[gsubaru]

Hi all,
Over the winter I've had a few instances where the car would get an engine fault on the dash and I would proceed to turn the car off and the code vanishes and its never seen again.

I may sound like a commercial to those on this forum, but I'll say that your best bet for capturing codes that vanish when you cycle the engine is to plug in an OBD scanner while the problem is happening.

I use a small bluetooth obd scanner. My smartphone connects to it, and an app (Torque Pro) reads the code and produces a description. Later on, you can print out a report and hand it to the mechanic. Invaluable for situations like this.

 

[98vfr]

Engine Fault Service Now

I'm having the same issue with my 2013 Escape SEL. I've had the check engine light come on a few times this year but the vehicle was running just fine. I researched it and noticed that they capless fuel tank was a common issue. Most people mentioned recommended cleaning the inlet seal (flap) on the fuel filller for a good seal to address any EVAP leaks. Each time I cleaned the filler, all was well and the light went away shortly after. However, on my way to work this morning it felt like I was riding a bull. As I was cruising at about 45mph, the Escape began to shake violently and I got an "ENGINE FAULT, SERVICE ENGINE LIGHT" on the dash. Felt like the transmission was going to fall out of the vehicle. The car wouldn't go past 5mph and it continued to shake. Fortunately I was within 2 miles from home and was able to turn back, park the Escape, and jump into my other vehicle . The Escape can't be driven at this point and I'm having it towed to the dealership first thing tomorrow morning. Weird thing is I just had the transmission services a few weeks ago at about 56k miles. I always like to get a tranmission service on my vehicles at about every 50k miles. I don't feel safe in this vehicle. About 2 years ago as I was on my way to work, EVERY SINGLE WARNING LIGHT on the instrument panel turned on at once. It looked like a Christmas tree. Took it to the dealer and they found a bad module inside the center console (don't remember the name of the module). Too many electrical issues with this vehicle. I've had lots of recalls. Don't trust the Escape. I like to take a lot of road trips, but am really fearing taking this on long trips. This is my first Ford and am not sure if these issues are specific to the Escape line or also common on the other models, but depending what happens after this repair (not looking forward to that bill), I'll probably never own another Ford.

Well, just got my Escape back from dealer. They said it was a faulty fuel pressure sensor not covered under warranty so I paid the $238. Got in my car and drove less than a block away from the dealership and noticed a rattling noise when I let go of the accelerator pedal. Turned right back to the Ford dealer where they initially thought it may be a transmission solenoid making the noise which they stated was common on another model with the same transmission. I was asked to wait as the technician would be taking the vehicle out for a road test. After about 5 minutes, the service rep came to me and they think the problem is inside the engine. Stated the mechanic removed the cylinder solenoids one at a time and found a problem with the engine. They said they would have to keep the vehicle to do further testing and offered me a loaner vehicle. I passed on the loaner and stressed how I'm concerned that this may have resulted from the severe and erratic sudden stop when the vehicle went into Limp Home Mode. During the Limp Home Mode the Escape went from 55mph to about 5mph in what seemed to be less than a second. It was a violent deceleration that sounded like transmission gears were grinding and almost resulted in getting rear ended. I don't understand how the professionals could have missed the rattling noise coming from the power-train during the road test after the initial repair. Not pleased and don't feel safe in this vehicle anymore. The only good thing that's come out of this is that the power-train is covered for 60,000 miles and my Escape has just under 58,000 when this all happened.

 

[SrEd8r]

Died in the freeway fast lane!

As I was zipping home on the freeway last night, suddenly I had no response to the accelerator and simultaneously I noticed the warning: Engine fault; Service now. The warning showed the OK button, so I tried pressing it, but basically the car died. Fortunately I had enough momentum to coast over the bridge I was on and into the median strip on the other side. Where I proceeded to call Triple A.

I was planning to tow it to the nearest dealership and leave it there overnight, but before I could finish making arrangements, a tow truck showed up behind me. Turns out he was from a free roadside service program. He was only supposed to tow me off the freeway at the nearest offramp, but I was close enough to home that he graciously brought me the whole way.

