Other steering problem on the 2008 Ford Escape
16 crashes 10 injuries 26 of the 664 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 steering problem gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Ford Escape report other steering problem at a median of 115,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 87,000 miles and a quarter after 143,000 miles, from 556 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 62,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 171,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 109,278 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.
4% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 62,012 miles | 87,000 miles | 115,000 miles | 143,318 miles | 171,290 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, 16 a crash and 10 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–$2,400 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 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2021 at 190,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 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.
On monday, 15 sep 2008, on my way to work (about 7am) my steering wheel locked up. I was not able to turn the wheel no matter how much I tried. I was able to stop the vehicle and shut it off. After a few minutes, I restarted the car and everything seemed fine. On tuesday, the same thing happened three different times. I called the dealer first thing wednesday morning to schedule the vehicle for service. I was told to bring the vehicle in on thursday. On my way home from work on wednesday, I was going to drop it off at the dealer so they could start right away. After exiting the highway, the steering wheel locked again and this time I could not stop before driving off the road and into a rock wall. The side airbags deployed, but I still hit my head on the steering wheel and was knocked unconscious. The dealer said he has never heard of that happening. I was going about 30 miles per hour. *tr
Tl*the contact owns a 2008 ford escape. She stated that the power steering would lock intermittently while driving at various speeds. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who stated that the torque sensor failed and needed to be reprogrammed. There were no recalls for the failure and no repairs were made to date. The failure and current mileages were under 78,000. Updated 3/16/10 *cn updated 06/17/10*jb
My 2008 escape has been to dealer for repair for major issues. 1) I had a problem with the steering wheel 2) I had a problem with the gas pedal getting stuck, 3) I had a problem with the leak of transmission fluid I thank god that the this happen to the car while its under warranty, so the dealer replace the parts for free. I just cant understand with so many complaints with all the same problems the government has not done anything about it. So many unhappy customers has to spend extra money in hard times to get there car repair. I called ford and they just told me that they will noted in my account. What will that do for me nothing! *tr
Also reported on the 2008 Ford Escape
Other powertrain 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 664 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 steering problem happen on the 2008 Ford Escape?
Across 556 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 115,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 87,000 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 steering problem on the 2008 Ford Escape?
664 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 7.2 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