NHTSA Complaint #11634859 — 2017 FORD ESCAPE

January 8, 2025 To the NHTSA: My wife, [XXX] and I, [XXX] , have a 2017 Ford Escape. We have been informed that our vehicle has a defective lower-engine block that is resulting in coolant seeping into the engine cylinders, which causes the engine to overheat. This damage can also result in the engine becoming completely destroyed. A fire can also result. Upon further investigation by ourselves, this defect can cause a fire and it poses a great risk to our health and safety. We read a litigation about affected consumer with this same issue and we also called a Ford Service Center in Minnesota. The service rep told us the issue is related to a faulty design in the bottom half of the engine block. Apparently there are grooves, that in some cases, allow coolant to seep in. The rep said Ford has given them a service bulletin which talks about the issues and the rep said Ford has "re-designed" their lower engine block as a replacement part for such vehicle in light of the issue. Our cost of replacing the lower engine block would be about $12,000, since our car has about 78,000 miles and is out of factory warranty. Ford should bear responsibility for this and should have caught this problem through its quality controls. While our car isn't burning coolant yet, we fear it's only a matter of time before we experience an issue that so many others have. We are extremely disappointed in Ford for this. We would like the NHTSA to force Ford Motor Company to do a recall for this. [XXX] [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)