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Ford Escape Hybrid Brake Problems
Discuss your braking issues here
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Comments
Erin
I believe Ford may have a TSB out on the parking brakes in rear-disk equipped '05 Escapes (all the 4wd models have rear disks in '05).
I have had scary brake noises coming from the driver's side rear wheel. A high pitched repeating squeal - mpore noticeable at lower speeds. The breaks were reground (car was 2 months old). This solved the problem for about 2 days. Rhe noise started again. The service manager heard the noise - then I has to go to work. When the car was moved to be serviced the noise mysteriously vanished and they didn't do anything. Luckily the noise hasn;t come back. However I do continue to hear a low pitch nopise that I am assuming is the car re charging? Any thoughts.
Also I am underwhelmed witht my mileage.
Also, has anyone experienced this problem...I made an appointment with the dealer for service and dropped it off at the appointed time. The dealer called later in the day and told me that the "one Hybrid mechanic" had not shown up that day and that I'd just have to wait for him to come back to get the car serviced. Meanwhile, I have no car and they're not offering to pony up for a rental.
Getting Some Lemon-Aid From Your Lemon Maker
Each state has different laws. The main thing is document every visit and keep all paper work. It is not as easy as you may think to get rid of a lemon.
My gas consumption is 8.0 L per 100km; how is that comparing with others real life experiences?
Yesterday as I was driving at 40 miles an hour on a commerical strip the brake warning light on our 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid suddenly flashed at the same time that the brakes completely failed. Just missed a number of cars but was able to get into a parking lot, shift to low, and run uphill into a curb. 45 minutes later no light and the brakes were working fine. The dealer is baffled. Anyone else with experience with this. I'm wondering if it has any relation to the catasrophic brake failure of the Mercury mentioned above.
thanks
Mark.
MY LAST FORD.
I have been reading alot about the Ford Escape Hybrid and have had some issues with the brakes of my vehicle...
I work for a local organization and we have quite a few of the SUVs in our Fleet... Recently due to a number of complaints they pulled the WHOLE Fleet of the Ford Escape Hybrids off the road due to Brake Failures... mine being one of them. It turns out that in a fleet of hybrids over 30, at least 7 of the vehicles had some sort of failure... a couple of which were 2nd or 3rd time issues. and a few resulted in accidents...
Ford has reviewed all of the vehicles in the fleet and will be issuing a letter saying its safe to drive. They say that they have found "No Codes" showing any kind of failure in the braking system... but Im not an idiot! I know that when my foot goes to the floor to stop, the truck should stop... which it didn't! I have had to make many panic stops in the truck previously and never had a problem before... until recently... the brakes did return a few hundread meters down the road at a stop light... but no lights showed on the dash and no abs kicked in... Thank god the person in front of me moved before I hit them.
My vehicle is my office for atleast 8Hrs a day and I put on it, anywhere from 100 to 250 Km a day at work and the majority is City Driving.
Please tell me that I am not an idiot... or that this is not an isolated incident or if you know what the problem is... or if you have had this happen to you.
Thanks in advance for your help and comments...
Braking "by-wire" is a relatively new concept for mass produced cars. My guess in that the Technicians are not as adept at finding these electical and computer software issues (especially when diagnostic codes are not forthcoming). [The design of the mechanical portions of the brake system seem to be fine.] From reports of previous FEH brake problems, I suspect the component known as the "Smart Junction Box". Not a trivial part that Ford would replace unless it was proven to be "bad".
To address your question: You are not an idiot for wanting confidence in your braking system. Unfortunately, having someone commute in the vehicle (who understands the "brake-by-wire" system) my be what it takes to get to the root cause of the problem. Have the dealer monitor TSBs that are issued by Ford for ones related to FEH brakes. Be safe.
I have not had break failure (yet) but am worried that this is the next thing that will happen. Did you have this problem prior to brake failure?
A previous post said that his dealer in MA fixed this problem by bleeding the brakes (100%). The dealer I brought it to bled the brakes but not 100% (they said they couldn't do that) and wouldn't call the other Ford dealer to discuss how they fixed it.
My next step is Ford customer service, file a complaint and take it from there. I don't suspect any help there however. Don't know what else to do.
There may be some room for confusion on the discussion of bleeding the brakes. Are we clear on what the dealer in MA did? Did they: remove and replace 100% of the brake fluid? or, did they bleed the brakes to remove 100% of any air trapped in the brake lines and components? or, both?
Could not verify concern, self test ABS module Codes C1524, C1323. Perform Pinpoint test told to replace ABS module. Sock and Check Oasis and call the hot line, told about the Jumper Harness to install. And to try that first. Day two install the jumper harness. Clear all codes and Road test Ok at this time Hot line ID 6ECEN007.
The parts used to repair the vehicle are listed below:
2219D11 Solenoid Valve Block / HCU - remove and install or replace (2C065/2C215/2C219/2c266/2C286) _ L 26 W
1 7M6Z*2c286*A control Asy - ABS Hydraulics
24 PM*1*C Fluid - brake
1 5M6Z*2140*B Cylinder Asy - Master
2219D Anti-lock brake system Diagnosis - l 26 w
After they replaced all these parts, I had to take it back in for, due to the brake light coming back on. This second step of the repair is when they bled the brakes... after they replaced the ABS Hydraulics. That is when the brakes had to be bled 100%. They had done a good job of bleeding, if you were only doing hydraulic work. However, with the regenerative portion of the brakes in the system, they bled them a little more. This is how it was explained to me. I have not had any additional problems with this particular issue. Hope this helps.
