Other brake problem on the 2004 Ford Escape
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 14 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 2004 Ford Escape report other brake problem at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 13th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 140,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 135,350 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.
27% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,650 miles | 32,600 miles | 90,000 miles | 113,682 miles | 140,000 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, 2 a crash and 1 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 $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 2004 has 14. 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.
After 5000 mile service, which include inspecting brakes and rotating tires. I started hearing sound from the rear brake while applying. The noise was a type of thump which seem to catch on the drum. I took the vehicle back to the dealer the following day. Mechanic rode with me and did hear noise. Said that it sounded like the drum brake was catching. Dealer machined drums and tapered ends of rear shoes. Noise was fixed but I have never heard of this before. *nm
Brakes screech, squeal, and feel jerky. Also when I put the vehicle in park, the vehicle rolls forward a distance of four (4) to six (6) inches. My boyfriend, jody, is an attorney. He says that on occasion when he has driven the vehicle, it rolled forward after he put it in park, and touched the vehicle in front of my vehicle in the parking lot. He also reported that my vehicle rolled forward four (4) to six (6) inches in the wal-mart parking lot, which resulted in the front end being buried up against a hedge of tall thickly woven (weaved[?] bushy limbs which scraped and scratched my front end. Anyway, the paint is now scratched and peeling on the lower part of the front end, where the "cladding" is painted, and the leading edge of the metal hood.*jb
The brakes on my 2004 ford escape, which only has 23,000 miles on it, started squealing, and I was having to push a little harder than usual. On december 26, 2008 my husband took the vehicle to the shop to have the brakes checked, instead of new brake pads, which were curiously in good condition, we are going to need new front discs, front and back calipers, as well as brake pads. We were able to afford the brake pads as well as the right front disc at cost of 400 dollars but we are going to need to shell out another 400.00 plus to repair the rest. The wait wouldn't be so bad if I didn't need the escape to transport my daughter back and forth to school every day. *tr
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
Complaints are voluntary, so 14 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 2004 Ford Escape?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 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 2004 Ford Escape?
14 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