In November 2020 my 2014 Ford Escape kept dying, only to work with a battery jump. I replaced the battery, only to have vehicle check engine light come on a week later. Took it to a local mechanic who replaced a few spark plugs. Engine light came on again a few days later along with the low coolant notification. I took it back to the repair shop and coolants were checked and seemed to be fine.

The following week I got in the car to leave work and as I was pulling out the vehicle started to shake and then shut off. Towed to mechanic who said it was a sensor issue and thought they fixed it. A few days later as I was leaving work the vehicle started to shake and stated it was overheating and shut off. I had the vehicle towed to Ford dealership who stated it was a coolant leak that basically ruined the engine resulting in a total upwards of $5k to fix. I have an extended warranty so I gave my best effort to have it covered. 4 weeks later the extended warranty company agreed to cover the repairs by switching out my engine with another 2014 Ford Escape engine that is used.

I asked the Ford dealership about a new engine and they stated that unfortunately they can only do what the extended warranty company is offering and the new engines are back ordered 3-6 months. Mind you my vehicle has been sitting at the Ford dealership untouched and not working for a month at this rate. I asked Ford if they have seen anything like this before and they told me they currently have 6-8 other 2014 Ford Escapes sitting at the dealership with the same issue. They suggested I just take what I can get from the extended warranty then decide what to do with the vehicle. Ford also voiced the concern that if a used engine is put in that the chances of this happening again wouldn't be surprising it's just a matter of when. I will take the used engine at this rate and start the process of looking for a new vehicle asap.

stalling at idle without A/C running

Escape stalls out a lot of the time hot or cold right after being started. It does not stall out after the first few seconds of running, but feels dangerously close a lot of the time when coming to a stop as it drops to a very low idle speed of well under 750 RPM line on tachometer. Interestingly, having the AC on seems to help as that causes the engine to speed up a few 100 RPM. I just replaced the spark plugs yesterday, even though the gaps of the originals were still around 0.050-55" per spec, and it has helped a tiny bit, but it still has a lower idle speed (with shakes and occasional stalling) than it was before the issue started. Also noticing that the AC still seems to be pumping out cold air even after pressing "AC" button to off while temp dial is off the lowest setting, which allows turning off AC. I checked the "cold" line from the AC compressor while keeping the AC off (and even putting the temp dial into white-lined mid-temp area), and it was quite cold.

Could the AC be continuing to run even when the "on" light is off after pressing the on/off button, and yet not have the idle compensation active? The compensatory speed-up does occur when the AC light is on, and not when the light is off, but cold air keeps flowing from the vents, so that seems to be the issue that causes the below normal idle speed.

Update from Oct 3, 2016: I just scheduled a dealer visit for service to see what they can do.

Update from Aug 25, 2017: Sorry I forgot to update the resolution. The AC compressor clutch was not disengaging, and had to be replaced after the tech at the dealer went back and forth with Ford's tech resources to pin it down since it was an unusual problem. Of course this was just 1,000 or so miles after the warranty expired, and my add-on extended warranty only paid part, although, as I recall, I paid about $100, and that covered complete freon replacement, too, so probably not too bad a deal?

Update from Aug 25, 2017: BTW, the mileage is up to about 53,000, and the Escape is doing well otherwise. Had to replace original tires around 45k (could have gotten a few more thousand I guess, but had some trips coming up, so did not want to cut it that close). Also, I recently replaced the original wipers with over 2 years service, so that was impressive.