2020 FORD ESCAPE — Complaint #1758400
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:AIR HANDLER/CHAMBER, DUCTS, AND VALVES filed July 19, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1758400 (ODI reference 11425560) concerns a 2020 FORD ESCAPE and was filed on July 19, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 15, 2020. The vehicle had 2,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Louisiana based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:air handler/chamber, ducts, and valves, 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 visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:air handler/chamber, ducts, and valves 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 2020 FORD ESCAPE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2020 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving at 65-70 MPH, water started leaking from the air conditioner onto the brake and accelerator pedals and his foot. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who cleaned the air conditioner drain line however, the failure persisted. The contact stated the vehicle was taken back to the same dealer several times and the drain line was cleaned however, the failure reoccurred while driving. The contact stated his foot was wet from water leaking onto it, and it slipped off the brake pedal almost causing the vehicle to crash. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer and the drain line was replaced as a Ford service hotline recognition of the problem however, the failure persisted. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and a case was opened. The approximate failure mileage 2,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1758400 |
| ODI Number | 11425560 |
| Date Filed | July 19, 2021 |
| Failure Date | May 15, 2020 |
| VIN | 1FMCU0H6XLU |
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.