ABS module or sensor failure on the 2004 Ford Escape
1 fire 1 of the 5 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.
Only 4 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When abs module or sensor failure gets reported
There are 5 reports of ABS module or sensor failure on the 2004 Ford Escape, 4 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 25th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 152,338 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, 1 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 $500–$2,400 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 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 94; the 2004 has 5. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 ford escape. The contact stated that she took her vehicle to the dealer for recall NHTSA campaign id number: 07v156000 component: service brakes, hydraulic:antilock:control unit/module. The repair was done and now the failure has recurred. The dealer stated that to repair it again the cost would be approximately 200.00, and they are only responsible for repairing it one time. The manufacturer had not been contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 56,000. The current mileage is approximately 82,000.
Driving on a state highway approaching a red light, I applied brakes and felt a pulsing sensation in the brake pedal, it became very hard to stop and I had to pull to the shoulder of the road. This has happened several more times since, at various speeds and with no warning. The ABS light on the dash does not come on and there are no obd codes. The vehicle becomes very hard to stop. I had the vehicle checked by my mechanic this week. He felt the problem once, but could not find any problems or obd codes, even after running diagnostic tests. At this point I am in a quandry; I need to use the vehicle, but feel it is unsafe to do so and will probably park it until someone can tell me what is happening and find a resolution. I have read of similar problems due to a defective 'tone ring' in the ABS system, but mine is not defective. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 ford escape. While parked, the contact noticed that the ABS warning light was illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic for diagnostic testing. The mechanic stated that the ABS module would have to be replaced. The contact referenced NHTSA campaign id number: 07v156000 (service brakes, hydraulic:antilock:control unit/module) but was advised by the manufacturer that the VIN was not included in the recall. After a period of time elapsed, the contact began to notice a loud squeaking noise coming from the rear of the vehicle and a grinding sound when depressing the brake pedal. The contact had the brakes replaced but the failure persisted. The vehicle was not further repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 203,258.
Also reported on the 2004 Ford Escape
Other suspension problem
Other body or interior problem
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other speed control problem
Strut, shock or spring failure
Rust or structural corrosion
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 5 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 5 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 abs module or sensor failure happen on the 2004 Ford Escape?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 150,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is abs module or sensor failure on the 2004 Ford Escape?
5 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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