Other speed control problem on the 2011 Ford Escape
5 crashes 1 injury 6 of the 218 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 2011 Ford Escape report other speed control problem at a median of 45,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 54,000 miles, from 214 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 65,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 40,738 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
27% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24,510 miles | 35,067 miles | 45,000 miles | 53,998 miles | 65,248 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, 5 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 $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 2011 has 218. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2011 ford escape. The contact stated that the vehicle would unexpectedly surge forward or backward while idling without a foot on the accelerator pedal. On one occasion, the vehicle surged backward and crashed into another vehicle. The vehicle was taken to an independent repair shop where they were unable to diagnose the failure. The failure mileage was 50 and the current mileage was 200. The VIN was unknown. I have took the car to the dealer 3 times for this problem. Twice they said the have reset the computer throttle but still has the same problem. Updated 11/10/2011 *ln *tr
When approaching a stop throttle opened to maximum. The only way to stop was put vehicle in neutral. This has happened 5 other times since. When I took the car to ford they said that since it was an intermittant problem and no one else has reported it they would no do any repairs.
While traveling 80mph on the interstate, my 2011 ford escape with 27000 miles suddenly lost power as a wrench indicator light came on the dashboard. The gas pedal would not accelerate to pull onto shoulder or to move around traffic. All fuel acceleration was lost. As I finally coasted to the shoulder, narrowly avoiding being the cause of multiple accidents, the vehicle starting shaking. I turned the car off, waited a few minutes, and turned the car back on. The wrench indicator light (powertrain indication) remained off and the vehicle acted normal. There was not an indication before or after the incident of any faulty systems or parts. The vehicle did this without any reason, leaving me in a dangerous situation. The vehicle has been properly maintained and running without any problems since I purchased the vehicle until this incident. I fear it may happen again without reason and place my life and those of my passengers in harms' way. *tr
Also reported on the 2011 Ford Escape
Other steering problem
Other fuel system problem
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Loss of power steering
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 218 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 2011 Ford Escape?
Across 214 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 54,000 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 2011 Ford Escape?
218 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.4 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