khyros

My current list of issues: Issues waiting on resolution from dealership There is a vibration felt through the brake pedal, shifter, steering wheel and seat at idle. It disappears when the vehicle is shifted into neutral. (They say they'll reflash the PCM) There is a low RPM boom, which I believe this was corrected in a later PCM calibration. (They say they'll reflash the PCM) There is a coast down whine ~50mph. (They say they'll reflash the PCM) Even on a clear day, the GPS does not always turn on right away, and it takes ~10minutes to get a signal, other times it gets a signal right away. (TSB 13-3-11) There is a "whoop" whistle sound when opening the doors, more prominent on the front doors than the rear doors (They've acknowledged the issue, investigating the resolution) The drivers interior door grab handle silver trim is not seated correctly and has been slowly peeling off. (They say they'll reseat it) There are several dents in the headliner, most noticeable by the A and B pillars on the passenger side. (They installed a new headliner, but broke it during installation, I'm waiting for them to get another in stock) Brake squeal after extended use. (TSB 13-1-2) Ecoboost AWD badging has had its color peeled off already. (They say they'll replace it) While refueling, multiple times it has prematurely shut off while being 90% empty. (They're investigating) "Issues" not being addressed The liftgate won’t latch if interrupted by turning the engine over. I have to get out of the vehicle and press the button on the liftgate itself to close it. (It only does it if you press the start button in the middle of its latching sequence, easy enough to avoid once I figured out when it has a problem) The manual HVAC fan buttons don't always respond. (annoying, but they can't reproduce since its intermittent) The steering wheel buttons don't always respond. (annoying, but they can't reproduce since its intermittent) There is an exposed thread that I am concern may unravel on the front passenger seat, located at the front right of the seat. (who cares) There are wrinkles in the seats (who cares) There is a dimple in the steering wheel where it feels like the stitching was not done properly at about 10 o’clock (Annoying but so minor I wouldn't want them to change the steering wheel and screw everything else up) The chrome around the key fob is loose (I want this fixed as the chrome is almost to the point of being able to fall off, but they say they can't) The brakes grind upon application during cold start. The sound and additional dragging feeling goes away after a few minutes (They say this is normal, I'm still discussing that with them) The rearview mirror slowly falls down, every three days or so I have to readjust it. (It meets their spec for tightness, so I have to live with adjusting it once a week or so) There’s condensation inside the headlights and taillights. (This is normal apparently) The auto unlock upon grabbing the driver’s door handle often doesn't work. I grab the driver’s rear handle and it unlocks the vehicle, so it is not a problem with where I'm standing or anything on my hands. (I'm still arguing this one with them, but since it's intermittent, they acknowledge a problem) Issues Fixed The fuel gauge seems to be off (TSB 13-02-01) The driver front and rear door handles stick when opening. (TSB 12-12-12... Actually, they only fixed the rear door, front door still sticks) Redundant/MFT issues The volume has gotten stuck multiple times, requiring a vehicle restart in order to adjust the volume. It seems like MFT re-indexes my iPod several times a week, and each time it takes several hours. My previous vehicle only took ~30-60 sec to index the same iPod. It just had Sync though and not MFT. MFT has crashed multiple times with the screen going black and the physical buttons unresponsive, requiring me to shut the vehicle off and restart it. Multiple MFT issues including: having to toggle random/repeat on/off/on in order to actually change its setting, A/C button being illuminated on MFT but not on the HVAC system, upon car start, sometimes the USB is set to play, other times to pause, volume indicator only changes by two, and it doesn't always (and often has a long delay before it) shows the list of options after prompting me to "please choose" When I press the "say command" button, instead of prompting me, it just turns my music louder When I turn the radio off, the iPod keeps playing, though no music comes through the speakers DIC shows options for navigation always on, only on guidance, and always off. Always on does not appear to work, as it is only on during guidance Navigation instructions freeze on the DIC screen when it is on intelligent 4WD Outside air temp doesn’t update on my drive to work (TSB 13-03-07... Using this as leverage to finally get them to update the PCM, but I never noticed this as an issue until I saw the TSB) My Escape should be going back in "tomorrow" when they get a new headliner... But then again, they were originally supposed to get the new headliner in 3 weeks ago, and it keeps getting delayed. Supposedly all of those issues they've acknowledged will be corrected then as well. Now that I've gotten over 4k miles on it, I'm probably going to talk to them about fuel economy too. Around town I have 5 leaves for both speed and anticipation, yet I can't break 18mpg, and cruising on flat level highways at the speed limit I can't get more than 24.5mpg. Quite a bit off from the 21/28 I'm supposed to be getting.

