Escape Hybrid 4WD Loss of Power

I admit I have posted this on other forums but I am trying to figure out what is happening under certain conditions. If anyone else has experienced getting into a spot where they cannot get out with 4WD because the engine starts shutting down I would like to hear your story. I plan on compiling and sending to Ford.

What follows is a post on another forum and my reply:

Post: Loss of 4WD Power

A wierd thing happended this weekend while testing the 4WD capabilities on a beach. This weekend we recieved our first snowfall here and I wanted to try to go out on the beach with my 4wd escape.

I think I understand from some of the road tests why this happens (the computer overrides accelerator requests) but the vechicle when it get stuck seems to not be able to use the full engine power to extricate itself.

For instance I drove a small way off the parking lot to start on trail heading out on the beach. The first part had a small pothole (less than 1'). The vechicle would NOT go climb the pothole even in LOW gear.

when going into reverse even less power.

The RPM's never get beyond 1500rpm. I spent about 20 harrowing mins rocking back forth to get back to the parking lot (I only ventured about 30' off the pavement)

Now it should be noted I did some beach trails several weeks earlier and did not have similiar problems but did not try to drive at slow speeds on the trails.

It shoiuld be noted that the vechicle was NOT hightpointed NOR were the wheels losing traction (as I was directly observing them as I was trying to rock out of the depression/hole)

My Reply:
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You are not alone in trying to figure this out. I too have gotten into a position where rpms top out and there I am stuck and rockin and not rollin. I seem to top out at about 2500 and it is after I have been towing a load for awile and am on an uphill. At other times one of my front wheels drops into a hole to the hubs and though I get spin at the back it has pulled out with no problem. I have friends who have had your problem in snow trying to get back on a hard surface.

My first thought is that the 4WD is being automatically locked or disabled because of heat but no one, including myself, has noticed any indicator light in the message center like it is supposed to. I have then turned off the car for a few minutes, turned it back on and run a system check which shows '4 X 4 OK' and I seem to be then able to move forward again. You might try it yourself and watch for indicators.

In darker moments I start to think this loss of power under certainly less than 'extreme off-road conditions' (Ford's language for the override) is the result of a firmware bug in the 4WD sensor of the Powertrain Control Module because it seems to be shutting down my engine for no good reason but not giving me a blinking indicator light like it should. I have gone through the workshop manual but have yet to find a description of this kind of failure.

In trying to find a pattern in this case versus what I have heard from others when they lose power I have noticed that nobody has said that they lose power when all tires are on level ground. It happens when one wheel is in a depression or on hard ground that causes no slippage.

I heard from some that on level wet or level snowy the response is great. I wonder whether the PCM is shutting down the rpms when the wheel torque reaches a specific high number (caused because the wheels are not slipping). You engineer types out there perhaps can think about whether this theory is on the right track.

Mike

[taisha]

The 2005 XLT 4WD does not have low range as did the previous non-brain models. This has been a problem for us and we have to garage in winter. We live on a mountainside. Could this be the problem with the hybrid? It took us a while to finally figure out what the problem was.

[tree]

I have a similar problem. I hacve a 2006 Escape Hybrid that lost power last night. Weather conditions were very cold. I let the escape warm up and drove about 10 miles. I was in the store for 20 minutes. When I returned, the gas engine would not engage. Eventually, the gas engine did seem to engage, seen from the tach, but the "thief" light was blinking and the transmission would not go into drive. Ended up towing it to the house. I plan to research the manual and this web page, but if some on has an answer, ot wouold be appreciated.

Thanks