general problems of the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid

20 problems related to vehicle speed control have been reported for the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid based on all problems reported for the 2008 Escape Hybrid.

1 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 06/14/2019

The vehicle won't stop. The regen brake disabled light, brake light and check engine light comes on. No brakes at all.

2 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 01/18/2019

Ford electronic throttle body (etb) issue my 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid has been intermittently experiencing issues related to an ill-designed etb since 2010 (when we purchased the vehicle). In the past 5 years, the frequency of issue occurrence has progressively increased. Current rate of occurrence is 3 - 6 times per week. Randomly the vehicle goes into "limp mode" while driving, where the engine shuts down to nearly zero power. Dashboard displays "pull over safely". If this occurs in heavy traffic (which is many times the case on our los angeles freeways), there is no way to pull over safely with nearly zero engine power. The vehicle is literally stranded in freeway traffic until the etb is reset. The vehicle's ignition must be turned off and back on to reset the etb. This faulty etb part across many Ford models for 10+ years is putting vehicle owners' safety at high risk. Ford should issue a recall of all vehicles with these ill-designed, faulty etbs. Vehicle owners should not be financially responsible for replacement of a part which is clearly faulty in its design.

3 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 08/31/2018

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).

4 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 06/25/2016

The triangle/! symbol comes up and engine loses all power on the freeway. My car has been into the dealership twice for this dangerous issue. The 2008 Escape Hybrids are supposedly not covered for throttle body issues and my coolant fan for the battery is supposedly "updated" and doesnt need to be replaced. . Over 700 dollar fix for safety and flaw in quality of pats?.

5 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 09/05/2014

Currently Ford has a recall (14s19). The coolant pump may malfunction, which can cause the hybrid electronics systems to overheat and possibly lead to more serious problems. "when the hybrid electronics system gets too hot it will shut down the powertrain, resulting in a stall-like condition, increasing the risk of a crash," according to Ford's filing with NHTSA. My vehicle has this problem. It has happened several times, and I have already notified this agency. Once again, on September 5, 2014, I was driving in maryland, near DC, in rush hour traffic, and I lost all power. It is really horrible losing all power when you are in the left most lane (no left shoulder), and lose all power. Several cars almost hit us. . . Again. I don't care if my hybrid system is overheating. I would rather destroy the batteries than all of a sudden losing all power in DC rush hour.

6 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 07/29/2014

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.

7 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 05/23/2014

I was driving my 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid at about 65mph in the leftmost lane shortly after merging from i83 south onto i395 (baltimore beltway) when, with no advance warning whatsoever, the gas pedal stopped responding at the same time as the triangle with an exclamation point and the "stop safely now" (as if I had any choice) message appeared. By the grace of god I was able to coast across 5 lanes of traffic to the breakdown lane. I was anxious to get home to feed the dogs, and my husband was out of town, so rather than call a tow truck I restarted the car and kept going in the right-hand lane for another 3 or 4 miles until the same thing happened again. It took another 2 hours (with an 15-20 additional stalling episodes) until before I was able to make it home to annapolis. Through the internet (and my husband crawling under the car) we have confirmed that the source of the problem is a well-documented faulty oem hybrid drive train mecs coolant water pump. Seems to me that this is a catastrophic failure that is every bit as serious as the gm ignition switch problem, and a fatal accident waiting to happen. It is unconscionable that Ford has not issued a recall on this issue, and unconscionable that NHTSA has not forced Ford to do so.

8 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 04/11/2014

I was driving on the highwary going about 70 mph when the acceleration went out and the ok to stop safely light came on. I pulled over and stopped and restarted the car and it operated ok. This is probably the 6th time this has happened in the last month. I will be taking it in for repairs. I called Ford regarding this issue because there is a limited customer satisfaction program but was told because my car was not built at a particular factory my car was not covered by this limited program, even though it is the exact same problem as I have seen on other websites. This is should be part of a recall.

9 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 03/08/2014

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.