Meanwhile, I am wondering what on earth could have caused this error? The car is only just over a year old!

 

[CanesFan]

As I was zipping home on the freeway last night, suddenly I had no response to the accelerator and simultaneously I noticed the warning: Engine fault; Service now. The warning showed the OK button, so I tried pressing it, but basically the car died. Fortunately I had enough momentum to coast over the bridge I was on and into the median strip on the other side. Where I proceeded to call Triple A.

I was planning to tow it to the nearest dealership and leave it there overnight, but before I could finish making arrangements, a tow truck showed up behind me. Turns out he was from a free roadside service program. He was only supposed to tow me off the freeway at the nearest offramp, but I was close enough to home that he graciously brought me the whole way.

Meanwhile, I am wondering what on earth could have caused this error? The car is only just over a year old!

That is an odd thing to happen while driving. As far as the towing, didn't the vehicle come with free roadside assistance from Ford (or at least towing). I know that with the towing feature they will tow you to the nearest Ford dealer free of charge. You can possibly use this to get the car to the dealer if it is still not working.

 

[td2013]

Run a vehicle health report when there's an error and it will send it to the Ford website with details recorded.

 

[waverunner10]

Check your negative battery terminal on the battery post it could be loose and have a lot of corrosion on it!! This is very simple, but on the escape, it is not! a loose cable causes under charging and many Gremlins!!!!

You need to remove the wiper arms and cowl to get to the negative post. I paid the dealer to do diagnostics they did everything on a computer! they never once checked the negative battery post!!

Their diagnosis would have cost me well over $1000.00 in repair bills I fixed the car myself total of $175.00

• new negative cable $41.00
• new sensor pigtail $13.59
• new battery 590cca $119.00

 

[sgsmith116]

I have a 2013 SEL with the push button start and I've had this happen several times lately, however I do not get the engine shaking. What happens, usually I am stopped at a light and the warning will show up on the dash disappears and then the climate control will turn on. When I get to my destination the key won't lock the car nor will the unlock/lock buttons respond. When I hit the lock on the remote it does a double beep. Finally when I hit one of the other seat program buttons everything worked fine. Sounds like its a wiring issue with Ford. I will double check my negative as per Waverunner10's suggestion but I am not getting the jerky transmission shifts or poor running performance others seem to state.

 

[td2013]

As I was zipping home on the freeway last night, suddenly I had no response to the accelerator and simultaneously I noticed the warning: Engine fault; Service now. The warning showed the OK button, so I tried pressing it, but basically the car died. Fortunately I had enough momentum to coast over the bridge I was on and into the median strip on the other side. Where I proceeded to call Triple A.

I was planning to tow it to the nearest dealership and leave it there overnight, but before I could finish making arrangements, a tow truck showed up behind me. Turns out he was from a free roadside service program. He was only supposed to tow me off the freeway at the nearest offramp, but I was close enough to home that he graciously brought me the whole way.

Meanwhile, I am wondering what on earth could have caused this error? The car is only just over a year old!

In the older models, this message was caused by a faulty wiring harness which needed to be replaced. There were TSB's for it

 

[td2013]

2013's - this was a common problem due to a bad wiring harness. There are TSB's for the fix and replacement of the harness. Your dealer should be quite familiar with the issue

 

[HayaiKuruma]

I have a 2013 SEL with the push button start and I've had this happen several times lately, however I do not get the engine shaking. What happens, usually I am stopped at a light and the warning will show up on the dash disappears and then the climate control will turn on. When I get to my destination the key won't lock the car nor will the unlock/lock buttons respond. When I hit the lock on the remote it does a double beep. Finally when I hit one of the other seat program buttons everything worked fine. Sounds like its a wiring issue with Ford. I will double check my negative as per Waverunner10's suggestion but I am not getting the jerky transmission shifts or poor running performance others seem to state.

