Problems with 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

Vehicle gave "stop safely now" readout on display and red triangle light on dash. power dropped off and i had to pull of the road. i was traveling from la to santa cruz in the evening. happened four more times on the same drive. just happened again coming back from palm springs also in the evening. took me seven hours to drive 140 miles. car stopped over twenty times. *tr

The night of january 27, 2012, as i was driving through traffic near my home, the brakes on my 2008 ford escape hybrid failed, my dashboard readout indicating my regenerative brakes have disengaged. i carefully returned the quarter mile or so home, and took my vehicle to the nearby fairfield (california) ford dealership early saturday morning, both in order to avoid other drivers, and have my brakes repaired. to their credit, they took my vehicle without an appointment. over the next few days, the service department contacted me to inform me that two of the computer systems on my vehicle had failed: one controlling the regenerative brakes, the second controlling the fans used to cool the hybrid vehicle's batteries. in a moment of candor, ford service representative[xxx] informed me the unusual failure was the brake-related failure, as the ford of fairfield service department was replacing the fan-related computer part, "all the time." my concerns are similarly two-fold: first, the thought that my regenerative breaks simply disengaged is disturbing enough, as it put me and my children in immediate harm. almost more than that, though, is the fact that the computer part controlling the cooling of my hybrid's batteries appears to fail "all the time." since there was no indication on the part of my vehicle's performance informing me that the hybrid battery cooling fan was not operating properly, there is simply no knowing when my vehicle could have caught fire in a manner similar to that affecting some volts manufactured by chevrolet. i am interested in making sure similar failures to not impact other owners of ford escape hybrids. should you need any additional information, my daytime phone number is [xxx]. thank you for your attention to this matter, and i look forward to hearing from you. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6). *tr

I was traveling on the expressway in the left hand lane doing about 70 mph when the engine shutdown and a stop now safely message appeared on dashboard. i was able to pull over turned off the vehicle was able to restart and continue to my destination. this again happened on the way home the same day there was no problem found at the times i pulled over and both times was able to continue. i had no ability to accelerate and fortunately was able to pull over, this was a scary. *kb

Driving on the highway and abs and emergency brake lights came on, along with message "system brake failure" and "regen brakes disabled". at this time, the brakes almost feel totally out (1/2 pressed) or very touchy (full press). took it to a ford dealership and they said they needed to replace abs module ($2500) which we agreed to. a few days after it was replaced, same thing happened (lights, messages and brakes issues). we took it back, and by the time it was to the dealership the lights, messages and brakes were back to normal. they couldn't find an issues. a few days later, it happened again while in a traffic jam (very scary!!!) took it immediately to a dealership to have them check the codes. took the codes to the original dealership and they took my escape for 2 days, saying they reset the codes and it was a computer issue. 5 days later it happened again in our downtown (very scary). no one seems to know what is going on. i have contacted ford and they are not familiar with this issue however i have seen other mentions about this online. *tr

1. i was driving on the freeway at 71-73mph when a red triangle with an exclamation mark appeard, my engine shut off, and a "stop vehicle safely" message came across the dash. this happened 3 times in one hour. each time, the engine shut off, and i had to pull over. the car would start back up perfectly. i was able to get the car to a shop by keeping it under 60mph on the freeway. 3. the shop says i need a motor electronics cooling pump and a pcm reprogramming. *tt

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. *tr

I own 2008 model of ford escape hybrid. on the incident day, the controls and battery failed suddenly without prior indications or warning signs. signal lights and door locks failed to operate. in that condition i took the vehicle to a nearest ford dealer on the day. since two weeks, the problems have not been identified. i've been told of computer and control malfunctions, and that parts are being replaced one at a time every 2 or 3 days. i fear even after the vehicle gets fixed that similar failures may occur, and there may be risks to drive on highways in future . *tr

While driving at 35 mph everything shut off, electrical and mechanical. no warning at all! had to pull off road and hit the emergency brakes to come to a stop. brought the vehicle to ford for service and they found that the ford motorcraft battery that was installed when the vehicle was manufactured had leaked battery acid onto the main wiring harness and corroded it. $1,600. to replace it. my escape hybrid was two months out of warranty, although the mileage was not and ford wouldn't do anything to help even though it was their equipment that failed and the battery had obviously been leaking for more than two months for this to happen. *tr