Yeah, there's a TSB for the pedal as well. TSB 12-10-11. Basically recentering the pedal and applying a lube to keep it from squeaking.

1) Has a TSB - they shouldn't give you a hard time 2-3) Let me know if they actually do anything about those - Mine doesn't always unlock. Something to note though - if you drag your hand over the lock pad grabbing the handle, you can confuse it by telling it to lock and then unlock. 4) They likely won't update your IP for that reason, but if you complain about the range before your gas light comes on, there's a TSB to update the IP software to fix that bug. It just so happens to also fix the nav issue on the 4WD screen. 5) Again - let me know what they do for that. I've been having the same issue, and have kept asking for them to update the PCM and/or neutralize the mounts, but they haven't actually done anything. I have noticed recently that it's starting to get better. I don't know if that's because it's warmer outside, or because I'm finally getting some miles on it (sitting at 4k now) 6) TSB for that. They change the front anchor plates. 7) Yeah, good luck with that. They all do that - its the material they selected. If they do give you a new one, expect it to do the same thing in no time at all. 8) Yeah... MFT is going to do that. There's nothing the dealership can do (besides make sure you have 3.5.1 installed). Note that MFT is designed to restart itself every 3 days, so if when you get in the vehicle and it's rebooting (er, performing scheduled maintenance) then that is working properly. If you're referring to it crashing to a black screen, or randomly restarting while you're driving, those are failures, but they can't be fixed. If it makes you feel better, when I first brought mine in, I had 26 items on my laundry list. It has since grown to 34, and only a handful have been resolved. Though there are about a dozen that I know won't ever, nor do I really care that they're "wrong." (For example, I have a loose thread in my passenger seat - as long as it doesn't start to unravel, I don't care. I want it on file that I have an exposed thread in case it does start to unravel, but I don't want them to change the seat for that reason) Again, they can and should fix 1, 4, 5, and 6. They can't fix 7 or 8. 2 and 3 are the mystery ones.

Yup, that's the reason. People are supposedly bringing in their Ecoboost engines thinking that it's not running properly because there's black particles on their exhaust tip. What can you say - it's a DI engine, it's going to have particles flowing through the exhaust. I haven't seen them in person yet, but from what I've heard, it should match the "DNA" of the Edge and Explorer's angled tips. As for not rolling it out for MY2014, my guess is they wanted to get this change done ASAP, and they probably wanted it done a few months ago, but it took this long to get it done. Though if they had left it for a MY2014, they could write it off as "updated styling" or something, so it doesn't seem like it's a boo boo that's being fixed.

This refers to your next step direction thingy showing up in your DIC (Driver Info Center - the screen between your tach and speedo). If you set it to "always on" whenever your GPS is navigating you somewhere, it will always have the next step showing on the right side of the screen (it replaces the picture of the car). If it is "always off" then you'll never have the next step shown.

Aye. I still LOVE my escape, despite the laundry list of "issues" I have with it. On a day that I'm not going to Lowe's/Home Depot, you won't hear me complain about my purchase. A point I forgot to add regarding the highway testing vs. real world comparison... The Escape's not a very streamlined product, and has a greater aero drag than the average car would have. So that would mean that the increase from 48mph to 75mph would affect it more than a streamlined car would. Thus, if one was to conclude the varied duty cycle offsets the lower speed for the normal car - it would predict a higher number for the Escape than real world driving would produce. While I don't have drag coefficient or frontal area numbers to support this claim - all you have to do is compare it to other Ford SUVs. The Explorer 2.0L Ecoboost gets 20/28, Edge 2.0L Ecoboost gets 21/30, and the Escape 2.0L FWD Ecoboost gets 22/28. The size of the Escape is smaller than both of those, which means that the aero drag has to be much greater. The parasitical losses on the Explorer and Edge are going to be higher just due to the nature that they're heavier vehicles. Which means that the Frontal area * coefficient of drag has to be greater for the Escape than either the Edge or Explorer... and we all know the frontal area is smaller, which means that the actual design of the Escape, while looking sleek, is not aerodynamically efficient. The only potential caveat to this reasoning is that on the Explorer and Edge, the 2.0L is fuel economy engine. On the Escape, it is the premium engine. As such, the tuning (namely turbo and Ti-VCT) would be more aggressive. I wouldn't doubt minor differences in the actual engine (Cam lobe profile, Intake manifold) to provide a different feel... They do similar things with the 5.0L on the Mustang/F Series and the 3.5L on Explorer Sport (truncated exhaust manifold due to underhood space - results in 350hp instead of 365) vs. Truck (tuned for low end torque) vs. Sho (tuned for high end power).

