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Ford Escape Hybrid

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  • mortncynmortncyn Member Posts: 5
    We have a 2008 Escape Hybrid that does the same thing. It is generally during hot weather and/or long trips. In May of 2011 after several hundred miles of driving it will felt as though the vehicle will not go after making a stop. Have to be careful pulling into traffic. As you stated, after a brief few seconds it will move and then be ok asfter it starts moving. No problem on on-ramps, only when stopped. It has done it several times. It is as though it does not get gas. This is with the AC on so it has not switched to battery after stopping. It will be OK after the engine has cooled down. Possibly indecision? Car not sure what it should be doing with a fully charged battery.
  • caescape2008caescape2008 Member Posts: 4
    edited July 2012
    Thanks for the reply. I would think the engineers at Ford could design a car to handle a full battery better, IMHO. The car does it to me whether the AC is going or not. Anyway, I just did a two week road trip through the southwest and still had the same issue. After reading a couple of other posts on this site, I tried a few things. One thing that worked to make the car not be sluggish was to put it in 'L' gear after stopping, then accelerate, and then shifting back to 'D' as the car is moving. This worked for the most part. A few times, it was still a little sluggish but the car would move when the gas petal was pressed which is a big improvement.

    I also had a very scary moment with this car. On the way back through southern California, I was on CA-99 in the left lane with traffic behind me and 3 18-wheelers in the right lane. We are heading into a curve with any usable shoulder going away very fast. When all of a sudden, the car's engine just shuts off. No warnings. Just off. I was able to quickly coast to the shoulder before it disappeared and not get it by a semi. After 10 minutes, I tried restarting it and it started up just fine. I then got off the freeway until my nerves/temper calmed down. I have to say this will be the last and only hybrid I will ever own. This vehicle is not reliable. Unfortunately I still owe money on this piece of crap other wise I'd be looking to sell it asap.
  • mortncynmortncyn Member Posts: 5
    Think I may be able to help you with the sudden shut down. In January of 2010 we were driving to Chicago on a mild day and the engine shut off unexpectedly after driving about 45 miles. We were not in any traffic situation and simply pulled to the shoulder and the engine restarted. It shut down again after just a few miles and we headed back home.

    Memo on the repair: Retrieved POA3E and P1AOD in CONT Memory. Found TSB 08-24-5.
    Replaced Motor Electronics Cooling Pump Cleared Codes and Test Drove OK
    10 A56 (not sure the 10 A56 mean anything but are on the ticket)

    5M6Z 8C419 A KIT – Water PU 1W

    This was still in warranty (at 47,000 miles) so no price shown.

    A hint that something was going to happen may have been a sign in October. After driving about 3 hours I opened the rear hatch to remove our luggage and the right side of the hatch was very hot. I thought it unusual but did not make any connection to our future problem. I think the pump in question is inside the hatch. Possibly this item may still be in warranty if it is part of the battery warranty.

    We are at 83,000 miles now and with 4 new tires will wait for a 2014 Escape SE (maybe) with the ECO boost. I cannot say we are totally dissatisfied with the Hybrid but it is not worth the extra cost unless you drive locally with mild weather and the car will go up to 40+ MPH before the engine kicks in. We live in central Illinois flat land driving 60+ mile round trips on the highway so our mileage is always 28 to 32 MPG. The Escape handled the mountains very well on our trip to Charlotte, NC and fought a head wind coming home and our average was 27.6 MPG.
    Good luck with your engine shut down problem.
  • mortncynmortncyn Member Posts: 5
    Additional info re the acceleration problem. See
    http://www.faqs.org/car/ford-escape-2008/vehicle-speed-control/
  • sksuhsksuh Member Posts: 13
    Farewell to this forum which I enjoyed during almost five years of 2008 Escape Hybrid ownership. After approximately 108,000 km (67,080 miles) of trouble-free driving, I traded in my FEH almost a week ago for a 2012 Prius v.

    While I liked my FEH and it served me well, this Prius v is awesome with its creature comforts and awesome fuel economy (4.5 L/100km or 52.3 miles per US gallon).
  • caescape2008caescape2008 Member Posts: 4
    Thanks for the info and the faq. Not sure if what I read there makes me feel any better. I'm taking my Escape to the mechanic next week, so hopefully they will have something useful to say about the engine shut off issue. The car hasn't done it again so far. It may have been the heat that set off the cooling pump or it may be another issue. Hopefully they can provide some answers this time.
  • mortncynmortncyn Member Posts: 5
    Wondering if you found out any more from your dealer. We left on vacation late July and I have not been on the Edmunds site much. Our 2008 is about the same except for new tires (now much quieter) Also had new bushings on the sway bar that eliminated a knocking sound in the front end and a tendency to pull left under acceleration at low speeds. As I understand it, NY City has lots of Escape Hybrids with 150,000 + miles. They would surely know something about the problems with acceleration etc. I still feel the dealers in our area are totally in the dark re the hybrids. My wife said after doing shopping errands and then driving the highway home about 25 miles that the car hesitated at the first stop.
  • caescape2008caescape2008 Member Posts: 4
    I took the car to a different dealership then previously. The new dealership (for me) is in Walnut Creek in the outer bay area. It gets really hot out there unlike the Oakland area. They hooked up the car to their computers and of course received no error codes. They did have hunch that there may have been something wrong with the AC. So unlike the folks at the Albany dealership they rigged up some real world tests and took my car for a test drive. They were able to figure out that the AC compressor was leaking. Once that was fixed all the other strange heating issues went away. It appears parts of the AC unit is used to cool the hybrid battery. So now the car is safe to drive and I'm getting better gas mileage. On a trip I took a couple of weeks ago I got 32 mpg. And I'm getting about 28.5 in the city which is a small improvement. And the walnut creek dealership now has a new permanent customer. They are farther from me and more of a hassle to get to, but they take the time to do their job right which is important.
  • tbrakeltbrakel Member Posts: 3
    Any suggestions with this problem? When cold it seems to cycle between ICE and EV normally. As it warms up, it stays on ICE more and more until it becomes constant. Dealer found two battery cooling motors were dead. No other codes. Changed these and it appears it's doing the same thing. Almost 170K on the odometer.
  • kins80kins80 Member Posts: 1
    Hi, I think I have a similar issue to the acceleration problem mentioned by mortncyn and caescape2008. From a stop or a slow roll, the acceleration is sometimes very sluggish. I can see the rpms are reving, it's just not translating to acceleration. The delay will be about a good second or so. It is an intermittent issue. I have an '08 Mariner hybrid, and it's at 81K miles.

    The only things I've found online related to this are the posts above, and possibly TSB# 312042, AS-21769, which states that the brakes could be overriding the acceleration?

    Another issue we have (maybe related?) is that on some trips, the battery never fully takes over. The engine continues to run, even after charging for a while and being at a stop. This is intermittent too. Any ideas?
  • mortncynmortncyn Member Posts: 5
    You have described what our 2008 Escape (96,000 miles) continues to do. I had never thought about the system not going to electric and the engine continuing to run. We drove over 500 miles yesterday and the temperature at the end of the trip was 90 degrees. As got in traffic in town the acceleration hesitation started. We stopped to make a cell call and I turned the AC off. After 500 miles one would expect the engine to shut down and go to electric. However the engine continued to run at about 1,000 RPM and it did not go electric. I wish I knew the solution. Seems to possibly be connected to higher ambient temps and cooling the battery charging system.
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