Other brake problem on the 2003 Ford Escape
3 fires 3 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 other brake problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Ford Escape report other brake problem at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 165,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 147,657 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.
53% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17,581 miles | 24,947 miles | 31,000 miles | 106,000 miles | 165,238 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 $300–$1,800 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 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 122,500 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 63; 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.
I have a 2003 ford escape. On april 17, 2003 I took my vehicle into the ford dealership in vacaville with a complaint about the brakes making a grinding noise (25,503 miles). They told me that they could not duplicate the noise and checked the front brakes. They claimed to have measured the brake pads at above 5mm of pad remaining. The noise continued. I took the vehicle back to the dealership on june 27, 2003 (28,720 miles). This time they heard the noise as well as a bearing noise. They measured the brakes at 3mm and told me that the rotors may be warped. I left the vehicle for the bearing repair and received a phone message (on my answering machine) that they re-measured that brake pads and found them to be 2mm not 3mm. They didn't mention anything about the rotors. I asked about the excessive wear of the brake pads and they said that it was normal wear. They told me that they could do nothing about the pads or the rotors. I called my brother-in-law that works for ford and told him about my experience. He made some phone calls and found out from one of ford's engineers that they have problems with brake wear (both pads and…
There was a groaning noise coming from the brakes, when the vehicle was at a complete stop but idling. There was also a burning smell coming from the air vents. Upon inspection of the vehicle by the dealership the steering pump and pressure line had ruptured. The dealership indicated it was caused by the power steering fluid being contaminated. *ak *scc *jb
Complete failure of brakes - pads and rotors - with only 19,000 miles on vehicle. Replaced at my cost - zero acceptance of responsibility from ford. Service advisor said it is a common problem with original ford brakes - replacements generally last longer.*ak
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 other brake problem happen on the 2003 Ford Escape?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other brake problem 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