Aye. There's quite a few reasons that the modern EPA testing (which, while tested by the auto companies, the gov't dictates what testing needs to be done) is irrelevant to everyday persons. First, the government says to use E00 fuel for testing. Yet the government requires the use of at least 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel, which primarily came from Ethanol. This (along with the government issuing a certification that all vehicle from 2001+ can run on E15, even though the manufactures fought this, and if you run E15, some will void your warranty) has pushed most "regular unleaded" to actually be E10. Most states require the pumps to say something along the lines of "Fuel may contain up to 10% ethanol," but some states, like Michigan, allow up to E10 without any disclaimer. So that's a 4% hit to fuel economy. (Unrelated, there are concerns as to whether or not corn ethanol is actually renewable/sustainable) And then there's the fact that we're just getting out of winter. Colder air is denser, which means that the ambient pressure is higher, which means in order to get the right Air/Fuel ratio in order to burn the fuel (~14.1:1), you have to provide more fuel. @ 30C, air density is 1.164kg/m^3, @ 0C, it's 1.293, which is 11% more dense. For a naturally aspirated engine, that should pretty much mean a 11% decrease. But since the ecoboost engines are turbo charged, the higher ambient pressure means that the turbo doesn't have to kick in as much / as often in order to provide more power, so there will be slightly less than 11% hit to fuel economy. (Note, this also means your engine has more power during the winter due to the dense air... Again, I'm unsure as to how the turbo affects that, as to whether it has a max boost, or a max pressure). And as someone already pointed out, the fuel you get during the winter has less energy in it. The reason for this is due to government emissions, coupled with cold start conditions. This is another 1-2% decrease to fuel economy. So, if the EPA certification tests accurately represented the real world, due to all of these other variables, one could still expect to be getting 11-17% under the rated fuel economy (at least during the winter). On the 33MPG that the 1.6L FWD ecoboost is rated for, this means that one would expect to get 27-29MPG just from variables you can't control. But then there's the fact that the testing isn't really representative of real world testing. The highway part of the test is actually quite dynamic, speeding up and slowing down quite a bit. Whereas in my mind, I think of highway driving as rather steady state, with the cruise control (either electronic or controlled by me) set at a specific speed, with the occasional speed up to get around that F-150 that has that mattress precariously "secured" in the bed of the truck, or slowing down for the oh-too-common mexican road block, but in general, I'd consider it a steady speed. But wait! Shouldn't the dynamic varying speed negatively affect the rating? Yes... It should. Until you further research what speeds they're doing their highway testing at. The average speed is 48.3MPH, with a max speed of 60MPH. I don't know about ya'll, but whenever I'm on the highway, the slowest speed limit is 65, more commonly 70, and traffic does at least 75. And as the government has made everyone aware, slowing down saves you fuel. (They estimate 15% savings driving 65 instead of 75)... The formula for drag is Fd = Cd*A*V^2. I don't know what the coefficient of drag of the Escape is, nor have I bothered to figure out what the frontal area is. But traditionally, the air drag and the mechanical losses are about the same around 45MPH. And the drag force at 75mph is 2.78 times larger than it is at 45mph. So one can assume the overall drag at 75mph is ~1.89 times higher than at 45mph. Which means your car has to work almost twice as hard. And while that cannot directly relate to a MPG hit, it's easy to see that going 75mph is going to yield a drastically lower FE than 48.3mph. Maybe the two issues with the test typically cancel each other out (transient at lower speeds vs. steady at higher speeds). Or maybe not. I don't know. But either way, its not representative of real world driving. I am personally disappointed in my fuel economy, averaging ~18/24 (2.0L AWD), with all 5 leaves on both things (well, at least when I'm driving around town. On the highway I lose the speed leaves), achieving both Eco Champion and Advanced Eco driver (off topic - anyone know what the difference between the two is?) - but the main disappointment comes from the fact that my Dad's F-350 with the 6.7L diesel gets the same 18/24 that I get (given, it's with diesel fuel, but still)... and that thing is a beast, weighing almost twice of what the Escape weighs, and having at least double the frontal area, 3.31 gearing vs my 3.06, and plenty of cargo room. One of the main reasons I got rid of my truck was because I was expecting to double the fuel economy in the Escape (I was getting 12/16 with the 5.4L w/ 4.11 on my F-250)... But its only ~50% better, and now I actually have to think about what stuff I want to bring where because I can't just throw everything in the bed of the truck.

