My 2006 Escape XLT 4WD has recently started to make a ticking sound when it is first started...but goes away after several minutes. After driving the SUV around for a bit, when I turn it off to park it...there seems to be water leaking from somewhere in the engine compartment. I checked all of the fluid levels and they seem to be fine and thought originally that it might just be condensation dripping down but it usually leaves a puddle in a few minutes from the amount that drips off. Has anyone else experienced something similiar with thier Escape? And if so....what was the problem?

Thanks!

 

I have a 4cyl FWD XLT and not much experience with it, but where does the water collect? Front/back/left/right under the engine? Is it truly water and not antifreeze?
Askin' for the askin' so when and if I encounter the same problem.

 

The water has been collecting under the engine. Apparenly my buddy who works at Ford told me that this is condensation from the A/C that collects in a pan under it. When the Escape is shut off it releases the water which puddles up in my garage....not a very bright feature from Ford.
The ticking noise he told me was that they put in a type of piston in the engine for a few years that is a little smaller then the chamber so that when the engine heats up it expands to the cylinder bore causing less friction. The ticking noise is that of the piston going up and down in the cylinder chamber a little loose...and goes away after the engine warms up. This would explain why the engine uses a bit of gas every time it is started and gets brutal mileage in the cold winter. Wish I had known this stuff before buying it....I would have opted for a newer more fuel efficient one....which ironically has more power too out of the same engine.

 

I respect the factory trained mech's, but this time, at least for my ears, I find it very very difficult to actually hear the piston traveling within the cyl, as the engine is running.

I am more inclined to think the ticking is the different thermal expansion of two surfaces, at different exp. rates and the ticking is the surfaces moving against each other. I think the movement is shear in engr terms. Kinda like a air cooled cyl head cooling down.

BTW, what range of fuel mileage are you getting with the '06 ? The wife only has 300 miles on the 4 cylinder, so too early to tell. So far the 4 banger is more than our needs regarding power.

Have a great day.

 

Actually the ticking is a result of the expansion of the 2 metals. The dealer said that the pistons needed to warm up to expand into the cylinder bore and the ticking is from them rattling up and down until this happens.

As for the gas mileage, while it is warm out now I am getting 500-550 km (sorry live in Canada) per tank. Sometimes I can squeeze out a little more depending on the driving I am doing...but I also installed a K&N filter to help out with this and use injector cleaner every 3rd or 4th fill up.

Cheers

 

Thanks for the reply & I will kinda monitor the startup ticking. BTW no need to apoligize for the Can Conversion, I used to work as an engineer in a number of our facilities in Canada and loved the locations & people.
Best to you,