2018 Ford Escape engine problems ranged from engine misfire, check engine light frequently illuminating, engine overheating, and engine sputtering.
While the 2018 Ford Escape didn’t bring many new features compared to the 2017 model year, loyal Ford customers rushed to purchase hundreds of this vehicle over the first couple of years.
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Unfortunately, immediately after driving this vehicle for a short time, customers discovered major problems related to significant components, especially the engine.
Although the 2018 Ford Escape hasn’t been on the road a lot more than three years, automotive experts collected some critical information about the major 2018 Ford Escape engine problems.
This article summarizes our in-depth review of all reported complaints about the 2018 Ford Escape engine problems to larger forums like Edmunds.com, repairpal.com, NHTSA.gov, and more.
Both current owners and new shoppers for a used 2018 Ford Escape must familiarize themselves with all potential engine problems associated with this vehicle, enabling them to determine whether it’s worth owning such a vehicle.
2018 Ford Escape Engine Overview
Although there wasn't any major difference between the 2017 and the 2018 Ford Escape model years, customers immediately noticed the adequate acceleration and power associated with the base model of the 2018 Ford Escape. If you are looking for a lot more power, you can always find it in the additional available turbocharged engines.
The baseline model of the 2018 Ford Escape comes with a 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine that achieves about 168 horsepower along with 170 pounds-feet of torque. The base model achieves about 21 miles per gallon on city roads and 29 miles per gallon on the highway
If you decided to go up in the trims, you could get one of two great options, including:
- The turbocharged 1.5-liter 4-cylinder engine achieves about 179 of horsepower along with 177 pound-feet of torque. This engine option allows you to achieve about 23 miles per gallon on city road and 30 miles per gallon on the highway.
- The turbocharged 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine achieves as high as 245 of horsepower and extreme torque of 275 pound-feet! Despite the amazing power of this option, one might be a little concerned about the lower fuel economy ranging from 20 miles per gallon on city road and 27 miles per gallon on the highway.
2018 Ford Escape Engine Problems
Although the 2018 Ford Escape engine comes with amazing power that satisfies most customers, it's important to keep some reported complaints on your radar when shopping for a used 2018 Ford Escape. Even if you are a current owner of this vehicle, you also need to be prepared for some engine problems you might experience at the early stages of your vehicle's lifetime.
Keep in mind that the 2018 Ford Escape vehicle hasn't been on the road for a long time, and there there's a lot more to want once we receive more data and additional complaints about engine issues. However, with all what's in hand and what was reported to larger forums, we can summarize and conclude some common problems to expect with your 2018 Ford Escape engine, including:
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Engine misfire
One of the tops reported complaints about the 2018 Ford Escape engine problems is significant engine misfire, which cost most customers installing a completely new engine.
Engine misfire occurred mostly in relatively newer 2018 Ford Escape vehicles with less than 18,000 miles, which raises some red flags about what else is expected after reaching the 100,000 miles.
How to fix this 2018 Ford Escape engine problem?
With a total of seven complaints reported to carcomplaints.com, customers indicated that the only solution to the 2018 Ford Escape engine misfire is installing a new engine, unfortunately.
Although most customers indicated that the problem was taken care of under the factory extended warranty, they were absolutely frustrated with visiting the dealership multiple times and dealing with major engine problems at an early stage of their vehicle’s timeline.
Customer complaints #1
“Purchased new 2018 Ford Escape SE July 2018. Put 21,000 miles on it and then the Check Engine Light came on. Took to Fair Oaks Ford in Naperville for oil change and Check Engine Light and they told me that it must have been dirt in the fuel injector. In a month the Check Engine Light came back on and I took it in. Service told me I needed a new engine. Since I had 23,000 mile on the car and only 14,000 left on Warranty, I asked if they were going to extend my Warranty. Fair Oaks Ford told me to contact Corporate Ford Customer Service because some customers had received extended warranty.
I called Ford Customer Service which was an Indian Call Center and basically they told me that Ford had no program in place to extend the warranty (Go pound sand). I am waiting for my engine to be replaced and will challenge the dealer to warrant the replacement engine, but don't have faith this will happen. If this does not work I will write a letter to the Ford CEO.
What makes me real mad is that in June when I first took the Car in they must have know that the engine needed to replaced. Did anyone out there with a similar problem get Ford to offer a Warranty of the new engine?”
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Check engine light illuminating
When your vehicle raises any warning error on the dashboard, it’s never recommended to be ignored. While the check engine light might indicate a simple issue, it can also refer to a complicated internal problem resulting in complete engine failure.
Surprisingly, frequent check engine light illumination was another common problem with the newer 2018 Ford Escape. A large number of complaints representing customers’ frustration was reported to carcomplaints.com.
How to fix this 2018 Ford Escape engine problem?
