Misfire or rough idle on the 2002 Ford Escape
3 fires 3 of the 13 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When misfire or rough idle gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Ford Escape report misfire or rough idle at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 26th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 97,000 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37,000 miles | 68,936 miles | 90,871 miles | 125,937 miles | 134,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 3 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$1,600 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2024, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 160,000 miles.
By volume the 2017 carries the most reports, with 407; the 2002 has 13. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I own a 2002 ford escape xlt which I purchased new in 2001. Last june, I did not use the vehicle for several days during which time it rained. When I went to start the engine, it ran sluggishly and shuddered. After a few moments, the engine light came on and the truck began emitting smoke. I turned the engine off, called my local dealer, varney ford, and had the vehicle towed there. I was told that the #3 "spark plug coil" (ignition coil) had burned out. I was told that moisture had entered the coil. No explanation for how that was happening was given. Cost $180 to repair. Yesterday, after several days of rain, I went to once again start my truck. It exactly repeated the previous incident. This time however, I drove the truck to the dealer...it could not travel more than 30 miles an hour. I was told that this time coils number 4 and 6 had failed. Cost this time $325. Once again I was told moisture had somehow gotten into the coil system. So in other words, I own a truck that cannot sit idle for even a day in rainy or damp weather without a coil burning out. From what I gather from reading the travails of other escape owners is…
Follow up to an earlier report regarding a 2002 ford escape xlt with ignition coil problems. On may 30, the vehicle lost another ignition coil (3 previously had died) after sitting overnight in a rainstorm. This problem seems to manifest itself when it has been raining or very humid. The truck was taken to macquire ford and was again diagnosed with a failed number 1 ignition coil. The coil was replaced at a cost of $390. The truck was picked up friday, june 2, driven home and parked. When we went to drive the truck at 6pm that night, the check engine light came on and the truck ran rough. The dealer wasn't happy to see us back saturday morning. This time coil number 3 had gone. No one knows why 5 coils have now failed at the cost of $1300. The final original coil has also been replaced. No one at ford can give an answer and I am out a considerable amount of money and I somehow doubt this problem will be resolved. *nm
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 ford escape. The contact stated that the vehicle had a slight odor, back fired on two occasions, and ran poorly. In october 2005 the vehicle hesitate d at 20 MPH. The mechanic diagnosed the failure as the ignition coil and replaced it for $400. In may 2006 the vehicle ran poorly and back fired again. The mechanic diagnosed the failure as the coil once again and was replaced at 52,980 miles. In july 2006 the vehicle ran poorly for a third time. The ford dealer stated that two coils failed at 53,011 miles. In april o 2007 the contact felt the vehicle ran poorly again, and took it to the dealer, suspecting coil failure for the fifth time. The current mileage is 60,000 , and failure mileage was 47,000.*ak
Also reported on the 2002 Ford Escape
Other engine problem
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
ABS module or sensor failure
Other speed control problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 13 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does misfire or rough idle happen on the 2002 Ford Escape?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is misfire or rough idle on the 2002 Ford Escape?
13 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed