2019 Ford Escape3rd gen (2013–2019), final year

Updated 2026-08-29NHTSA counts read on this date — 577 complaints. They rise over time.

The 2019 Ford Escape Has the Smallest Complaint Record of Its Generation — and the Same Engine Failure

577 complaints against 2,748 on the 2013 car looks like an improvement. It is also the youngest Escape in this series by a wide margin, and its complaint count is still going up. Those two facts have to be held together, and this page is mostly about not letting the first one hide the second.

Owners have filed 577 complaints with NHTSA about the 2019 model year. Ford sold 272,228 Escapes in calendar 2018 and 241,387 in 2019, and the 2019 model year sold across both, so the denominator is in the hundreds of thousands. That is not a rate — 577 filings are not 577 owners — and the count earns its keep only because the other years in this series are counted the same way.

The basics

Final year of the third-generation Escape. The 2020 car is a full redesign on a new platform with a new engine range, so this is the end of the line the 2013 started.

Three engines carry over unchanged: 2.5L naturally aspirated in front-wheel drive only, 1.5L EcoBoost, 2.0L EcoBoost, all with the six-speed automatic.

Specs

Fuel economy is EPA. Engine identification throughout this page comes from NHTSA’s vPIC catalog, which decodes the VIN attached to each filing.

NHTSA rated it five stars overall — five frontal, five side, four rollover, on both drivetrains, as on the 2017 and 2018.

What owners filed

Sections below are sorted by count and each complaint is counted once. They add up to 432. The remaining 145 are spread thin — NHTSA tagged 62 of them engine, 17 electrical, and 12 each exterior lighting and unknown.

556 of the 577 filings decode to an engine: 1.5L 69.2 percent, 2.0L 25.2, 2.5L 5.6. The sections below are read against those shares.

This is not a failure rate by engine. The shares here are shares of the complaint record, not of the cars Ford built — the complaint record does not contain that. An engine that draws more complaints of every kind would move both numbers together.

Coolant and overheating — 290

Counted as filings that name the coolant, the engine overheating, or a head gasket, and that NHTSA has not flagged as a fire.

Half of everything filed about this car. 150 of the 290 use the word cylinder, 124 the phrase coolant intrusion, 66 a misfire, and 65 describe an engine being replaced.

The engine split is the same one the 2018 car shows.

Three model years now show the same strong under-representation. The 2.5L is 2.7 percent of the 2017 car’s decoded filings and 0.4 percent of its coolant section; 3.3 and 0.2 on the 2018; 5.6 and 0.3 here. It is a pattern in complaint filings rather than a bench test, and the record does not say why, but it is consistent across three years and roughly 3,000 coolant filings — and the size of the gap is what makes it hard to wave off.

From ODI 11755000:

“Ford Coolant Leak & Engine Overheating Engine overheating caused by an internal engine coolant leak in Ford Ecoboost engines Coolant leak that allows coolant to enter into the cylinders of the engine. This caused total engine failure and to require replacement of the engine block.”

And ODI 11755101, which is what it looks like before anyone uses the phrase:

“When I originally attempted to start the car, white smoke was pouring from the exhaust pipe. We came to the conclusion that my head gasket on the car blew. We came to this conclusion because it was misfiring and when you try to open the coolant lid there’s suction.”

There is a bulletin, and there is no recall

NHTSA lists three campaigns against the 2019 Escape and none of them is an engine campaign. That is the same on the 2017 and 2018 cars.

What does exist is service bulletins, and owners cite them by number. 35 filings on this model year name a Ford bulletin; the numbers that come up most are 22-2229, 22-2322 and 19-2346. On the 2017 car, 219 filings do the same.

A bulletin is not a recall. It goes to dealers rather than owners, it does not come with a free repair, and nobody mails you a letter about it. What it tells a buyer is that the failure has a documented Ford number attached to it, which is a useful thing to be able to say at a service desk. From ODI 11758213:

“Vehicle began losing engine coolant. No external leaks visible. Took to Ford dealership for inspection and diagnostics. They found coolant intrusion in cylinders 1 and 2. They say that TSB 22-2322 applies to this issue. Vehicle has 86,896 miles and warranty started on February 16, 2019.”