The Escape has a little door hiding the OBD port. When you plug that in, can you put the door back on, or does it interfere?

In order to remove the cabin air filter, you need to remove the BCM. Which requires removing the instrument panel insulator (under the glove box), RH instrument panel side trim panel (right of the glove box), the glove box itself, and disconnect the 8 electrical connectors to the BCM, and remove that. Then, remove the cabin air filter access door, and replace the cabin filter. It looks to me like the filter is installed to the left of the glove box, though it's not very clear from the picture I'm looking at - it could be installed behind the glove box.

Yeah, due to the curvature of the glass, I ended up having to put a 1'' spacer under the ski rack so the bindings would touch the glass. And I'm well aware of the fact that the static load of the cargo is only a small portion of the overall impact, but the forces applied through the roof rails are directly proportional to the mass of the cargo (F=ma). And raising the rack 1 inch for clearance messes with the CG of the vehicle even more. Though if you consider the CG of the vehicle to be at 24'' (which seems high to me), and that the curb weight is 3,742lbs for my 2.0L AWD... So 200lbs at 72'' would raise the CG 2.435 inches, or 10%. The additional inch spacer raises it an additional .051'' - a nominal amount. But, the 1 inch lift does end up having a larger effect on the moment arm of the drag force on the roof rails - instead of being ~3in above, it's now ~4 inches above, meaning the torque on the roof rails is 33% greater (assuming that the drag force is the same, which I think is a decent assumption). Side loads (aka, cross winds) shouldn't really make a difference with the spacer as there is a much larger moment arm between the roof rails. That said - as far as cargo on the roof goes, skis are relatively aerodynamic. Especially vs. kayaks (due to the much larger size) and bikes (due to the height and larger drag coefficient). For the record, I would recommend against having any load actually resting on your roof, regardless of whether you have the vista roof or not. The sheet metal is not designed to carry the load and you'll end up deforming it. Though you see it all the time with people putting bike racks on their trunks, though that its typically stronger than the roof, as the roof is pretty much one flat sheet.

So I have a thule rack, and two sets of ski carriers. I made it through the winter mounting that on when needed (it took 5min to install/remove the system, so when I didn't need I pulled it off). While looking through the owners manual, I saw that the cross bars load capacity is stated to be 100lbs (or 40lbs if you have the panoramic roof). I inferred from that that the roof rails can support at least 100lbs. I'll go ahead and say that I've had 8 pairs of race skis (@ ~20lbs each) on it, plus the weight of the rack system itself, so I've loaded about 200lbs on it. Short of piss poor mileage, and being thrown around in the wind a bit easier, I didn't notice any issues with it. But now as winter turns into summer, I'm looking at putting two bikes and two kayaks up there, which will easily add up to 200lbs, plus it'll have quite abit more aerodynamic effects. I would like to go and say that this was all taken into account when designing the Escape, but I was appalled at the 40lbs load capacity of the cross bars, so now I'm not certain, and I can't seem to find anything in the owner's manual about the roof rails themselves. Does anyone know what they can support? Or has anyone loaded it up with a bunch of stuff and can share his/her experiences?

So I refueled with premium when my tank was empty, and have now used about 1/4 of the tank of premium. My idle feels the same. My mileage is the same. And I haven't bothered to floor it, but the drivability is the same. The only difference seems to be that it cost me 10% more to fill up.

Yup, that's the right one. I've been complaining to my dealership for about a month about that issue, and they kept claiming that everything was working just fine. I'm happy this TSB finally came out so I can go back and tell them that apparently it's not supposed to take 20min to find a signal. I'm scheduled to bring the car back in for a headliner replacement this week, so I'll ask if they can apply this fix and I'll let you know how it turns out.

From listening to other people talk about their Escape, even though it has a 15 gal tank, it only uses 13.1 gallons of it. So putting in 12 gallons when the light comes on sounds about right. I'd think you should get more than 10 gallons in it though.

