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2021 FORD ESCAPE — Complaint #2108279

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NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:INSTRUMENT PANEL:FUEL GAUGE filed July 9, 2025

NHTSA complaint #2108279 (ODI reference 11672258) concerns a 2021 FORD ESCAPE and was filed on July 9, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 9, 2025. The vehicle had 21,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Nebraska based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:instrument panel:fuel gauge, 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. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.

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 electrical system:instrument panel:fuel gauge 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 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2021 FORD ESCAPE
Component
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:INSTRUMENT PANEL:FUEL GAUGE
State
Nebraska
Mileage
21,000 mi

Complaint Description

The contact owns a 2021 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the fuel tank gauge decreased from 1/4th to empty almost immediately. The contact arrived at a gas station and discovered that the fuel tank was not empty. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who diagnosed a failure with the fuel gauge sending unit. The contact was informed that the fuel tank needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but provided no assistance. The failure mileage was 21,000. The VIN was not available.

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 2108279
ODI Number 11672258
Date Filed July 9, 2025
Failure Date July 9, 2025

Similar ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:INSTRUMENT PANEL:FUEL GAUGE Complaints for 2021 FORD ESCAPE

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