2018 Ford Escape

The contact owns a 2018 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while her sister was driving at approximately 30-40 MPH, the vehicle lost motive power. An unknown warning light was illuminated. The driver was able to pull over safely and continued to drive to her residence. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, where it was determined that the engine had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The local dealer was not contacted.  The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 104,107.

The contact owns a 2015 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while attempting to start the vehicle, the engine was misfiring. The contact started the vehicle and it was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that coolant had leaked into cylinder head three. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 163,000.

Coolant is leaking into the engine block. This puts the vehicle at constant risk of overheating due to lack of coolant. This has been inspected by Ford, it is a known issue that has caused them to completely redo how the engine is built in later models. There is also a TSB out on this issue, along with safety recalls on the 1.5 and 1.6L engine models of the same vehicle with this same issue, yet not on the 2L engine, despite being the same problem and cause. A warning light that the engine is overheating was the first indicator that something was wrong with the vehicle.

The contact owns a 2018 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving at an unknown speed, white smoke was coming from the exhaust pipe. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a dealer to get a diagnosis; the dealer informed the contact that the failure cause was unidentifiable. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer made the contact aware of Customer Satisfaction Program Number: 19B37 however, the CSP expired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline to report the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 128,000.

- Per the dealer - "the main crankshaft bolt had come loose allowing the car to "jump" time and damage the cylinder head valves." The vehicle has not yet been repaired. - When we were driving, the engine started to make very loud noises and then lost all power. The breaks felt they became not responsive and I had to put a lot of force into them to work. We were going downhill so this was very dangerous. - Unknown - The vehicle has been inspected by the Ford Dealer - There were no warning lights or symptoms. Our car was inspected by the Ford Dealer a few months before.

As I heard there is a common issue of coolant leak on this models and this problem caused because of manufacturing problem. Ford updated the engine but replacing the engine costs almost same as price of the car. The car became trash if I don't change the engine. Now I can't use the car. It became a decor to my house thanks to FORD.

The head gasket on cylinder 4 broke. Releasing coolant into the engine block, causing stuttering and stalling within the engine. As well as causing the car to loose coolant quickly that lead to the engine overheating. All of this information about my car I was given by the head mechanic at Olympic Auto, Longwood FL. He said that many Ford escapes have experienced this issue. The only warning light I was given was the engine, and it would tell me that cylinder 4 had faulted.

On [XXX], I got my first “check engine” light. I immediately went to get my car scanned and it came up as a Cylinder 4 misfire. I bought the replacement parts and had them replaced the same day. About a week later, the light came on again. I went to get it scanned and got the same error, Cylinder 4 misfire. At this point, I replaced all of the spark plugs and coils. This seemed to work for about 2 weeks when the check engine light came on again. Soon after, I got an “Engine Fault – Service Now” warning. I looked under the hood and saw that my coolant was nearly gone. After filling the tank with coolant, the lights went away. This past week, on [XXX], I got the “High Engine Temperature – Stop Safely” warning. This is when I took my car into Imlay City Ford Dealership. Now I am being told that I have coolant leaking into the cylinders and that I need to replace the engine. After further investigation, there was a recall for this exact issue back in June of 2022, but I never received any type of notice. I contacted the dealership that I purchased the car from, and they were able to tell me that this was under the Customer Satisfaction Program 21N12, which provides a free one-time repair if your vehicle exhibits coolant leakage into the cylinder bores causing engine damage. The problem is, I was not contact about this and I had no idea there was a recall notice until it was too late. The Customer Satisfaction Program only covers up to 7 years, or 84,000 miles in which I am now past. Regards, [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The contact owns a 2018 Ford Escape. The contact stated that upon starting the vehicle, the check engine warning light was illuminated. Due to the failure, the vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where the cylinder head temperature sensor was replaced. The contact stated that several weeks later, the contact discovered that the coolant level was low. The contact checked the vehicle for leaks and added more coolant to the coolant reservoir. The contact stated that upon starting the vehicle there was heavy white smoke coming from the exhaust pipe. The vehicle was driven to a dealer where the contact was informed that coolant had leaked into cylinder #1, resulting in engine failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 140,000.