2013 Ford Escape Problems: 13 Known Issues

On the 2013-2015 Ford Escape, the 2013-2015 Ford Escape is subject to a major safety recall affecting side door latches. The pawl spring tab inside the door latch can fracture due to stress in high-temperature/humidity climates, causing the door to not close properly or to open unexpectedly while driving. Ford expanded this recall multiple times, ultimately covering approximately 2.38 million vehicles including Escape, Focus, C-MAX, Mustang, and Lincoln MKC. The latch itself typically fails silently - the door may appear closed but is not fully latched, creating an ejection risk for occupants.

On the 2013-2014 Ford Escape, driver and passenger seatback assemblies on 2013-2014 Escapes built June 5, 2012 through August 12, 2013 were produced with sub-standard weld joints attaching the seat back recliner mechanism to the seat frame. The weld can fail, and the seat back becomes loose or leans rearward while driving. More seriously, the affected seat backs do not have enough strength to meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 207 ("Seating Systems"), so in a rear impact the seat back can collapse and the occupant is not properly restrained. NHTSA campaign 14V164000 was posted April 8, 2014 and the remedy began May 30, 2014. Not every 2013-2014 Escape is affected — coverage is by build date and seat supplier, and forum owners of 2014 S models found their VINs excluded.

On the 2013-2014 Ford Escape, the conformal coating on portions of the Restraints Control Module printed circuit board can crack. When the cracked board is exposed to humidity, circuits on the PCB short out, and the frontal airbags, side curtain airbags and seat belt pretensioners may fail to function as intended in a crash. Ford recalled roughly 850,000 vehicles in North America under NHTSA 14V597000 / Ford 14S21, covering 2013-2014 Escapes built October 5, 2011 through November 1, 2013 along with C-MAX, Fusion and MKZ. The recall was announced September 26, 2014 but the parts fix did not begin until May 26, 2015, leaving owners exposed for months. Escape owners typically see it as an airbag warning light that comes and goes with weather and humidity. A separate, earlier action (Ford 14S04) reprogrammed the RCM software on some 2013-2014 Escapes for delayed side-curtain rollover airbag deployment — a different defect in the same module.

On the 2013 Ford Escape 1.6L EcoBoost I4, separate from the coolant-into-the-cylinder failure, the 1.6L EcoBoost cylinder head itself can crack from localized overheating in the head casting. The crack lets engine oil escape onto hot engine and exhaust components, which can start an engine compartment fire. Ford recalled 139,917 model year 2013 Escapes with the 1.6L EcoBoost, built October 5, 2011 through June 2, 2013, under NHTSA 13V583000 (announced November 2013); unlike the 2012 fuel-line recall, Ford did not tell owners to stop driving this time. This was the fifth and sixth recall action on the 1.6L Escape in eighteen months. It is engine-code specific: the 2.0L EcoBoost and 2.5L Duratec Escapes of the same years are not covered.

On the 2009-2013 Ford Escape, contacts inside the electronic throttle body motor can build up high-resistance material, causing an intermittent connection and a sudden loss of engine power. The check engine or wrench light comes on and the engine may be held near 900 rpm in a limp-home mode, while power steering, brakes, lights and climate control keep working. Applies to: 2009-2013 Ford Escape with the 2.5L or 3.0L engine (NHTSA Preliminary Evaluation PE13-003, which also covered Mercury Mariner, Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan). Ford's Customer Satisfaction Program 13N03 extended coverage to 10 years or 150,000 miles from the warranty start date; that coverage has expired for these model years.

On the 2013-2019 Ford Escape, the plastic bushing that attaches the shifter cable to the transmission on the shift lever end degrades and can detach from the transmission. When it does, the transmission can be in a gear state different from what the shift lever and PRNDL display indicate. The dangerous case is the driver moving the lever to Park, seeing P on the cluster, and removing the key — while the transmission is not actually in Park and the vehicle rolls away, with no warning message and no audible chime. Ford recalled roughly 550,000 vehicles under NHTSA 18V471000 / Ford 18S20 covering 2013-2014 Escapes and 2013-2016 Fusions, and in June 2022 issued a further shift-cable-bushing action affecting 2013-2019 Escapes under NHTSA 22V413000 / Ford 22S43 as part of a 2.9 million vehicle campaign. Escape owners on fordescape.org discussed the campaign extending across 2013-2019 cars. This is a shift-linkage defect, not a transmission internal failure, and is unrelated to the 6F35 torque converter and 8F35 bearing issues.

On the 2013-2015 Ford Escape 1.6L EcoBoost I4, p0741 indicates the PCM has detected a torque converter clutch performance fault. Ford TSB 19-2100 (April 2019) states that some 2013–2015 Escape vehicles with the 1.6L EcoBoost engine may show an illuminated MIL and/or a transmission malfunction service now warning with only P0741 and/or P1744 stored, and that this may be due to internal damage to the torque converter. The bulletin applies only when all of those criteria are met; other engines, years or additional codes need their own diagnosis.