None of the reported complaints referred to any solution to fix or prevent frequent check engine light illumination, although at least one customer indicated installing a brand-new engine to get rid of the issue.
Customer complaints #1
“We purchashed this 2018 Ford Escape in July 2019 with 24000 kms. We paid 14000 down, with the trade of the old 2014 Escape, and only owe 9000. In May 2020 the check engine light came on. We contacted Ford who told us not to worry about it unless the check engine light came on blinking. We trusted Ford. We continued to drive.
One day in June I was driving with my 4 year old grandson in the SUV and the check engine light started blinking indicating to immediately stop driving the car. I was stranded on the side of the road with my grandson. I was 1 km from my house. A guy stopped to help. He put coolant in it enough to get me home. I called Ford. This was on a Friday. They told us to have the car towed and to come get a rental as our insurance covered it If there was one available. There was.
We live 34 kms from Ford. It was pouring rain that day. My grandson was put down for a nap. When the tow truck came, because of COVID they could not give me a ride into Ford as Ford closes as 5pm and I had to get there before then. So the rental company could not deliver, and we had to wake up my grandson and drive in the rain to Ford to get my rental car. When I arrived at Ford there was no “Hi, Mrs. Roberts”, just “there she is” (to the rental agent). Not very good service. When I told the service agent on the phone that I had no way in to retrieve the rental due to my grandson napping, he said “well, you better wake him up!”! The rental agent took me out in the pouring rain, made me stand in the rain (no umbrella) to show me the car!!! It was a Hyundai Kona. It was Friday, so I took the car.
Monday, I called Ford for an update. They said the parts would be in tomorrow. Three weeks later, our car was ready as there were issues with sending the wrong or faulty parts (two different times).
I have several medical issues and had to travel to Halifax five times this summer. We went in the Kona but my left hip (for which I had five surgeries on) started to really hurt. That is why we bought an SUV, as it is much easier to get in and out of and go on long drives. I went to the rental company and they swapped it out for a Hyundai Tuscon. As I said, three weeks later we got our vehicle back.
We went to the Service Manager and complained. End result was we were given the maintenance package for three years. This, in my mind, was not sufficient. We did not feel like we were really cared for. We didn't need this as I was really sick and was waiting for another surgery in Halifax so this was indeed a very stressful time for us and this could have been solved early if we were told to bring the vehicle in to get checked when we initially called. My husband has severe PTSD from 28 years in the Canadian Armed Forces and this set him back quite a bit. The purchase of two SUVs in 5 years.
When we purchased the second Escape the salesman knew of our issue and guaranteed it wouldn't happen again!”
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Engine overheating
Engine overheating is the worst enemy of any gasoline engine; it can easily result in quick engine self-destruction.
With at least two reported complaints to carcomplaints.com, it is expected for the 2018 Ford Escape to experience engine overheating at around 21,000 miles.
How to fix this 2018 Ford Escape engine problem?
According to the customers’ complaints, replacing the head gasket is expected to resolve engine overheating problems with the 2018 Ford Escape vehicle. Keep in mind that this might only work for certain vehicles, and it’s not necessarily the permanent solution for any engine overheating issue in the 2018 Ford Escape vehicles.
Customer complaints #1
“The ford dealership has been 5 star service we got a rental right away. Engine coolant disappeared and the mechanic found it in the oil. Piston valve 2 is what i believe he said. I have no beef with ford but this is the first ford i ever had a problem with. Even minor stuff no problems at all.But kinda weird how there was no visible or sounds of a problem even the day it happened. we had a 2007 f150 we had a 2014 fusion se which was t- boned and no one got hurt. then we have the escape and i guess it wasn't 3rd time lucky..lol I'm not gonna slam ford every car company has their issues but 1 thing that actually led me to buy a ford was.. they never took the bailout they made their product better to sell it and get out on their own!!! props to ford for that!!”
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Engine sputtering
At least one customer reported experiencing engine sputtering with his 5,000 miles 2018 Ford Escape. Surprisingly, when the customer took his vehicle to the dealership, they discovered that the reason behind the engine sputtering is overfilling the fuel tank.
They mentioned that when the fuel tank is overfilled, it can interfere with the vacuum system resulting in engine sputtering.
How to fix this 2018 Ford Escape engine problem?
A simple solution to the 2018 Ford Escape engine sputtering is to prevent overfilling the fuel tank in the future, which might be a challenge for “old school” folks who prefer to completely top off the tank every visit to the gas station.
Customer complaints #1
“After I had the problem occur 5 times I went on line to find out if there are similar problems with other owners. I did find other people with this same problem. This issue could be dangerous as the car stalls and I have to put it in park and restart. I am taking the vehicle in to the dealer tomorrow. They have been my service center for many years so I expect this issue to be resolved but from other people's problems it could take a while since I haven't heard of anyone getting the issue fixed.”
