2011 Ford Escape2nd gen (2008–2012), fourth year

Updated 2026-08-29NHTSA counts read on this date — 1316 complaints. They rise over time.

The 2011 Ford Escape Is the Last Year the Steering Recall Reaches. Its Fuel Recall Went Out Without Parts.

Two problems run this car and they finish ten filings apart. Steering is 419, the throttle is 409, and on the three model years before this one the gap between first and second was in the hundreds.

Both campaigns that touch them are worth reading before you buy one. 14V284000 covers the steering, and 2011 is the last model year in it — a campaign that reaches this car and stops. 16V777000 covers a fuel leak on the V6, and Ford’s own remedy text says the parts were not available when the letters went out, which 53 filings on this model year confirm from the other side of the counter.

Owners have filed 1,316 complaints with NHTSA about the 2011 model year. Ford sold 191,026 Escapes in calendar 2010 and 254,293 in 2011, and the 2011 model year sold across both, so the denominator is in the hundreds of thousands. That is not a rate — 1,316 filings are not 1,316 owners — and the count earns its keep only because the other years in this series are counted the same way.

The basics

Carryover from the 2010: the 2.5-liter four, the flex-fuel 3.0-liter V6, the six-speed automatic, and the hybrid. The body is unchanged.

That last part matters for the ratings section below, where the numbers move and the car does not.

Specs

Horsepower and displacement are from NHTSA’s vPIC catalog, which holds what the manufacturer submitted. Fuel economy is EPA.

What owners filed

Sections below are sorted by count and each complaint is counted once. They add up to 1,214. The remaining 102 are spread thin — NHTSA tagged 21 of them unknown or other, 19 suspension, 19 air bags, and 17 structure.

Engine identification comes from decoding the VIN attached to each filing. 1,186 of the 1,316 decode to the V6 or the 2.5-liter four: V6 69.1 percent, 2.5L 30.9 percent. The sections below are read against those shares.

This is not a failure rate by engine. Nothing here divides failures by how many of each engine Ford built, because the complaint record does not contain that.

Two sections lean hard enough to be worth naming, and both lean toward the V6. One of them has a V6-only recall behind it.

Steering — 419

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged steering, plus those that name the power steering or the steering assist.

The assist goes away and the wheel gets heavy.

64 filings use “lost” or “loss of” with steering, and 123 name recall 14V284000 by number.

The campaign covers 2008 through 2011 and stops there. On this car the question of whether it applies is still live; on the 2012 it is settled, and settled the wrong way.

It runs 54.5 percent V6 against a 69.1 percent baseline.

Throttle — 409

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged vehicle speed control, plus those that name the throttle body, the wrench light or limp mode.

Ten filings behind the steering, and the same failure the 2010 car has at more than twice the volume: 255 filings name the throttle body, 99 name the wrench light.

It runs 87.1 percent V6 against the 69.1 percent baseline, the strongest engine lean in this model year.

Four filings name Ford customer satisfaction program 13N03, the throttle body program owners describe on the 2009 and 2010 cars. 13N03 does not appear in NHTSA’s recall database. Nothing recalls the throttle on this car either.

Fuel — 152

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged fuel system or fuel propulsion, plus those that name the fuel pump, fuel tank, fuel line or fuel delivery, and that do not already appear above.

83.9 percent V6. The recall behind it is V6-only, and 72 filings name 16V777000 by number.

Transmission — 95

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged power train, plus those that name the transmission, the shift cable or the shift lever.

Engine — 59

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged engine or engine and engine cooling, plus those that name the coolant or overheating.

Rear glass — 37

Not a category in NHTSA’s grouping. Counted as filings that name a window, the glass, the liftgate or the hatch together with a word for it breaking — shattered, exploded, blew out, burst — that also name the rear, and that do not already appear above.

Half of what the 2010 car has at 74, and well above the 2009 at four and the 2008 at seven. Counted the same way the 2012 has eight. So the problem is a 2010 and 2011 thing, it peaks on the older of the two, and no recall covers it.

Electrical — 24

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged electrical system.

Brakes — 19

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged service brakes, plus those that name regenerative braking.

The rest is thin

102 filings, none of them forming a pattern. The largest groups are 21 that NHTSA tagged unknown or other, 19 suspension, and 19 air bags.

Recalls

Look this car up at nhtsa.gov/recalls and three campaigns come back. Two of them are Ford recalling the vehicle. The third, 15E045000, is Timken recalling aftermarket front wheel bearings sold as service parts — whether it reaches a given car depends on what was installed on it.

