I just purchased a used 2017 Ford Escape with the 1.5L Ecoboost engine from a dealership that had less than 81000 miles on it. I have had it for maybe a week now and have ran into trouble. Going down the road last night, the car suddenly lost power and would not accelerate even with my foot to the floor. The car corrected itself after 5 or more seconds and drove on down the road for another hour there and 1 1/2 hours back without issue. No engine light ever came on. I got back in the car this morning to make the same trip as the night before and didn’t get out of the drive way due to a lack of power and the motor shuttering so hard it shook the car. I parked the car and made the trip in another vehicle. Again, no engine light came on. I came home from the trip, drove the car again, got a few miles down the road and the motor began to shutter and loose power again. This time I had a check engine light. I got home and pulled the trouble codes which were P351a, p352b, p353c, and p354d. I searched the internet and found this link, http://ricksfreeautorepairadvice.com/p0351-p0352-p0353-p0354- p0355-p0356/, which seemed to indicate a grounding issue. I pulled the dust cover off the engine and checked the connections to the coils and replaced the cover. I cranked the car, cleared the codes and the car drove and reacted fine. I took the car to the store 10 minutes later and got the loss of power again and shutter of the engine. Still no engine light, but I plugged my scanner up again and got the same error codes. Anyone got any ideas? Not a ford guy or much of an electrical guy. Any help is greatly appreciated since we haven’t even got the license plates yet for the car, still have the paper dealer tags.
If you just bought this from a dealer, didn’t it come with some warranty or was it As Is? Since you have owned it for such a short time I’d be on the phone to tne dealer.
If it is one of the independent used car sellers, I’d suspect it might be a flood car with a reclaimed title. Did you have a CarFax or similar on this car? Wild electrical problems occure un flood cars, that is why I am asking.
The car came as is, no warranty, and they were sure to point that out. I bought an extended warranty through the dealership, but was trying to avoid paying a deductible if it was a simple fix. We weren’t offered any of the CarFax information on the automobile. The car looks brand new though.
This is not going to be a simple or easy fix or likely even cheap. Electrical issues seldom are. Parts might be cheap but the labor to trace down a problem can be quite high.
Not promoting CarFax or similar, but you should have ordered one before buying as well as had your mechanic, not the dealer’s, give the car an inspection before buying. That horse has left the barn but consider both the next time you buy a used car.
Seriously doubt this will be simple and you could spend more on parts that don’t solve the problem than your deductible .
No offense, but I suspect you’ve found out why the previous owner traded in the vehicle.
Agreed with taking it back to the dealer, or to another mechanic. You bought that extended warranty; why are you afraid to use it now?
Good luck.
Take it back ASAP so that the dealer is less likely to claim that it’s something you did. Since it’s a used car, they might exchanged it if they can’t fix it. Start with the fix route, then bring up exchange later if things don’t work out.
So, after a little further investigation, it looks like my problem was a loose ground wire. Watch the following video for details. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrLbsIz81pU. Turns out the nut grounding the harness to the valve cover was loose enough to cause a short/open circuit on the ignition coils. Snugged it down and no more problems so far (knock on wood/fingers crossed). I have driven the car all over town this afternoon without problems and couldn’t get it out of the driveway yesterday. That is why I was asking, no sense spending a $100 on a deductible on an extended warranty when I can snug a nut down for free and took 10 seconds to find and resolve.