2012 FORD ESCAPE — Complaint #1558351
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NHTSA Complaint about STEERING filed April 16, 2019
NHTSA complaint #1558351 (ODI reference 11196661) concerns a 2012 FORD ESCAPE and was filed on April 16, 2019. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 10, 2019. The vehicle had 114,500 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Indiana based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as steering, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same FORD ESCAPE cohort independently describe similar steering failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2012 FORD ESCAPE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
I WAS DRIVING IN TOWN AT A SLOW RATE WHEN MY BRAKING FEEL LIKE THERE WAS BORN ABS AND MY CAR WAS GETTING TO CLOSE AND I APPLIED PRESSURE ON THE PEDAL BUT IT WOULDN'T STOP. MY STEERING WHEEL BECAME VERY STIFF AND COULDN'T TURN IT. AN HOUR LATER, I WAS DRIVING ON THE INTERSTATE WHEN MY ABS, TRACTION CONTROL LIGHT AND STABILITY LIGHT CAME ON. MY CAR WOULD NOT TURN WELL AND I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF PASSING A VEHICLE. I HAD NO BRAKES AT THAT POINT. THIS HAPPENED APRIL 20, 2019. CLEAR ROAD CONDITIONS. MY ESCAPE IS BECOMING A BIG SAFETY CONCERN. WHEN BRAKING I FEEL MY SYSTEM KEEPS SLIPPING IN THE FRONT END AND A SAGGING IN THE REAR. WHEN I DRIVE IT, I AM TERRIFIED THAT THIS WILL HAPPEN AGAIN AND WON'T BE ABLE TO STOP. TURNING FEELINGS RIGID AND STIFF AT TIMES. A CAR HAD PULLED OUT IN FRONT OF ME AND HAD TO DO A HARD STOP ON THE INTERSTATE. I PRESSED ON THE BRAKES BUT THE SYSTEM WOULD NOT STOP AND STEERING WOULDN'T ALLOW TO TURN. I HAD TO TURN A HARSH RIGHT TO AVOID CAUSING AN ACCIDENT WHILE ATT
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1558351 |
| ODI Number | 11196661 |
| Date Filed | April 16, 2019 |
| Failure Date | April 10, 2019 |
| VIN | 1FMCU0D77CK |
Similar STEERING Complaints for 2012 FORD ESCAPE
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In other year models the power steering sensor has been under recall. I have a 2012 ford escape. That randomly the power steering does out this part has been replaced twice with no ultimately fixing t
Was driving approximately 35mph and the steering got extremely difficult. Was able to get car safely off street. Turned car off, restarted car and steering was back to normal. Havenât had problem si
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.