2001 FORD ESCAPE — Complaint #420826
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:STARTER ASSEMBLY:RELAY filed July 27, 2003
NHTSA complaint #420826 (ODI reference 10029312) concerns a 2001 FORD ESCAPE and was filed on July 27, 2003. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 9, 2002. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:starter assembly:relay, 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 electrical system:starter assembly:relay 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 2001 FORD ESCAPE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
MY 2001 FORD ESCAPE STALLS WHEN I START THE CAR AND I AM STILL IN FIRST GEAR. I HAVE TAKEN MY CAR 4 TIMES TO THE DEALERSHIP AND THEY SAY THAT THEY CANNOT FIND THE PROBLEM AND HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THIS COMPLAINT BEFORE. THEY EVEN PUT ON A "MONITER" FOR ME TO USE WHEN THE CAR STALLED. I PRESSED THE BUTTON TWICE, BUT THE DEALERSHIP TOLD ME THAT I DID IT WRONG BECAUSE THEY GOT THE WRONG READINGS. AFTER THE LAST TIME I BROUGHT IT TO FORD, THEY REPLACED A PART AND SAID THAT IT WAS FIXED. SEVEN MONTHS LATER IT IS STALLING AGAIN.. AS MUCH AS THREE TIMES A DAY!! IT IS GETTING WORSE.*AK
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 420826 |
| ODI Number | 10029312 |
| Date Filed | July 27, 2003 |
| Failure Date | September 9, 2002 |
| VIN | 1FMYU03131K |
Similar ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:STARTER ASSEMBLY:RELAY Complaints for 2001 FORD ESCAPE
WHILE DRIVING AT SPEEDS BETWEEN 30 AN 40 MPH, THE CAR SUDDENLY STALLED IN TRAFFIC. ALL ATTEMPTS TO RESTART THE VEHICLE ,BY MYSELF, WERE FOR NAUGHT. A NEARBY GARAGE INITIALLY THOUGHT THE PROBLEM WAS A
WHILE DRIVING DOWN HILL VEHICLE STALLED WITHOUT PRIOR WARNING, CAUSING LOSS OF ALL POWER STEERING AND BRAKING ABILITY. CONSUMER HAS CONTACTED DEALER, DEALER NOT WILLING TO PROVIDE ANY ASSISTANCE.*AK
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.