16V777000 — the fuel delivery module, reported October 2016, covering 2010–2012 Escapes built February 26, 2009 through April 29, 2012. Ford’s summary: “On vehicles with a 3.0L engine, the Fuel Delivery Module (FDM) may crack, causing a fuel leak.” The stated consequence is fire.

The remedy text is the part to read:

“Ford will notify owners, and dealers will replace the FDM flange with one that has a redesigned fuel supply port, free of charge. Remedy parts are currently unavailable. Interim notices were mailed to owners on December 13, 2016. Owners will receive a second notice when remedy parts become available.”

53 filings on this model year say a recall part was not available. That is Ford’s document and the owners saying the same thing. What the record does not say is when the parts arrived, or whether they have.

14V284000 — the steering, reported May 2014, covering 2008–2011 Escape and Mercury Mariner built August 18, 2006 through September 11, 2010. Ford’s summary says the torque sensor “may not be able to properly detect driver steering input” and that “the system could remove the Electric Power Steering (EPS) assist.”

The remedy is a software update rather than a part:

“dealers will update the software for the power steering control module (PSCM) and the instrument cluster module, free of charge. If a vehicle shows a history of a loss of the torque sensor signal or fault codes relating to the PSCM when the vehicle is brought in for the recall remedy, the affected components will be replaced, free of charge.”

Note the build-date window: the campaign runs to cars built September 11, 2010. A 2011 Escape assembled after that date is not in it, which is a different question from whether it is a 2011.

What doesn’t show up in the complaints

NHTSA gives the 2011 Escape three stars overall, two for the driver in the frontal test, three on side impact and three on rollover. The 2010 car shows five and five.

Those numbers are not on the same scale. The 2010 Escape has no overall rating at all in NHTSA’s data, and this one does. A rating that moves while the body, the platform and the engines carry over is telling you about the test, not about the car.

The 2012 Escape, also unchanged, scores the same three as this one.

Read the stars with that in hand.

Nothing in the complaint record says the crash performance is a problem. Air bags are 19 of the leftover filings and seat belts three.

What the complaint curve says

2011   25     2015   69     2019   75     2023   56
2012   26     2016   74     2020   53     2024   42
2013  395     2017  104     2021   55     2025   37
2014  106     2018  125     2022   60

2013 again. 395 filings arrived that year, three times the next-highest, and it is the same June-to-September shape the 2009 and 2010 cars have.

Neither of this car’s recalls existed yet.

The steering campaign came in 2014 and the fuel one in 2016.

A complaint count going up can mean a letter arrived rather than that a car got worse. On these three model years the spike arrived before any letter did, which is the opposite problem and just as easy to misread.

Complaint databases collect complaints. Nobody files to say the steering worked. Rates are not comparable across models without running the same arithmetic on each. What this data supports is the ranking inside this car, the engine split inside that ranking, and the timing.

If you’re looking at one

Ordered by what it costs you if it goes wrong, not by how many people filed.

If it is a V6, ask whether 16V777000 was actually completed and get the receipt. This is the fire one. Ford’s remedy text said the parts were unavailable when the interim notices went out, and 53 filings say the same. An interim notice is not a repair.

Run the VIN for 14V284000 and read the build date. The campaign stops at cars built September 11, 2010, so a late-build 2011 can fall outside it. The build date is on the door jamb sticker.

Ask what the dealer did for the steering recall. The remedy is a software update unless the car had already logged a torque-sensor fault. Completed does not mean the hardware was replaced.

Ask whether the throttle body has been replaced, and drive it far enough to test it. 409 filings and no recall. The wrench light and the drop into reduced power show up on a trip, not on a loop past the dealership, and a VIN lookup will not settle it either — a customer satisfaction program does not show up there. Get the receipt if there is one.

Open and close the liftgate a few times. 37 filings describe the rear window breaking. No recall, no warning light.

Numbers worth writing down

The 2012 car is next, and it is the only year in this generation the steering recall does not reach.

Sources

• NHTSA complaint database — 1,316 complaints for the 2011 Escape, quoted above by ODI number
• NHTSA recall API — two Ford campaigns, quoted from the campaign summaries and remedy text
• NHTSA vPIC — engine and horsepower, decoded from the VIN attached to each filing
• NHTSA safety ratings — 2010, 2011 and 2012 Ford Escape
• EPA fuel economy — city / highway / combined
• GoodCarBadCar Ford Escape sales figures

Complaint counts and quotes come from NHTSA’s public database, retrieved 2026-08-29; each quote lists its ODI number so you can look it up. Engine identification comes from decoding the VIN attached to each filing — 1,186 of the 1,316 decode. Recall applicability depends on the VIN — check yours at nhtsa.gov/recalls. This summarizes what owners reported. It isn’t buying or repair advice.