Car fails to start and dashboard electrical system goes out while driving. i have had my car in the shop numerous times for this problem. once or twice a week, the car just will not start. the alarm light blinks fast and the key will not turn the engine over for 5 to 10 minutes. on other occasions, while driving, the entire dashboard alarm lights will illuminate and the odometer will reset to all dashes, a warning reads that there is a brake system failure, but i can continue to drive throughout the electrical failure. the ford technicians cannot verify the problem because they can't get it to happen in the shop. in the meantime, i am stuck with a car that starts half the time and cannot be repaired. *tr

A problem that surfaced again after experiences many times since the above mentioned incident date: a wrench sign was coming on the dashboard frequently, and sometimes disappeared itself without doing anything.similar sign or indication for oil change was also experienced even after a scheduled oil change was done with the dealer. when the problem was reported in early period, i (the customer) was advised to disregard, because the mechanic forgot to reset after the oil service, when ford customer service was notified today (11/7/12), it was acknowledged as a service issue, which i do not agree. since the problem existed when the vehicle was new in early stages after the purchase, my concern is that this is a manufacturing defect with battery door which malfunctions, and does not allow ventilation on & off. the battery was down, all controls disappeared and the car was locked in position about two years ago (approximate june 2010). that time a major service was performed, which required a month long period to fix it. (safecar reference 365127). unfortunately, i never heard back from your office on this past issue and complaint. since both problems have to do with battery and monitoring devices, i would like to inform for safety of all using this model. please let me know your findings on battery vent door functioning. thanks *tr

This incident occurred 10/8/10 in a 2008 ford escape hybrid with approximately 53,000 miles on it. departed cordova, tn on a weekend trip to talladega, al and chattanooga, tn. drove steadily for 3 - 4 hours at 65 - 70 mph and stopped for dinner in birmingham, al for approximately 1 hour. resumed trip and in about 15 minutes, at around 8:30 pm on an unlit stretch of i-20 at approximately mile marker 135 west of birmingham while traveling at 70 mph the master vehicle electrical hazard warning light (red triangle) came on, the informational display showed "stop safely now", and the accelerator became unresponsive. all the lights remained on, steering appeared normal, and brakes functioned normally. we were basically coasting in 70 mph traffic trying to cross 3 lanes to get off the road. maneuvered to the right shoulder, turned the vehicle off with flashers going. after about a minute composing myself, decided to try to restart the vehicle. it restarted with no warning lights or messages and all systems appeared to function normally. drove the vehicle approximately 500 miles without further incident until i could take the vehicle to my dealership. they retrieved codes p1a0d and p0a3e and said they heard a loud high pitched noise from the electronics cooling pump motor which they replaced. we feel extremely fortunate that we were able to somehow get safely off the roadway without causing or being involved in an accident. we were also lucky that the fault did not occur after mile marker 147 because, due to construction that went to mile marker 155, there was no way to pull out of the traffic flow at all. *tr

Driving on a highway when i suddenly lost all power. the dashboard of the vehicle showed a symbol of an exclamation point surrounded by a triangle. moreover, the dash stated "stop safely now." at this time we had been traveling in a work zone that was one lane, and surrounded by concrete barriers, with no shoulder. a tractor trailer was following closely, so when i all of a sudden went from 65 to no power whatsoever, i was almost hit. furthermore, i had to block traffic to turn off my vehicle and to restart it. my 2008 ford escape hybrid repeated this same occurrence many times. since the first incident, this has happened numerous times, unfortunately all occurring on highways where i was traveling at significant speeds. i have spent a lot of money that has not resolved this recurring problem, which is a significant safety hazard. ford has not posted any recalls, but the blogs have shown that many others have suffered from this occurrence. please step in and advice ford that although the "limp home mode" may be for the safety of the vehicle, it is not safe for me.

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. *kb

I have a 2008 ford hybrid escape. while driving on a recent trip - 70mph in 92 degree heat, i experienced a sudden loss of power, and a message on the dash that said "stop safely now." this happened repeatedly, as i was trying to get home to nc from florida. i wondered if i had purchased some bad gas, so refilled the tank. i drove the last 4 hours without problems, but the temperature fell to the 70s. however, yesterday, as i googled the problem, i found numerous mentions of the same problem with various "fixes" all over the internet. some drivers reported the scary situation of driving on a 2 lane highway without a shoulder to pull over on, and the same loss of power. it is very sudden with no warning whatsoever. in most cases, after the power failure, the car starts right up and you can drive on, but the same thing will happen again in from 10 to 90 minutes. it was very scary. i have not taken the car in yet, but think the problem should definitely be investigated. ford knows about it and has not come up with any one "fix." *tr