Transmission and shifter — 100

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

22V413000, from June 2022, covers 2013–2019 Escapes for a shifter cable bushing that “may degrade or detach.” This is the last model year that campaign reaches.

Stalling — 16

Counted as filings that say the car stalled.

Power steering — 8

Counted as filings that name the power steering or the steering assist.

Brakes — 6

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged service brakes.

Backup camera — 5

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged back-over prevention, plus those that name the backup, rear or reverse camera.

Recall 25V695000, the camera campaign that dominates the 2015 and 2016 records, does not list the 2019 Escape.

Door latch — 4

Counted as filings that name a door latch, or a door that would not stay closed.

Fires — 3

NHTSA’s own flag on the filing, not a word count.

Three, the lowest of the seven model years in this series. Across all 577 filings NHTSA counts 24 crashes, 28 injuries and no deaths.

The tire recall

The one campaign unique to this model year has nothing to do with the engine. 21V155000, from March 2021, covers 2019 Escapes “equipped with Continental tires” where “it is possible that one or more tires were cured for too long during tire production.”

If the car you are looking at still wears its original tires — unlikely at this age, but not impossible on a low-mileage example — that is a VIN check worth running.

What doesn’t show up in the complaints

The body and the interior barely appear — seven structure filings out of 577. The crash performance that earned five stars overall has not generated a pattern of complaints. Neither has the electric steering, at eight filings, on a car whose 2013 ancestor drew 212.

What the complaint curve says

Filings ran 19 in 2019 and stayed under 60 a year through 2023. Then 135 in 2024, 180 in 2025, and 94 so far in 2026.

That is the shape to pay attention to, not the total. A small complaint record on a young car is not evidence of anything yet. The 2013 Escape peaked in 2019, seven years after it went on sale, and has declined every year since. This car is seven years old now and its two biggest years are the two most recent ones.

The coolant section is most of that rise, and it is the same failure the 2017 and 2018 cars have, on the same engines, with no recall against it.

Complaint databases collect complaints. Nobody files to say the engine is fine. 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 direction the count is moving.

If you’re looking at one

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

Get a compression or leak-down test. Half the complaint record on this car is one failure, 65 filings describe a replaced engine, and there is no recall. The smaller total compared with the 2017 and 2018 cars does not change what you are checking for.

Do not read the low count as a fixed car. This is the youngest Escape in the series and its complaint count is still rising. The comparison that matters is not 577 against 2,662; it is what the 2017 car looked like at the same age. Counting from each car’s model year, the 2017 had drawn 1,077 filings by the end of its sixth year. This car has drawn 483 by the end of its sixth. That is less than half, on the same clock — a real difference, and a smaller one than the 577-against-2,662 headline suggests.

Ask the dealer about the coolant bulletins by number. 22-2229, 22-2322 and 19-2346 are the ones owners name. A bulletin does not entitle you to a free repair, but a service desk that recognizes the number is a service desk that has seen the failure.

Ask whether the shifter cable bushing has been done. 22V413000 covers this car and this is the last model year it reaches.

If it is a 2.0L, ask about the block heater. 26V011000, from January 2026, covers 2.0L cars for a heater that “may crack and develop a coolant leak, causing it to short circuit when the block heater is plugged in.”

Check whether the original Continental tires are still on it. 21V155000 is 2019-only and covers tires that may have been cured too long.

Numbers worth writing down

Three campaigns, the fewest of any year in this generation, and none of them is an engine campaign on a car where half the complaints are the engine.

That closes the third-generation Escape: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and this one.

Sources

• NHTSA complaint database — 577 complaints for the 2019 Escape, quoted above by ODI number
• NHTSA recall API — three campaigns, quoted from the campaign summaries
• NHTSA vPIC — engine identification, decoded from the VINs attached to the filings
• NHTSA safety ratings — 2019 Escape FWD and AWD
• EPA fueleconomy.gov — fuel economy by engine and drive
• GoodCarBadCar — Escape US 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 — 556 of the 577 decode. Service bulletin numbers are quoted as owners wrote them in their filings. Recall applicability depends on the VIN — check yours at nhtsa.gov/recalls. This summarizes what owners reported. It isn’t buying or repair advice.