Other powertrain problem on the 2008 Ford Escape
2 crashes 2 of the 217 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 powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Ford Escape report other powertrain problem at a median of 71,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 41,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 197 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 26,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 133,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 106,592 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
16% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26,110 miles | 41,000 miles | 71,000 miles | 100,300 miles | 132,702 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 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 $400–$4,500 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 24 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2022, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2010 carries the most reports, with 436; the 2008 has 217. 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.
On leaving the lot a high vibration came thru the gas pedal at 1500 RPM's. I returned back to the dealer and was told to let it break in. After 1 month it did not go away and brought it in to service. 1st attempt they did nothing and was told to give them 2 weeks. 2nd attempt was then done and they re tied the gas cable and the problem didn't go away. The gave up and told me to call ford. With ford on the 3rd attempt replaced the shaft and made it worse. Now it vibrate and has a lingering buzzing sensation till 2000 rpms. They acknowledge the issue and are claiming it is normal, which no other vehicle except the ford escape has with the v6 engine, the v4 doesn't have this issue. This issue has been document on forums with the 2006 escape having the same issues. Ford is also refusing to follow the lemon law by refunding my money since they cannot fix the problem and are not even offering an exchange as per law.
Sunday noticed red fluid leaking onto driveway, monday brought vehicle to ford dealer to be inspected. Upon inspection, dealership determined that there was a leak in the transmission cooler. *tr
In december of 2007 I purchased a 2008 ford escape limited. About 2 months ago I had to bring it in because it was losing transmission fluid and shifting irregularly(it had 33,000 miles on it). They told me that the front seal of the transmission was leaking and they replaced it at the dealership. About 2 weeks ago my wife noticed that it was shifting poorly into reverse, first there was a pause and then it would shift into reverse shaking the entire vehicle, the dealership informed me that now we have an internal leak and they are in the process of fixing that problem (it now has 40,000 miles on it). *tr
Also reported on the 2008 Ford Escape
Other steering problem
Steering column or shaft failure
Loss of power steering
Other speed control problem
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 217 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2008 Ford Escape?
Across 197 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 71,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 41,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2008 Ford Escape?
217 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.3 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