I have one of the fleet vehicles :lemon: that is listed above... we have had a meeting with FORD and durring the meeting all Ford could say is how great the braking system for the hybrid is and how everything is run by the computer and how if there is a problem there must be a code!
However when we asked about what is going on with our vehicles and why there have been 5 reported incidents of no brakes durring a pannic stop... their answer was that since there is no codes there can't be a problem... no codes no problems...
When we told them about all the reported incidents discribed here on the net... all they can say is that you can't believe what you read on the internet.. and that this is the first they have ever heard of this type of problem... seems hard to believe (13% of the FEH in the fleet have had an incident) and there is no problem :surprise: ...
SO, according to Ford, none of you people exist that have had similar brake problems! I guess that 6 pages of comments must not exist either! :confuse: It also must mean that no one is reporting these problems to Ford... what is the protocol that a dealer must follow then?
Im VERY FRUSTRATED!
Of course the problem stops by the time I get it to the dealer since they're 5 miles away. The SA @ Maxwell says they can't fix problems they can't hear. Since they started with the attitude of "there is no problem," I have little confidence in them at this point.
Right. Every few days I ignore the "your brake is on" idiot warnings the car gives off.
The SA was also exceedingly condescending to my Ivy League educated wife (the SA told me, "oh, sweetie, she's trying as hard as she can, but the poor thing can't describe problems very well"). Never mind that my wife helps me fix our vintage cars. :-\
Don't ever go to Maxwell Ford in Austin.
removed ground 102 and 104, clean brackets, bolts, and body, replace both ground wires. removed and cleaned brackets, bolts and body for grounds 102 and 104. removed the abs module connector and removed and replaced the ground 102 and 104 wires. installed all removed parts and cleared codes and retested.
funny thing is, they said there were no codes and could not verify that there was a problem, even though i gave them a picture i took of the dashboard with the problem showing.
anyway, since 3/20, the lights have not come on again, but i can't help but be nervous everytime i apply the brakes. before i have to stop, i always pump the brakes to make sure they work.
:surprise:
i don't imagine they would buy the car back. ford is in trouble. maybe the ceo would, since he's been paid an $18M bonus and Ford lost $12B last year.
My car was supposed to be ready on Monday but they said that the part (mastercylinder) was not there yet. I called today on Tuesday and it still is not there. How disapointing.
The "grabbiness" is probably not related to the failure...it is inherent to the hybrid design. In slightly wet conditions the brake surfaces stay wet until the FEH is close to stopping. At that point the computer switches the braking from the regenerative system (MG1) to the old fashion hydraulic brakes...and the brake force increases until it feels like it grabs too hard. In non-hybrids, the offending moisture on the brake surfaces is dissappated during the heavy portions of initial braking and are practically dry at the point just before the vehicle stops (where, on the hybrid, you should be feeling the "grabbiness")
A good solution on wet days is to perform all of your first few stops with the transmission selector in "N"-neutral. This shuts off the regen braking and forces regular hydraulic braking...which should dry off the braking surfaces. Stops after that should not be grabby. If it occurs again, hard braking or braking in "N" drys off the braking surfaces again.
Good luck and be safe.
Maybe your dealer corrected it.
At my dealer, none of my hybrid customers ever complained about the mechanical function of the car. Or have I heard of a complain from anyone else in the dealership or other customers.
I am not saying you are imagining the problem. However try to have a little faith. Remember that you can always go to another dealer.
Mark
I particpated in a focus group last week and the engineers from Ford were there. I had an opportunity to tell all good and bad so this was great. Hopefully they will listen and do something about it.
Any ideas what happened? I love driving the Escape (all 70 miles so far) but I am worried about this.
One of the first things I noticed while driving is the fact that FEH's have poor performing brakes even when they are working as they are supposed to. They just don't bring the vehicle to a stop in the same amount of distance that other vehicles I drive on a regular basis do. (One of those vehicles is a 2004 F150 V-8 Lariat which has excellent solid stopping ability) The 2 other vehicles I drive on a regular basis all have very good stopping ability and have disc brakes on all 4 wheels. My experience with disc brakes (including the F150) has been that they tend to dirty your wheels immediately with black brake dust that must be cleaned often to prevent buildup on the wheels. This of course is just an appearance issue and has nothing to do with performance, but I have also noticed that although the FEH has 4 wheel disc brakes it DOES NOT produce the brake dust probem, and that's great for keeping the wheels clean, BUT could it be that the FEH poor stopping performance (as pointed out in several car magazine tests) is due to the type of disc pads that Ford is using? Could it be that the disc pads are extremely hard (thus producing very little brake dust) compared to others, and as a result the stopping ability is affected? (Seems to me the harder the disc pad the less wear and production of brake dust, but the harder disc pad won't have the stopping ability as that of a softer one) (sort of the same with tires-----the better stopping performance tires that have soft tread, wear out a lot faster but help in better road hugging performance as compared to conventional ones)
Could it be that the hard type disc pads being used are required due to having something to do with the needs of the recharging system?
My point here is that in my opinion on a scale of 1-10 (where 10 is best) the FEH stopping ability would score about a 4 compared to other vehicles, and I suspect this low score may have something to do with the hardness of the factory equipped disc brake pads.
Our brakes deffinetly feel differently than a normal car because the first portion of the brake pedal travel activates the regenerative braking which is using engine braking to slow the vehicle. If you apply more pressure than the actual hydralic brakes will start to kick in. I have not tried this yet but if you just crammed on the brakes you should see that the brakes work pretty well due to the fact that we have 4 wheel ABS. I will admit though that the brakes do feel spongy, you should get used to the feel though after a while.