I bought an '09 Escape Hybrid about 10 months ago and for the most part, have been delighted with it. However, it recently suffered a sudden loss of power steering boost.

This would be ok if there were some warning, or if the loss was gradual, or if it didn't work right from startup. But sudden and complete loss of power steering boost with no warning is a significant safety hazard.

I had researched the FEH before I bought it, and this did not come to my attention. But since the failure, research using more specific terms has turned up dozens of reports of this.

https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...seconds-24649/
https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...roblems-27152/
http://www.carproblemzoo.com/ford/es...d-problems.php
http://www.carproblemzoo.com/ford/es...g-problems.php
http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f0fb471/0
http://www.hybridcars.com/forums/sho...eering-Failure
http://community.cartalk.com/discuss...eering-failure
http://www.escape-city.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=13723

The US NHTSA site also has many reports. There is no TSB or recall for it. Ford is aware of the problem but doesn't think it's severe enough to do anything other than fix them as they crop up. For those with no warranty, this means Ford is comfortable to profit from repairing a design/manufacturing defect that puts their customers at risk.

The failure does not generate an error code. I am looking forward to an unwarrantied repair where the steering column assembly alone is $1400.

I urge anyone who has experienced this failure to report it. In the US, this can be done at the www.safercar.gov, and in Canada at Transport Canada:

http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/roadsafety/s...s-index-76.htm
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/contact-us.htm#freq
Road Safety – Defects and Recalls
Phone: 1-800-333-0510

While a recall would be nice because my repair would then be covered by Ford, there are more important reasons for reporting. If this failure is a matter of WHEN, rather than IF it happens to any given Escape/Mariner/Tribute hybrid, then no one driving one that has not been repaired, can be confident it will never happen to them. (A 2008 FEH with 500,000 miles on it has had the steering column replaced TWICE.) A recall would resolve that concern. It is only a matter of time until this failure results in injury and/or death involving these vehicles. The harm may be to an innocent party other than those with the hybrid. Given the history of auto companies and these sorts of problems, there may have already been such serious cases.

So please, if you've had this problem, get it onto the official record.

 

We are all sorry for your issue. No one wants to have something like this to occur. The question that needs to be answered is how often does this occur? What year(s) and is it one every 1000 vehicles and only after 80,000 miles? A statistical printout would be greatly appreciated. Spud recently posted he has 200,000 miles on his vehicle and this issue has not happened. GPSman1 has gotten something like 153,000 miles without this issue.

 

Probably only Ford knows how many repairs have been done for this problem. Even they won't have any record of the people who've had the problem and did nothing about it. It's entirely possible that whomever traded in the FEH I bought used, did so because this happened to them and they decided to dump it rather than do the costly repair.

The various agencies and discussion sites I mentioned have dozens of reports. But there's no way to tell how many are duplicate postings of the same incident or how many incidents have gone unreported online.

A review of the cases that are accessible online indicates the '08 is the most likely to have this failure, followed by the '09. The pre-'08's are less likely, and the post '09's have almost no reports.

I've heard hearsay that 1% or a fatality will trigger a recall, but I don't know if that's true. 1% would be about 1,200 cases for all FEH's. But the number for just the '08's and '09's would be a fraction of that, of course. Perhaps 300. And if Ford could narrow down the suspect assembly, they could further reduce the number. There must be some pattern to it.

On the other hand, Ford could choose to fix this without waiting for a scandal to tarnish the image of its hybrids. Toyota had the same problem with Prius, Camry and Highlander hybrids and didn't seem to wait before doing a recall.

 

The steering column on my FEH has been replaced. Everything seems to be fine now.

 

xspirit,

I own a 2009 FEH and it has 58k miles on it. I have owned since it was new and it has been a great vehicle, but back in early December I lost power steering for a couple of seconds while making a gradual right turn at about 45 mph. I hit the brakes of course and at the same time the PS came back on - this happened at 5:30 am on the way to work.

It hasn't happened since, but I every couple of months I take a look at this forum and was surprised to find this has happened to others.

My questions for you - how long was your PS out for?

Question for other Forum members:

I have the 100k extended warranty on my vehicle - will the Dealer replace the steering column under this warranty or will I have a fight to get this done because there are no check engine codes?

I plan to report this problem to NHTSA and safercar.gov.

 

@Wolfy9048 My loss of boost lasted perhaps a minute. I was going up a steep winding road at the time and I may not have used the brakes until I reached my destination. At the time I had not heard of this problem, and so I had also not heard that there are reports of the EPAS resuming boost if you use the brakes. Mine did not come back until I restarted the engine to see if that would fix it.

I'm pretty sure your extended warranty will cover it. I have also learned that although Ford does not have a recall or TSB for this problem, Ford is well aware of it and has some sort of non-public "tsb" for it.

Since my opening post, I've also learned that this same electric power steering component or design was also used on non-hybrid Escapes and other Ford models. Apparently all of them are having this problem. It seems most common on the '08 and 09 models.

Thanks for reporting the failure.

 

"Ford is well aware of it and has some sort of non-public "tsb" for it"---

is it possible to share your source of information?


"Since my opening post, I've also learned that this same electric power steering component or design was also used on non-hybrid Escapes and other Ford models. Apparently all of them are having this problem"

With another Ford (08 model) in the family, I curious on what information your statement was based upon.

I have a maintenance appointment at the Ford Dealership on Monday and will ask them just this question(s).

 

I know from talking to a Transport Canada person that Ford is very aware of this problem. Apparently Ford says it's not sufficiently common to issue a recall, and/or not enough people have been hurt or killed by it, and/or it's not that dangerous a failure.

Given that, Ford certainly would have some sort of internal advisory about it. The bulletin is not available to the public and perhaps not even to the average mechanic. Every Ford dealership service dept. should have access to this, as evidenced by their easy diagnosis of the need to replace the steering column.

You can get an idea of the scope of the problem by doing Internet searches for "ford escape power steering problem -hybrid", "ford eps failure", or "ford epas problem" etc.

I don't know of any convenient place that lists the models using this electric power steering assembly, aka "rack" or column.

As I mentioned before, Toyota had the same problem with their Prius, Highlander and Camry hybrids, and did a recall before waiting for fatalities. I suspect that if all Escape Hybrid owners who've had this problem reported it, the frequency would pass the threshold (3%?) needed for NHTSA to force a recall for the Hybrids.

 

Every Ford dealership service dept. should have access to this---


Ok, I am going to hand this thread to my local service manager and ask one of the hybrid service techs about this issue. I will report back later on Monday. This could get interesting if my local service department denies any trouble or knowledge of this issue.

 

Prior to issuing a TSB for a problem, they issue a SSM or SM, Special Service Message or Service Message. Back when I had access to the Ford Oasis system, I noticed this.