Other speed control problem on the 2004 Ford Escape
14 crashes 2 fires 6 injuries 1 death 23 of the 66 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 speed control problem gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Ford Escape report other speed control problem at a median of 87,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 132,500 miles, from 54 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 37,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 122,530 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.
9% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36,600 miles | 60,000 miles | 87,000 miles | 133,335 miles | 159,130 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, 14 a crash, 2 a fire, 6 an injury and 1 a fatality 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 $250–$2,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 21 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2022, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2010 carries the most reports, with 493; the 2004 has 66. 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.
While driving on the interstate, I pressed the accelerator pedal to accelerate from 60 MPH to 70 MPH. When I pressed the accelerator pedal, it went to the floor and remained there until I reached a maximum speed of 110 MPH. I attempted to pump the pedal to unstick it and depressed the brake. The only way I was able to stop was to shift into neutral and depress the brake strongly. Even after removing the key from the ignition, the pedal remained depressed to the floor. This was a hertz rental car so I don't have information on it other than the registration. Mo757kfr. *ak
Nhtsa campaign 04v574000/accelerator cable. The owner received notification from the manufacturer on 13 jan 2005 regarding this recall. The owner immediately made an appointment. Upon arrival and after waiting most of the day, the service manager informed the owner that parts needed for the repair were unavailable. Provide further details. *jb
Within 2 hours of buying a new 2004 ford escape and at 180 miles the throttle stuck on the highway accelerating me to nearly 90 MPH before I could shift it into neutral, get it off the side of the road, and turn off the engine. Had there been any cars next to me on the highway I would have been involved in a horrible accident. The car is at the dealer to be fixed, but I read on the ford motor co. Web page there is a recall for accelerator problems. How/why can a dealer sell a car with a known defect? I very easily could have been seriously injured or killed.
Also reported on the 2004 Ford Escape
Other suspension problem
Other body or interior problem
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Strut, shock or spring failure
Rust or structural corrosion
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 66 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 speed control problem happen on the 2004 Ford Escape?
Across 54 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 87,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 132,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other speed control problem on the 2004 Ford Escape?
66 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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