I have an '03 Escape that the cruise control just stopped working on. When you go to set it the light on the dash goes on, but it never sets the speed. If you take your foot off the gas it coasts but will not maintain the speed. Any ideas where to start?

 

most likely what happened,,is your cruise control cable came off..you need to remove the engine cover,,its 4 nuts and a yellow nutdriver..i think its 7/16ths but could be wrong,,you'll figure it out...then you;ll see the cruise cable on top. there is a little boot at the end of the cable that is suppose to connect. it probably came off..hence it cannot hold the speed...reconnecting is easy..just snap it back on,,but if it came off once. it will do it again..so ty-rap it with a small ty-rap. it you are confused any,,buy a book on your escape at your local auto store for like 12 bucks..it will show you the exact location of everything you need to know..just look up cruise control,,,hope this helps

 

slavepit thank you so much for your great tip!! Sure enough pulled off the engine cover and there the cable was flopping around. 2 seconds later repair is fixed and all is well. Thank You again!!!

 

Thanks slavepit. You helped me too. It was a 5/16th and 3 nuts on my 2003 escape.

 

Great tip! I popped the engine cover off and, sure enough the cable was dangling there. Too bad there is no adjustment to remove the cable slack. My solution was to tie the cable rod to the arm with safety wire. Oh..and since the power train is all Mazda (and metric), the nuts are 8 mm.

Thanks!

 

The dealer wanted to do this. I noticed it after I had other work done but not for a few months after the work was completed. I went back for other work and the wanted to replace it and charge me for a new harness not cheap!

 

My son borrowed by vehicle for a few days and left me his kinda beat up 2003 Escape to drive. My commute is 25 miles mostly highway and I noticed that his cruise control light came on but the speed control didn't engage when I tried to use it. I spent at least a half an hour looking for some more complicated electrical reason for it not working but was stymied. I googled "cruise control doesn't work 2003 Ford Escape" and this string came up. I went out, took the cover off (2 mins), and voila! the cable was just hanging there so I put it back on (15 secs) and then found a tiny cable tie in my toolbox and put it on as suggested (2 mins - my box is messy) and put the cover back on (45 secs)! Love the google machine and you friggin' rock for posting. I can't believe it was something so damned simple! Thanks again!

 

Made an account just to thank slavepit. I know this thread is old, but thanks to the power of google, your post saved me a lot of headaches! Thanks!

 

I replaced my 2003 ford escape 3.0 with a remanufactured engine and now I am having an issue where the engine is getting power from the battery only. I pulled my alternator and had it checked and 3 tests gave it a clean bill of health. The battery is good but drains quickly due to powering the engine. When I pull the positive cable from the battery the engine immediately shuts down. Is it possible that I need to have the computer re flashed to operate the new engine correctly or do you think that in the process of replacing the engine that I lost connectivity in a wire somewhere? Please help I have sunk lots of cash into this car for a daily driver for my daughter.

 

Anderson6.

The practice of removing a battery cable from a vehicle with an alternator and the engine running can become expensive !!!!
With no load the alternator can/will self destruct, NEVER do that. We did that with DC generators, but should never be done with an alternator.


Your vehicle charging system is controlled by he PCM and further checking should be done to assure everything is working as designed.