So I was driving my husbands car the other day -it is a 2010 Ford Escape. He’d just had it in for the 75000 mile service and he’d had an oil leak and some sort of casing replaced to take care of that - and I stopped at a stop sign, turned the corner and 30 yards down the road, the gas peddle did nothing. I putted my way to the side of the road and the thing started shaking and all the lights were on on the dash. I put it in park and it still shook. Shut it off - exhaled deeply and turned the key in the ignition - nothing - but a distant sort of thugh,thugh,thugh,thugh with the wrench light on on the dash. Tried again and it started - and drove. Got home fine. My husband had the exact same thing happen to him, when he took it out so he took it back to the shop - they drove it for about 100 miles and couldn’t get it to do anything like we described. They ran all sort of diagnostics and said they can’t find anything wrong with the car. Help! We can’t help but wonder if it’s related to the repair for the oil leak or the service as it had never happened before. Any insights are more than welcome! My husband has to travel a lot and is often without a cell phone signal. I keep having visions of him having to walk miles through some snow storm because the darn car dies and won’t start.
Yes, it likely had somethng to do with the service that was performed. But without knowing what was changed and why it’s impossible to gues what might be going on.
Can you provide more detail?
Ok - This is what they said - The Lefthand half shaft was leaking oil and it was replaced with at stub shaft, seal & bushing…does that help?
It does. I’m unfamiliar with the term “stub shaft”, but if the half shaft was bad I’m familiar with the process.
There’s normally nothing in replacing a halfshaft that should cause your symptom unless they did something that caused the CV joint to bind up when you turned.The “stubshaft, seal, and bushing” decription makes it sound like they attempted to repair the halfshaft on the vehicle rather than replace the whole axle, and that leaves me puzzled. Can you quote the exact wording from your copy of the shop order? Or can anyone else here figure out what they did?
When you turn the off car off completely, as in removing the key from the ignition, and restart it a minute or so later the car’s computer resets. There is something wrong, and it should show a “code” on the Ford dealer’s diagnostic equipment. The next time it happens take a photo of the dash indicators all lit up if the dealer needs proof the car has a problem. If there is still warranty coverage, get the symptoms documented in writing by the dealer and save it for the future.
Too many possibilities to address here. You really have no choice but to drive the car and be ready when it happens again.
We’ve already planned to video it the next time it happens. Neither my husband nor I removed the key from the ignition so I’m guessing this is why they had no ‘code’ on the diagnostic. We’ll be sure to do that next time as well.
Both times it happened we’d just turned a corner - so though I have NO idea what a CV joint is or does - the possibility of it binding up when we turned sounds reasonable. Is this something that will continue to happen if it was related to the CV joint? Or I’m hoping - now that it did it a couple of times it’s sorted itself out?
Thanks so much for your help!!