Scotty, my name is Diane from [personal info redacted]. I own a 2020 Ford Escape since last January with a little over 3500 miles. A month ago I pulled into my sisters driveway and when I started the car and went into reverse, in the panel in front of me in giant red letters it said EMERGENCY BRAKE ON. I did not touch anything. I shut the car off and tried again and same message came on. I live very close to my sister so when the car started again I drove home in three minutes I called the tow truck to take it Ford Dealership. They got me a rental from Hertz. Meanwhile the car has been there a month and they will not take the car back. I need to know why the emergency brake kicked in and why can't Ford mechanic fix the problem. Ford Corporate told me that the car will not be taken back and they will not put me in another vehicle. I am going to call a Lemon Law attorney on Monday to tell them what happened. I will have the rental for another week and that is it. What is your opinion on this situation. Time is certainly not on my side here. I understand that you help Veterans; well I am the widow of a Veteran and would appreciate it so much if you can suggest what I should do about this horrific situation. I am petrified to get behind the wheel should the brake problem kick in at a light and I will be hit from behind and that will be horrible. Please get back to me. my email address is [email address redacted].
Thank you very much. I look forward to your reply so I can hopefully get the right answer why this is happening. [personal information redacted]
Please do not post email addresses or other personal information here. No one from here will contact you personally and it is an invitation to spammers and scammers. Thank you.
Just curious is the situation that the dealer cannot fix the problem or cannot verify it? If it’s a cannot verify condition it’s just unfortunate for both parties involved. Without verification or a code there is really nowhere to start to look because everything is operating as it’s designed to
It is probably going to boil down to a computer problem. (This is one of the reasons that just about no one here likes electronic parking brakes.) Could be anything from a software bug to a bad sensor or bad wiring. If the dealer you purchased the car from can't fix it I'd try another dealer, and definitely look into the lemon law in your state (Florida).
https://myfloridalegal.com/pages.nsf/Main/a510d1364b15502a85256cc9005da68a
How does a sensor get checked by the mechanic? Thank you for replying. I will call a lemon law attorney on Monday. Diane
They should be able to check it with a professional-grade scan tool, which of course the dealer would have. With that they can check for stored fault codes, look at live and freeze-frame data, and do interactive bidirectional testing of components.
Hello Chuck, Diane here. I printed out your reply, thank you. But can you kindly tell me your opinion...if I get the car back, am I not in danger of the emergency brake kicking in while I am at a light, in a parking lot, on a highway??? I am going to have the car towed to another Ford dealer and speak to the manager.. don't you agree that I should call a Lemon Law attorney on Monday and have them contact Ford to tell them that they need to just take back the car and put me in another lease or purchase from Ford? I have a job as a caretaker for an elderly fellow and I am frightened to actually get in the car knowing at any time that emergency brake will kick in and we will be in a terrible deadly accident. Can you reply to my email address [email redacted]? Where are you located anyway? I would appreciate any information that will help me in this situation.
Please, as mentioned before do not post email addresses or other personal identifiable information. We are not set up here to offer that kind of direct personal assistance and you are potentially opening yourself up to n'er-do-wells. (It's a jungle out there.)
I'm not a Ford mechanic, just an amateur volunteer here, and without knowing what in that complex computerized setup triggered the brake it's just not possible to know what the likelihood is of it happening again. It may never happen again. It may only happen if the computer "thinks" there's an obstruction behind the car. It may happen at random. More diagnosis is needed.
I think you are on the right path having another dealer check it out. If Ford cannot fix it the lemon law might come into play. Look over the link I previously provided from your state attorney general office to get a feel for what the law is. One potential problem is that the issue may have to occur more than once for the lemon law to kick in. A lemon law lawyer in your state will be able to give you details.
Good point by @mmj below, are you sure that the parking brake wasn't accidentally left on when you started backing up? Easy mistake to make, I've certainly done it enough times. (Probably the dealer already asked you this, just doing so here for the sake of completeness.)
Did they say anything about why it's taking this long to fix it? There are a lot of part shortages right now.
I started the car and went into reverse, in the panel in front of me in giant red letters it said EMERGENCY BRAKE ON
Maybe it was just reminding you that the parking brake was left on.
Did you try pushing the button to disengage the brake?
Did you check what the owner's manual says about this indicator light?
I don't know if this will be helpful or not but it's worth having a look. A friend told me his reverse brake assist was activated by a bicycle in a rack on the back of his car. Good luck.
holy crap 😆 "if the scenery is too complex"
You can say that again!