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2021 FORD ESCAPE HYBRID — Complaint #1866533

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NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:SEAT HEATER:WIRING HARNESS filed January 18, 2023

NHTSA complaint #1866533 (ODI reference 11502452) concerns a 2021 FORD ESCAPE HYBRID and was filed on January 18, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 17, 2023. The vehicle had 37,600 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Maryland based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:seat heater:wiring harness, 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 HYBRID cohort independently describe similar electrical system:seat heater:wiring harness 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 2021 FORD ESCAPE HYBRID shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2021 FORD ESCAPE HYBRID
Component
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:SEAT HEATER:WIRING HARNESS
State
Maryland
Mileage
37,600 mi

Complaint Description

The contact owns a 2021 Ford Escape. The contact stated that after driving for an hour and parking the vehicle, after picking up her coat from the passenger’s side seat she saw a burn mark on the seat with smoke coming from the seat. Additionally, the contact had a burning sensation in her eyes due to the strong chemical burning odor coming from the passenger’s seat. The contact did not seek medical assistance. There was no warning light illuminated. The dealer was notified of the failure and an appointment was scheduled for a diagnostic test. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline. The failure mileage was approximately 37,600.

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1866533
ODI Number 11502452
Date Filed January 18, 2023
Failure Date January 17, 2023
VIN 1FMCU9DZ2MU

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.