1.1

hardly worth mentioning
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
155,941 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.

Get notified about new defects, investigations, recalls & lawsuits for the 1997 Ford Escort:

Unsubscribe any time. We don't sell/share your email.

problem #1

Nov 202013

Escort 4-cyl

  • 155,941 miles
Valve seat no. 4 fell out of head and was destroyed, damaging no. 4 and no. 3 piston, and the head itself. We were fortunate that the total failure occurred while parked rather than on the interstate, at which time power steering and power brakes would have failed. This is a well known mode of failure for this engine but, apparently, Ford and NHTSA took no steps to solve the problem. The engine was discontinued in 2005.

- Bangor, ME, USA