Cruise control failure on the 2003 Ford Escape
6 crashes 3 injuries 9 of the 20 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 cruise control failure gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Ford Escape report cruise control failure at a median of 115,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 155,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 72,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 75,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 83,532 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
6% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 76,468 miles | 90,000 miles | 115,000 miles | 154,000 miles | 160,000 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, 6 a crash and 3 an injury are 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 $200–$1,400 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 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 500 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2020 carries the most reports, with 59; the 2003 has 20. 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.
The cruise control cable became disconnected from the throttle linkage and jammed in the throttle. This caused the vehicle to accelerate uncontrollable. Was luckily able to get out of traffic and into a parking lot without causing any damage. *nm
Had previously asked home dealership to check cruise control for failure to turn on. After traveling for approx. 1 hour on interstate, attempted to turn on cruise control. On third try, cruise control engaged and set at 70 MPH. After a few miles I tried to turn it off with no results. Engine continued to accelerate when brake applied. I contacted someone who advised me to pull over and turn the car off if possible. I pulled in to a rest area with both feet on brake and was able to stop the car and immediately put it in park and turn it off. (very difficult with engine revving continuously) I tried to turn the car back on to see if the cruise turned off with the car, it did not, the engine immediately accelerated and the engine sounded as if it was going to explode. I turned the car off. The car was towed to a dealership and the cruise control throttle cable was found to be stuck. The cable was disconnected as they said they had no parts to replace the cruise control. I was sent on with a request to have it replaced at my home dealership. I was charged for the service. *tr
Friend had just installed fuel filter on car. Was testing car - had car in park - floored accelerator, accelerator became stuck. Wouldn't budge. They opened up hood and had to cut cruise control cable to make shorter this auto had previously been recalled for vehicle speed control cable and been repaired. I believe the accelerator became stuck as a result of this not being done properly. I believe it was done before they corrected the way they were doing it. *tr
Also reported on the 2003 Ford Escape
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other speed control problem
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Other suspension problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 20 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 cruise control failure happen on the 2003 Ford Escape?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 115,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 155,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is cruise control failure on the 2003 Ford Escape?
20 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