Consumer Complaint Detail

FORD / ESCORT / 1998

Recalls
0 Injured
Investigations
0 Death
Complaints
No Fire
Components - Details
NHTSA Complaint Number: 005036786 Incident Date: Aug, 28 2005
Consumer's City: BELLEVIEW Consumer's State: FL
Vehicle Transmission Type: AUTO Manufacturers Name: Ford Motor Company
Model Name: ESCORT Model Year: 1998
Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No Component's Description: Power train:automatic transmission
Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No Persons Injured: 0
Vehicle's VIN#: 1FAFP13P8WW Date added to File: May, 23 2021
Date Complaint Received: Aug, 31 2005 Complaint Type: IVOQ
Incident Reported To Police: No Purchase Date: Mar, 06 1998
Was Original Owner: Yes Anti-lock Brakes: No
Number of Cylinders: 4 Date of Manufacturer: -
Was Vehicle Towed: - Description of the Complaints: The failure involves the interlock that keeps you from shifting out of park without applying the brake. my left rear turn signal bulb had burned out. i stopped the car, put it in park, and set the emergency brake, to get out and check the other turn signals. first i turned on the left side and verified that the left rear bulb wasn't working. then i asked the passenger in the car to switch on the right signals. she leaned on the shift lever to try to reach the turn signal lever, and when she did, the car went into reverse. it moved back slowly since the emergency brake was on, so i jumped out of the way and got in and stopped it. upon further investigation, i found this: that if the left rear turn signal bulb is bad, the shift interlock is released when you turn on the left turn signal, allowing the shift lever to be moved out of park without stepping on the brake first. when i put in the new bulb, the behavior did not happen anymore. i put the bad bulb back in, and it started doing it again. if i had not set the parking brake, i could have been run over. my concern is that this defect may exist in several model years on this vehicle and possibly other ford vehicles. this problem was on a 1998 ford escort sedan with automatic transmission. *nm