Hi all.

Just bought a used 2003 Escape for a great price. My first ford in over 30 years.

Bought the truck to do Uber here in Las Vegas, what a relief after buying a nightmare Dodge Magnum, never again will get near a dodge/chrysler product.

I do most of my own maintenance, wrenching.

I've had the truck for 2 weeks, put a new set of tires on it and a good detail on the interior and exterior and new wiper blades. She's got 138,000 miles on her and everything looks like it was kept up to date, it's extremely clean under the hood, naturally. Hasn't been sprayed down with the engine shine crap. No rust of any kind.

The only issue I'm having is the 5 tone beeping thing, which I searched and looks to be possibly a bad bulb in the dash assembly so I'll be tackling that here pretty quick and maybe a full tuneup as it idles a bit rough, that could be a failing engine, tranny mount to. It did pass smog with no issues.

Other than that so far I love this little truck, it's just a pleasure to drive.

I'm just curious, you guys that have the Escape is there anything critical I should be checking as a new owner, engine or otherwise.

Thanks much,
David.

Almost forgot, this has the V-6

 

There is a good how too on here, to help you change plugs. Do egr and new upper and lower intake gaskets

 

Closely inspect the COP's for minor cracking while you're in there. In my experience, it's the first sign of failure. Cracks let in moisture which causes misfires and allows raw fuel into the catalytic converters which causes them to fail as well.

 

Morning, I've been mulling many of the how to threads, lots of good info here for sure. I'm crossing my fingers that this truck doesn't have some of the problems posted.

Thanks got2bejester, right now I'm putting together a plan to do the complete tuneup. Going to buy everything from the auction site. I'm going to stay with motorcfaft for the plugs, pcv, upper & Lower gaskets and for the COPS the Carbole brand yellow 5 year warranty deals for $35.

If you guys have a preferred brand I'd appreciate your recommendations. The motorcraft brand are pretty pricey. The reviews on Ebay are pretty good with over 900 sold, yet on Amazon they get crappy reviews, so flip a coin on that one I guess.

 

Everyone likes pictures. Here ya go.

 

nice.When I got my escape i was in freak mode thinking it will be all problems. It wasnt it was a great suv. I traded it in with 198,000 miles and it still ran great. Wife choice a 2010 over the 2013 and current model b/c the 2001 was so great

 

I’m having much the same experience with this truck, I removed the beeper thing and otherwise I’m really, really pleased so far.

What a great little gem, just runs like a damn champ. The engine, transmission is a great combo. Ford did good with this one.

I’d put it up there with our 4 runners on reliability, Maybe I just got lucky and the previous owner actually took care of it.

I’m going to order everything for the complete tune up next week, and look forward to some trouble free miles with this.