On the 2013-2014 Ford Escape 2.0L EcoBoost, the engine wiring harness splices that feed the Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensor were crimped with insufficient compression on 2013-2014 Escapes with the 2.0L engine built October 5, 2011 through April 1, 2013. The loose splice sends an incorrect MAP signal to the powertrain control module, and the PCM responds with hesitation, a rough or unstable idle, or an outright stall — often with no stored code that points at the harness, because the sensor itself tests good. Ford recalled the vehicles (along with 2.0L Focus ST) under 14S17 (NHTSA 14V495000), then issued 14S17-S1 (NHTSA 15V813000) for 2013 Escapes built January 11, 2012 through April 1, 2013 and 2013-2014 Focus ST that had been repaired before 14S17 with an earlier procedure that may not have fixed the splices properly. This is an electrical-connection defect and is completely separate from the 1.6L coolant intrusion and cylinder-head cracking issues that dominate this generation, though it affects many of the same cars.

On the 2013 Ford Escape 1.6L EcoBoost I4, the very first crisis on the third-generation Escape: the engine compartment fuel line on 1.6L EcoBoost cars can split and leak fuel into the engine bay, where it can ignite. Ford recalled roughly 11,500 2013 Escapes in mid-2012 under NHTSA 12V336000 and took the extraordinary step of telling owners to stop driving the vehicles entirely until the line was replaced. The story then got worse: in November 2013 Ford had to go back to 9,469 of the already-repaired cars under NHTSA 13V584000 because the replacement fuel line had been installed incorrectly during the first repair and could chafe against adjacent components and eventually leak. This is a fuel-system defect on the 1.6L only and is distinct from both the cylinder head crack fire and the coolant intrusion failure on the same engine.

On the 2013-2019 Ford Escape, on 3rd-generation AWD Escapes (primarily 2.0L EcoBoost AWD), the Power Transfer Unit (the right-angle gearbox that sends torque to the rear axle) holds only about one quart of fluid that Ford labels 'lifetime,' yet it runs continuously and runs hot. The fluid degrades and the unit overheats, with the input and intermediate-shaft seals leaking onto the right side of the transmission. Left unserviced, the PTU can whine, grind, and ultimately seize ('grenade'), sometimes damaging the transaxle. Ford TSB 18-2255 documents the right-side fluid leak.

On the 2013-2014 Ford Escape, on 2013-2014 Escapes built at Louisville Assembly from October 5, 2011 through April 10, 2014, the exterior door handle may have been misaligned to the door outer panel during assembly. The misalignment causes internal interference and a binding condition — the handle does not return fully to its home position after being pulled, which can hold the latch in the released state. The result is a door that is hard to close, that appears closed but is not latched, or that opens while driving. Ford recalled the vehicles under NHTSA 14V239000 (Ford 14S03) and Transport Canada 2014163. There is a related but separate cold-weather pattern owners report on fordescape.org and go-parts writeups: water entering the door freezes the handle release cable, producing the same stuck-handle condition on cars outside the recall build window. A third, distinct issue on the same handle is Ford TSB 13-12-13, where a salt/water/dirt film on the internal components makes the Intelligent Access smart-unlock touch sensor intermittently inoperative.

On the 2013-2019 Ford Escape, the 2013-2019 Escape power liftgate latch assembly frequently fails, causing the rear hatch to either not open, not close properly, or pop open while driving. The latch mechanism corrodes internally and the micro-switch fails, particularly in humid or salt belt environments. There is no safety recall for the Escape liftgate latch; Ford issued service bulletins instead, including one for 2013-2014 power/hands-free liftgates built on or before June 12, 2013 (liftgate ajar warning, hard to open or close) and TSB 19-2056 for 2017-2019 power liftgates that bounce back or will not cinch fully closed.

On the 2013-2016 Ford Escape 1.6L EcoBoost I4, on 1.6L EcoBoost Escapes, the air conditioning inlet line breaks where it connects to the compressor. The failure is mechanical rather than a slow seal leak: pressure and contact from the adjacent oil cooler coolant lines loads the A/C line at the compressor fitting until it cracks, and the system dumps its entire refrigerant charge at once. Ford covered this in TSB 18-2314 for 2013-2016 Escapes with the 1.6L engine. The give-away is that the compressor and clutch test good and the system takes and holds a recharge for only a short time, or not at all — owners on fordescape.org report shops recharging the system repeatedly and chasing the compressor before finding the cracked inlet line at the fitting. A second, unrelated cold-air complaint on the same generation is a failed blower motor resistor or a fault in the A/C/heater control module, which produces no cooling with a healthy refrigerant charge — worth ruling out before opening the refrigerant circuit.