The material itself seems flimsy, but the front of it, which seems to be the part that's on the track, seems nice and sturdy, so I wouldn't worry too much about it coming off the track. Furthermore, since its electronically adjusted (compared to a manual sliding one like they used to all be) its a more controlled environment. I wouldn't be surprised if the material was flimsy so that any wind / arms flailing don't disrupt the track itself. And I would hope that sufficient "tear" testing was done on the shade itself.

If you have the quad screen on your trip 1 and trip 2 sections, then you have the latest DIC software, which corrected the issue.

I've been consistently getting a rough idle ever since I bought it, though every now and then it goes away and runs smoothly. I keep asking for the dealership to updated the PCM calibration, but they haven't yet. I haven't had any start up issues though. As for MPG, first off, I'm a little jealous that you've been getting 21-23, but that aside, I've noticed that it takes awhile to equalize out to what I'm actually getting. When you reset the average MPG, it seems to start at like the life time average, and then slowly work its way to what you're getting. I find this annoying because I'm typically on the highway for ~15min at a time, and I would like to see what type of highway mileage I'm getting, but by the time I get off, it's still increasing in MPGs. Also, when they updated the DIC software, it reset my "lifetime" average, and it started from like 30mpg. Perhaps yours is starting at like 15mpg (indicating that they idled it for an extended period of time before returning it to you?) Given this theory only holds water if you've just had the DIC updated, and if you haven't put many miles on since you reset your 4 quadrant display.

Tell them that your low fuel light comes on and you fill up and only put in 8 to 9 gallons.

It's the same thing on the Fusion. Its offered on the 1.6L but not available on the 2.0L. I would think the reasoning for not offering it on the 2.0L would be because those maximizing fuel economy get the 1.6L. That, and if it was added as a standard feature to the 2.0L, that's a few hundred bucks more. If it was not a standard feature, then that's even more plant complexity - 2.5L cooling pack, 1.6L cooling pack w/ AGS, 1.6L w/o AGS, 2.0L w/ AGS, 2.0L w/o AGS. And the cooling packs aren't particularly small, so that would take up alot of real estate next to the assembly line.

Sorry for the confusion. I was referring to my 2008 F-250. I don't consider the Escape a truck, but I know that people do. The short bed F-250/350's had 30.5 gal tanks from 2008-2010, where they were reduced to 25 gal tanks (along with getting a powertrain overhaul with the 6.2L Boss and 6.7L Scorpion). The long beds had 38 gallon tanks, with an optional second tank on the F-350's for another 18 gallons. While it is a bit annoying to be filling up every 200-250 miles, it sure is a lot nicer to only be filling up for ~40 bucks . The F-250 almost always hit the price cap limit before it got a full tank (most stations used to be $75, but now are $90... either way, >$3/gal and it hits the limit before its full)

1) TSB 12-12-12 2) TSB 13-1-2 3) TSB 13-02-01 - but it doesn't sound like yours is "broken." Mine was filling up 12 before, and 12 afterwards. I have heard people that have the low fuel light that comes on at like half a tank, I believe the software fixes that "DTE issue" not ours. The Escape seems to have a "design flaw" in that it is too small of a tank to begin with, and you can't seem to get all the fuel out of it. Just out of curiosity though - has anyone actually run out of gas in the Escape yet? When my truck hit 0 DTE, I had about 50 miles left to go, and I knew that. I never ran out of gas in the truck, but I had driven about 40 miles beyond, and filled 29 of the 30.5 gallons. And consistently when I hit 0 DTE, I would fill ~25 of 30 gallons.

Both times mine happened I was running 3.5.1.

The fuel light came on at 35mi DTE. When I filled up, the needle was slightly about E, with 20mi DTE. I had driven ~240mi (I had just filled it up when I dropped it off at the dealership, and everything was reset when they did the update, so I probably had more like 245 trip miles), and put in 12.5 gallons. The computer showed I was getting 18.9MPG (though hand calculating it shows I got slightly more). I don't have the paperwork yet, but I did ask for them to update my DIC/IPC and referenced TSB 13-02-01.

I've had this happen to me twice. Both times, I put the car in neutral and shut off the engine, and restarted. This fixed it both times. If restarting the vehicle isn't working, I'd try pulling the fuse on MFT before taking it into the dealership.

I just had mine updated as well. It said 384 DTE miles. I have since driven 200 miles and it's down to 69 DTE miles. The gauge is showing a little below a quarter, and the light hasn't come on yet. Here in the next day or so it should finally come on. I'll let ya'll know what that is.