Other 2018 Ford Escape Problems
If engine problems were not enough to discourage one from purchasing a 2018 Ford Escape, how about hearing about additional major issues with the transition and other components?
Unfortunately, engine problems were not the only reported issues about the 2018 Ford Escape. Let's take a closer look below
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Transmission problems
Customers were extremely disappointed to deal with major engine problems and experienced some significant issues with the transmission at the early stages of their vehicle’s lifetime.
Almost all customers complained about an issue with the 2018 Ford Escape transmission indicated that their vehicle has an error message saying, “transmission fault service now.”
The problem is serious and might affect the overall transition performance, as reported by multiple customers. Surprisingly, a transmission error message occurs at relatively newer vehicles of only 3700 miles!
While most customers did not report any repair options to eliminate this error message, at least one customer indicated that the problem was illuminated by installing a new lateral transition wiring.
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Seatbelts problems
We want to highlight the problems related to seatbelts because they can affect the drivers and passenger safety, although they did not require very high repair costs.
A good number of customers indicated dealing with seat belt latch breaking at around 2000 miles. While the number of reported complaints was not few, most of these complaints indicated that the problem was resolved by installing a new seat belt latch.
Replacing the part is not considered a solution, and therefore, additional research investigation should be done to determine the main culprit behind breaking the seatbelts latches.
As we were still learning more about between 18 Ford Escape problems, we realized a couple of few reported complaints regarding some cooling system issues, fuel system troubles, and steering wheel pulls.
Are There Any Recalls on the 2018 Ford Escape?
Despite many reported complaints about engine problems associated with the 2018 Ford Escape, the automaker did not release any recalls addressing these problems. However, two current recalls are focusing on other components of the 2018 Ford Escape.
Unfortunately, these recalls have to do with very sensitive safety components like the airbags and the brakes. It sounds very scary to hear that a modern vehicle like the 2018 Ford Escape suffers from safety issues that warrant a recall. Several customers get discouraged about driving this vehicle after their calls were released.
Let's take a closer look at these two recalls:
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2018 Ford Escape airbag recall
On December 18th, 2017, Ford decided to recall several vehicles from the 2018 Ford Escape model year due to a problem with the airbags. The automaker indicated that some airbags might get detached during the deployment, putting the customer's life at risk and increasing significant injuries.
The automaker requested all affected vehicles to visit the nearest Ford dealership to resolve the fever charge starting January 2018. The automaker advised the technicians at each Ford dealership to replace the airbag curtain at the driver's and passengers’ sites free of charge.
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2018 Ford Escape brakes recall
Airbags were not the only problem associated with between 18 Ford Escape; the automaker also decided to recall several vehicles due to a significant problem with the rating system. Sounds scary, right?
Unfortunately, some vehicles had the wrong brake hoses drawing manufacturing which might result in brake fluid leaks. Obviously, when the brake fluid leaks, significant braking system problems might arise, increasing the chances of major crashes.
The automaker requested all affected vehicles to visit the nearest Ford dealership starting March 2018 to resolve the problem. The automaker specifically advised the technicians to replace and inspect the brake hoses to ensure that they match the necessary assembly for this vehicle.
Should You Repair 2018 Ford Escape Engine Problems?
When investing in a modern vehicle like the 2018 Ford Escape, no one expects to deal with major problems, especially those associated with engine issues.
Unfortunately, there are some instances where you have to deal with these problems, and you have to be very careful about when it's the right time to resolve these problems versus selling the vehicle itself.
While your extended warranty and the dealership might help you resolve the pollen and take care of all repair costs, dealing with the headache itself and visiting the dealership continuously. A couple of times are we can be a little frustrating to many customers.
Those, it is never too early to decide whether it's worth keeping this vehicle or not. Luckily, Cash Cars Buyer is specialized in purchasing vehicles with major mechanical problems, even those associated with complete engine failure.
Cash Cars Buyer is willing to purchase your 2018 Ford Escape despite any issue and will remove it within only one to three days. Did you know that Cash Cars Buyer can remove your vehicle the same day? Yes! As a 24-hour car removal service, we are working weekends, evenings, and the same day if that works for you.
Our process is very simple and doesn't take more than a quick conversation with our team or filling the online form on our home page. Once you get in touch with our customer service, we will ask you basic questions about additional details regarding your vehicle's condition. Then, we offer you an instant quote representing the maximum money your vehicle can make around your area.
After accepting our cold, we will coordinate a pickup time and location that works best for you. Once we meet with you, we inspect the vehicle and hand you the cash payment immediately on the spot before removing it and towing it for free!
We advise you to get in touch with our team and request additional information, if you need it, before making your final decision and selling your car to Cash Cars Buyer.
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