10 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 02/16/2014

While traveling at interstate speeds (65 -70 mph) in the middle lane, my 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid had a sudden loss of power with a red triangle exclamation mark indicator light in the driver message center reading 'stop vehicle safely', had to coast to the side of the interstate which was very dangerous, this sudden loss of power incident almost ended in me being rear ended and then in a collision as I tried to cross over to the emergency lane. Could you please investigate this. I will be taking my car into the shop tomorrow to see what they say. I see on the internet that many other Ford escape owners have had this same thing happen to them.

11 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 08/03/2013

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.

12 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 07/24/2013

Recently while driving, my dashboard suddenly displays a red triangle with an exclamation point in it and advises me to "stop safely now. " regardless of whether I can stop safely or not, I lose power suddenly. This has happened many times, and I have been informed that this is a generic warning that covers numerous car problems. Unfortunately, I do many miles on the highway at higher speeds. Ignoring the past couple of years when this has happened, and I made complaints to this site then, the most current bouts have occurred when I was in very heavy commuter volume on the same highway that is currently under construction with no shoulders. I lose power, without even the opportunity to at least get out of the middle lane. This severely disrupts traffic, and I have almost been rear-ended numerous times. What's worse is, I have taken it to a Ford dealership and they have not been able to identify the problem. I have had numerous things fixed, but I still have this problem. This is not safe, and most likely, one day I will be injured because of it. I would rather have the option of ruining my vehicle by driving it when I shouldn't then to not have the option of getting out of harms way. I understand that other years of escapes were recalled for this problem, so why not mine? thank you.

13 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 12/28/2012

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?.

14 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 08/27/2012

I have received a "stop safely now" message from my hev on two seperate occasions. Both times while traveling on the interstate at speeds of 65 - 75 mph. On both occasions, the message occured after a couple of hours of travel. Luckily, the first time it happened we were on a one lane highway, but the second time we were traveling in the high speed lane and had to try to cross three lanes of traffic to pull over. When the message occurs the SUV loses acceleration. It immediatley drops your speed to 60 mph and continues to decelerate and you can't speed up if you try. Try crossing a four lane highway with a speed limit of 70 mph when you can't even do 60 mph. This is a serious safety issue and Ford should recall the vehicles immediately and replace whatever suspected part is cauing the problem. The message boards are full of the same stories. It's only a matter of time and someone will get rear ended trying to cross the highway to stop safely now and when they say now, they mean it.

15 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 07/22/2012

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.

16 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 06/06/2012

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.

17 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 03/13/2012

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?.

18 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 12/12/2011

The contact owns a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. The contact stated that the stop safely now warning message illuminated on the dashboard. The vehicle then began to decelerate independently and stalled. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where they replaced the throttle body. The contact failure recurred eight months after the throttle body replacement. The failure mileage was 96,000 and the current mileage was 107,800.

19 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 06/10/2011

Veh shows a caution sign (exclamation in triangle) with a warning (pull vehicle over safely and turn off engine). Veh loses all acceleration and I must pull over immediately to avoid an accident. Happens every time we drive on the freeway only, never on a side street or in stop and go. I pull vehicle over and turn off engine for approx 2 or 3 minutes, and it starts right up. Some times it will happen multiple times within a 20 to 30 minute time period, sometimes only once in several hours of driving. Dealer has no idea why and requires a tow immediately when it happens to determine cause. Cannot tow when on the way to dr, out of town, or other.

20 Vehicle Speed Control problem

Failure Date: 06/14/2010

While driving on the freeway at 65 mph the power cut out and a warning was displayed on the dash to pull over safely. I was able to restart the car and continue driving, but it happened again. I had to have the car towed to Ford. The Ford dealer had to replace the throttle body and motor assembly. This is very dangerous.


Other Vehicle Speed Control related problems of the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid


Fuel Economy of Escape Hybrid Vehicles
Escape Hybrid Service Bulletins
Escape Hybrid Safety Recalls
Escape Hybrid Defect Investigations