Took my car to the dealership because I kept having to top off coolant regularly. Since it’s deep winter up north, I never had any overheating or misfires, but turns out the engine needs to be replaced.
Luckily, it’s covered under my extended warranty.
Now I’m debating—should I keep it after the replacement or trade it in? I kind of want a Corolla, but my Escape is paid off.
My biggest concern is whether the engine swap could lead to future issues since they’ll be taking the whole thing apart and putting it back together.
I had my engine replaced at under 50k miles, and like you, I didn’t want to ditch a nearly paid-off car.
Had zero issues after the replacement and drove it for another 4 years before trading it in—not because of problems, just because I wanted something newer.
If you trade for a Corolla at the same price point, it’s going to be slower, noisier, have a worse interior, and if you’re up north, it’s going to be worse in the winter.
The 2017-2019 Escapes get a bad rap because of reliability concerns, but if you’re getting a brand-new engine for free, that’s a huge win. Even if it fails again, you’ve got another 100k miles ahead.
Also, an engine swap just means dropping the front subframe with the engine and trans attached—any decent shop can handle it no problem.
Talon said:
I’d get rid of it ASAP. The coolant intrusion issue WILL happen again. I’m just waiting for my girlfriend’s 2017 Escape 1.5L to have the same fate.
Our dealer has probably done 100+ of these short block replacements, and only one came back with the same issue—and that was installer error.
@Quincy
I still wouldn’t trust it. That issue shouldn’t have existed in the first place. Ford knew about it since 2010 and did nothing until they got sued.