with description of problem. They diagnosed as a failure of the throttle body and replaced the throttle body and assembly at cost of $629. Read in other complaints that problem resurfaces later. Happy that I was not traveling on freeway when the problem occurred. Considering frequency of this and other problems related to shutdown and hybrid, should a recall be issued?.

Stop safely now-lights up and engine kills/quits. Will restart after stopping and restarting vehicle engine kills creating a dangerous situation.

This is the second of two incidents where power was lost and the car became unresponsive. First, was one week prior driving from la to san diego at 5pm. We got a flat on the highway in irvine CA. We pulled over and changed the tire but when we started the engine it would not start. The lights came on but with a warning light to "stop safely now". I thought this was from the tire and pressed the reset button but the warning would not clear. We jumped the car once and were unsuccessful, we jumped it again and again nothing, we towed the vehicle to a mechanic and the tow truck tried to jump it again and this time the lights would not come on. We jumped while holding the button for the high voltage battery which we found out about in the manual but the car would not start. We paid the tow and called for a ride home. I missed work and my mother took me back to la to wait for the car. The mechanic replaced the battery. I waited 8 hours for the mechanic to say that the car needed to be taken out of a safety mode and that this can't be done manually in the event it happened again. The next week, after pulling out of the driveway to go home Sunday night the red triangle light came on and warned me to "stop safely now" and then I could not accelerate past 20mph and then 10mph as I slowed to pull over. I killed the engine, waited ten min. And restarted but the car would not accelerate and the light came on again. I waited until midnight to be towed to the dealer, got a ride, and I am now on the bus until something can be done. After researching other complaints I am sad to find that this problem is common, it is unresolved, it is dangerous for a safety mechanism to cause the driver to suddenly lose power, and it is inconvenient to be stranded and unable to troubleshoot the car if there is nothing wrong with the engine and it is a computer malfunction.

While driving down the road at highway speed on a summer night at around 9:00 pm, the car's engine suddenly stopped, a red warning triangle light came on, and the dash message screen said, "stop safely now. " I pulled the car to the side of the road, turned it off, and was able to resume driving after a few minutes. On 5 separate trips subsequently, this sudden loss of engine power has happened, often in heavy traffic where pulling to the side of the road was very difficult and dangerous. The failure often happens multiple times on the same trip. Each time the failure has happened has been in the summer and in the late afternoon or evening. Each time the car can be restarted once pulled to the side of the road and turned off.

While driving on the highway during a long trip (9 hours) a triangular warning light flashed stop safely now, and the car decelerated quickly as though the engine had abruptly stopped, barely allowing time to pull off road. Fortunately, there was a shoulder at that spot on the highway. There is no way to safely stop a car this suddenly that is traveling on a highway! after reading the manual which directed driver to wait a bit and then restart car, the driver did so and everything seemed fine until it happened again, twice, on the highway again after driving for only 2 hours. Please; just because there wasn't a crash, injury, fire, or death does not mean this is "safe enough. ".

Traveling on freeway at approximately 70 mph. Without warning, engine completely shut down. Chime sounded and warning message appeared on dashboard saying "stop safely now. " red triangle with exclamation point in center appeared on dash. I was informed by Ford service department during repairs that this is a known failure problem as related in Ford TSB 09-18-6, affecting similar vehicles up to 2007.

While driving on the interstate at around 55-65mph the vehicle lost engine power, a warning light came on and a "stop safely now" message. The vehicle lost the ability to accelerate but we were able to coast to a stop at an exit that happened to be nearby. Due to construction and the removal of the shoulder lane, had this happened merely a mile earlier in the route there would have been no place to stop safely. The same warning light and engine power loss occurred about 10 months prior while driving on a two- lane highway. We were able to coast to a stop safely then as well, but we're again lucky to be in little traffic and in an area with sufficient shoulder space. After taking the vehicle to our dealership for service we were told no problem could be identified. Each time this occurs we have been able to restart the car and complete our trip. The inability for the vehicle to accelerate and the instant power loss with this warning is a serious safety concern that should be addressed in a recall particularly if this is the result of a faulty part.

While driving down the interstate at 70 miles per hour, the engine suddenly shut off and I received a warning light, and the message "stop safely now. " this particular instance occurred on 1-95 south just south of washington on a portion under construction with no shoulder, it is extremely lucky that no major accident occurred. However, knowing that this issue is frequent as can be seen by fellow complaints, and from that fact that this has happened before, this vehicle should receive an immediate recall, as did the identically modeled Toyota hybrid versions. The first time it happened the car was less than 2 years old. This is not acceptable, and it will eventually kill someone.

While driving I noticed a lack of power and got the message "stop safely now". As the manual stated I pulled over, waited a few minutes. The car started up again but the event kept happening all the way home. I brought the car to a dealer who made a repair costing 642 dollars. The car ran fine for a month but when on a major highway I had the same experience except it was more difficult to deal with the loss of power in busy traffic. I was in the passing lane to allow another car enter the highway from an on ramp when it happened and I was lucky to be able to cross three lanes of traffic to bring the car to rest. Again, it happened all the way home causing me to finally drive in the breakdown lane with flashers on. I went online and learned that this is an ongoing problem with Ford hybrids. My question is why no recall on such an expensive and dangerous problem?.

I started the car up and as it sat idling the stop safely now message displayed and the engine died. I turned everything off on the car, reset the message and restarted the car. As I pulled out of the driveway and stepped on the gas, the car again displayed the message stop safely now and the engine died. I had to again turn everything off in the car, reset the message, and restart the car. I have no idea what is wrong this time that is making the message display. There needs to be a recall on this vehicle. The stop safely now message kills the engine at any speed. This is a very serious problem. No car should simply shut the engine down while driving.

Driving vehicle on interstate highway @ highway speeds. While merging into traffic, experienced abrupt loss of power. Amber wrench warning light came on. Moved to shoulder of road in heavy traffic, stopped vehicle, turned off ignition & after about 30 - 40 seconds restarted vehicle, power restored & vehicle continued to drive normally (wrench light off). Took vehicle to dealer, where throttle body was replaced, not under warranty (despite TSB 09-19-12). On Feb. 3, 2012, experienced similar loss of power problem, and the amber wrench light and master vehicle electrical hazard warning light came on, and vehicle completely shut down (mileage at this point: 45,500 miles). After shutting off the ignition & restarting, the vehicle would run normally for 45-60 seconds, then would fault & shut down. I was close to my workplace, so I limped it back to work. Called dealer, who recommended calling Ford's roadside assistance. Vehicle was transported to hybrid certified dealer, where the throttle body was replaced (under warranty this time) and the pcm was reprogrammed. When I came to pick the vehicle up, I experienced the same loss of power & warning lights (open wrench light). Dealer now claims a sensor in the shift assembly is bad & is causing the problem (claiming this is not covered by warranty). Vehicle is still at dealer at the time of this post.