Other suspension problem on the 2005 Ford Escape
3 crashes 1 fire 1 injury 5 of the 258 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 suspension problem gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Ford Escape report other suspension problem at a median of 120,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 99,000 miles and a quarter after 143,000 miles, from 222 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 100,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 78,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 174,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 95,430 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.
2% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 78,200 miles | 99,250 miles | 120,000 miles | 143,000 miles | 173,630 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 crash, 1 a fire 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 $350–$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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 21 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2012, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 2005 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Bought a 2005 ford escape limited 11,312 miles ago. Have had the car into the dealer six times because it keeps pulling to the left (into oncoming traffic). They have aligned, over aligned and replaced the tires. To this day, it still pulls to the left. Since it pulls to the left, a "head-on collison" is bound to happen. The ford dealer, mac haik, doesn't seem to care or has no interest in fixing this potental dangerous situation.*ak
Dt: the contact stated while driving vehicle pulled to the left. It felt as if the contact constantly was making a left hand turn. This problem was intermittent. The vehicle was inspected by the service dealer three times. It was determined thhat the alignment was within the manufacturer's specifications. The service dealer completed diagnostic testing and test drove the vehicle but was unable to duplicate the problem. He contacted the manufacturer. They said their engineers were aware there was a problem, and were working to find a solution. No repairs have been made. *ak update 1/4/2006 - *nm
While driving home on a clear, sunny day, my ford escape pulled to the left, crossing the center line, crashing into a semi-truck twice, hitting two additional cars and flipped onto its side. I had to be cut out of my vehicle and was airlifted to a trauma center. I sustained a concussion, broken ribs and bruising all of my body. Luckily, no one was killed, but my car was completely destroyed. The car had been pulling to the left on occasion, but on those occasions I was able to correct it quickly. *nm
Also reported on the 2005 Ford Escape
Other body or interior problem
Strut, shock or spring failure
Rust or structural corrosion
Other speed control problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 258 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 suspension problem happen on the 2005 Ford Escape?
Across 222 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 120,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 99,000 miles and a quarter after 143,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other suspension problem on the 2005 Ford Escape?
258 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 3.8 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