Hi All,

I'm weighing buying a 4WD 2007 FEH with 140K miles on it. I'm concerned about the battery lifespan and total mileage I can put on the vehicle. It's in good shape and coming from a Ford Dealership. At $6k, is it worth it? My biggest worry is I buy it and 6 months later the battery craps out and I have a dead car.

Any insight would be great since I don't have any real experience myself with FEH batteries and can't find any great info online.

Thanks,

Max

 

Total mileage can go well over 200,000 miles. Some of these cars operating as taxicabs in NYC went over 350,000 miles. HOWEVER:

If you're buying it as a primary vehicle and imagine that you are going to save money in gasoline and recoup the cost of repairs and therefore reap a windfall overall, move on. You probably will not, unless you're looking at an exceptional example there, or you are an above-average home mechanic with good tools who can learn fast. If you still really like the car, print this out and take it with you to the Ford dealership and have them read it. Read on...

The maintenance records (not just the Carfax!! see below) are key. On a 140k 4WD one of the most important areas is the Power Transfer Unit, which distributes engine power to the rear differential. They need fluid changes every 30,000 miles or they destroy themselves. Also, the transaxle fluid needs to be changed every 60,000 miles, although many owners and Ford Dealerships did not do it. If you are really interested in the car, you need to take it for an independent inspection to someone who understands Ford Escape Hybrids from these years. Does the dealer offer any kind of warranty with this car?

On a 2007, it is absolutely crucial that the air conditioning system including the rear A/C evaporator and all of its components work properly, because it is crucial to the thermal management of the High Voltage battery.

Beyond that, in terms of battery lifespan, they all reach end of life and begin to deteriorate, particularly if the cars have been mistreated, the A/C was ever left inoperable (which causes the battery to get hot and damages it) and so forth. Also, in the winter, the battery is not HEATED and as a result, the mileage decreases in the winter - even if everything is 100% tip top. The battery starts as cold as the car is, and gradually warms up with the interior and with current flowing in and out of it, but it is limited by the computer until it reaches its optimum temperature range. Therefore the gas engine "works harder" until that happens. That's just how the car is made, so it's better to *garage* the car in the winter.

Where are you located, approximately? If you are in the Chicagoland/Illinois area, you might consider taking the car to Brian (Ford TechMakuloco) the video below, who runs BSG Automotive outside Chicago: http://www.bsgautomotive.com He knows these cars quite well. In that video, his 2011 (regular) Escape is in the background.

Please watch this video. Even on a dealership car, you should insist on an independent inspection from someone who knows the car and you trust. The only way to tell if the battery is in decent/good shape is to test it properly and ensure that the Hybrid system is working properly in all its modes (including pure EV mode) and the car is getting the MPG to reflect that.

You can think of the hybrid system on this car as an energy storage system that also provides some power to move the car down the road. The gasoline engine is partnered with a transaxle that contains two electric motors and a planetary gearset, and then there is the High Voltage Traction Battery in the floor of the rear cargo compartment. The car uses regenerative braking to recoup a certain portion of the vehicles kinetic energy and store it as electrical energy in the battery. The transaxle has two motors: a "traction motor" which is used to provide propulsive power to push the car down the road, and a "motor/generator" which is used for the regenerative braking function, and also is powered by the gas engine to *generate* electricity to send to the High Voltage Traction Battery and the DC-to-DC converter to charge the vehicle's conventional 12V electrical system. There is no starter motor or conventional alternator like a regular vehicle. All of the energy eventually comes from burning gasoline, but a certain portion of it is recaptured, stored, and used by the computers to push the car down the road, assisting the gasoline engine. That is why there is a "charge/assist" gauge on the dashboard. You will notice that the leftmost portion of the tachometer is GREEN. That is because the car is capable of operating as a purely electric vehicle up to a speed of approximately 40 miles per hour - under light acceleration loads.

If the battery and the rest of the system are OK, when the climate control is OFF (meaning the air conditioning is off) and the engine is warm enough, the gas engine should TURN OFF at stoplights and at a standstill. It should also turn off when you are driving under light loads around town under 40 MPH. If the battery no longer holding enough charge to allow that, the gasoline engine must run *all the time* and the car can actually get worse mileage than a standard Escape because it is carrying around several hundred pounds of extra mass in the form of the battery pack, etc.

So:

1) Maintenance records.
2) Validate any existing DTC trouble codes
3) Vehicle inspection including all the normal things for a regular car this old - brakes, brake lines, rust, etc., etc.
4) Power Transfer Unit - has anyone ever changed the fluid?
5) Transaxle - has anyone ever changed the fluid?
6) Condition of the STANDARD 12 VOLT BATTERY (!!) This is important! An old, substandard 12V battery can cause a lot of problems that are beyond the scope of this discussion. But it should be KNOWN GOOD.


If you are not prepared to learn the quirks of this vehicle and you skip these steps especially, you will probably be disappointed. If you think you are going to save a lot of money in gasoline with a Hybrid, that is probably NOT TRUE and you should take the $6,000 and buy something else.

 

Run.

 

That too! I gave you the long version - you can try it! S Keith just gave you the short version.

 

I bought exactly this about a year ago. 2007 Hybrid 4WD with 141K miles for $6K. I’d say I’m happy with it but it has taken some amount of tinkering on my part to get it in good working order. We bought it knowing it had a wrench light and we expected that some work was needed, but we found that many mechanics are afraid to work on this vehicle because they don’t understand how the hybrid system works and they are not willing to do the research to figure out the hybrid-specific error codes. We found a mechanic in the Seattle area that specializes in Priuses, where all the local Uber drivers go, but they don’t know how the battery cooling system works on this Ford. I got a Ford-specific USB ODBII reader and downloaded Forscan to read the codes and found error codes for failed battery cooling fans and failed blend door motor, all part of the battery cooling system and seem to be common points of failure with this vehicle. With some basic tools, about $250 in parts, some youtube videos, and this forum, I replaced these parts myself. I don’t consider myself a mechanic but I like tinkering with computers and I’ve learned that this thing is really just a computer with a lot of moving parts. We’ve used the Prius mechanic mainly for general car stuff like replacing the coolant thermostat, and the transmission and power transfer unit fluid changes that AlexK mentioned; I give them very specific instructions in writing for the work to be done and the cost is reasonable.

What I like about the Escape Hybrid is how smoothly and efficiently it drives at low speeds and how it’s a good all-around vehicle. It has efficiency and starting torque like a diesel-electric locomotive, but drives as easily as a golf cart. I take mine on a lot of logging roads, some with really bad potholes, and the FEH glides through these conditions by way of a transmission that basically uses an electric motor for 1st gear. I’m impressed at how relaxed the combustion engine runs and the gas mileage I can get on the gravel roads. Stop-and-go traffic in the city is a similar category.

Anyway, this is just my experience. I’d say that if you can find a local mechanic willing to work on this vehicle (maybe that’s the dealer that you’re buying it from, but you will probably pay a premium for that), and are willing to get the code reader and do some research and tinkering on your own, go for it!