You can check your negative battery terminal, but is this your original battery?

 

[sgsmith116]

You can check your negative battery terminal, but is this your original battery?

I believe it is the original battery. I put those new Headlights and Foglights in with the DRL's and I may not have tightened the terminals as well as I should when I wired up to the battery. I will try that first.
Thank-You

 

[sgsmith116]

I am actually getting a "Parking Aid Fault Service Required" along with The "Engine Fault Service Now Message"

I was researching on YouTube and came across the Parking fault video in which the person said it was a 30 pin connector not sealed properly by the factory and had corroded. An earlier post in this thread mention splicing the wiring harness so I am wondering if it is the same harness ?

 

[1600sensible]

I should have read this first. My wife bought the car(2013 Escape ) last summer. No recalls she was told. This am engine fault lite and rough idle. 38000 miles. Dearlership says chaffed main wire harness . ok how much? $350. I hope this is a fix. I ask what is to be done? Butt splices. I am a commercial electrician and we dont like butt splices. They are usually against the National Electric Code. But what do I know.... a car is not a house, but mor important nowdays, for the prices....

 

[waverunner10]

There is a TSB for this problem!
It might even be a recall
recall "14S17"

 

[waverunner10]

• Engine harness splice repair
• Safety recall NHTSA 14S17
• dated 12/04/2015

 

[HayaiKuruma]

The recall for the main wiring harness had to do with improper factory solder butt joint in the harness. A wire that has been chaffed to the point of causing a problem is different than the recall and I would ask to be shown the chaffed wire. If your VIN number is affected by the recall it will certainly show up.

 

[1600sensible]

Thats kinda what I thought about the recall, I want to believe if it was recall issue , the dealership would honor. I got good service but paid the price ,remember when I didnt have money to be worried about. ha thanks

 

[KULTULZ]

I should have read this first. My wife bought the car(2013 Escape ) last summer. No recalls she was told. This am engine fault lite and rough idle. 38000 miles. Dearlership says chaffed main wire harness . ok how much? $350. I hope this is a fix.

I ask what is to be done? Butt splices. I am a commercial electrician and we dont like butt splices. They are usually against the National Electric Code. But what do I know.... a car is not a house, but mor important nowdays, for the prices....

GOOGLE FORD TSB 05-18-7

More current info in MOTORCRAFT PIGTAIL WIRING CONN CATALOG.

 

[christiecory]

Engine Fault - Service Now Error

Hi, I'm new to this thread. I signed up because I'm hoping to get some help. I bought my 2013 Ford Escape Titanium when it was brand new back in late 2012 and have never had problems with it until recently. A couple weeks ago, I was driving the car on the highway and the car lurched and then shut off.
The error said "Engine Fault, Service Now." We didn't even try turning it off then on again, I just called a tow truck to have it taken to the nearest ford service center (O'Meara Ford in Northglenn, CO). This was on a Sunday so the car wasn't looked at until the next day. The service center called me Monday and told me there was no record in the car computer that any errors or faults and the car seemed just fine. I left the car with them for about a week and they kept taking it out (drove about 40 miles) to see if they could get the error to happen again. The car was totally "fine." So no "fix" and $250 later, I took the car home and had no problems until this morning. I went to drive to work and turned on the car and got the same error I had after it shut off that first time on the highway ("Engine Fault, Service Now"). At least this time I wasn't driving and the car didn't turn off but I didn't want to mess up the car by driving it and I had to get to work so I shut the car off and took the bus. I called the dealer and they said all I can do is bring it back in. My boyfriend turned the car back on about 1 hour ago to see if the error was still there and it had disappeared. I'm hesitant to take the car back in and waste more money with them telling me there is nothing wrong again when clearly something is. I would appreciate any advice or hearing anyone else's experience if something like this has happened to you! Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[SteveTurbo]

Most auto part and service franchises will read your codes for free. So if there are no drive-ability issues take it to one by you. Typically codes get stored as well so even if the warning disappears there may be a stored code.