2006 Escape PATS failing (sometimes)

I have a 2006 Escape, and it has 44,000 miles on it. Because of that,
it's out of warranty of course.

However, since last Monday, it has failed to start several times. Then
if you wait a little while, it will finally decide that we indeed do
have the correct key, and the PATS unit will let us start the car.

I called the dealer, and he said to try the other key, which I did. It
actually started 6 or 7 times, then failed. We waited about 10
minutes, and it started. My wife drove it home, where it sat for 2
hours, and then the PATS light just flashed and would not let me start
the car. The next morning, she went out and it started immediately,
and she took it to work.

About noon, I went to pick it up to take it to the dealer to see if
they could fix it. It took about 8-10 tries, then I was able to get
the PATS security light to go off, and the car would start.

The dealer has had it since last Thursday, and they finally got it to
fail on them today. However, instead of working on it while it was
failing, they waited an hour and it was working again. It seems to
quit failing about 10 minutes after the first failure, and then maybe
it will work for a while. The car will never die once it starts.

I have only 2 keys, the ones that came from Ford when we purchased the
car. I have tried both of them, and they have both failed at one time
or another.

The Dealer keeps saying they have never heard of it, and I presume
they will not ask for any support from Ford, so I though I would ask
if anyone here has ever seen this problem?

I hate to junk a 3 year old car, but they seem to not want to try to
help. My next option is another Dealer, but they said that the
original selling Dealer would probably give us a deal since we
purchased it from them, and the salesman said that these cars were so
good, we really did not need to purchase any extended warranty.

Thats about it...anybody seen anything like this before?

Thanks for any info.

"Sherman" wrote in message

> I have a 2006 Escape, and it has 44,000 miles on it. Because of that,
> it's out of warranty of course.
>
> However, since last Monday, it has failed to start several times. Then
> if you wait a little while, it will finally decide that we indeed do
> have the correct key, and the PATS unit will let us start the car.
>
> I called the dealer, and he said to try the other key, which I did. It
> actually started 6 or 7 times, then failed. We waited about 10
> minutes, and it started. My wife drove it home, where it sat for 2
> hours, and then the PATS light just flashed and would not let me start
> the car. The next morning, she went out and it started immediately,
> and she took it to work.
>
> About noon, I went to pick it up to take it to the dealer to see if
> they could fix it. It took about 8-10 tries, then I was able to get
> the PATS security light to go off, and the car would start.
>
> The dealer has had it since last Thursday, and they finally got it to
> fail on them today. However, instead of working on it while it was
> failing, they waited an hour and it was working again. It seems to
> quit failing about 10 minutes after the first failure, and then maybe
> it will work for a while. The car will never die once it starts.
>
> I have only 2 keys, the ones that came from Ford when we purchased the
> car. I have tried both of them, and they have both failed at one time
> or another.
>
> The Dealer keeps saying they have never heard of it, and I presume
> they will not ask for any support from Ford, so I though I would ask
> if anyone here has ever seen this problem?
>

You need to call the dealer and ask to speak to the dealership
owner. Climb as high as you can in the chain. Make it clear to
them that you are willing to pay for reasonable troubleshooting but
you expect them to get the factory troubleshooters involved if they
cannot fix it, and your absolutely not going to pay for a bunch of
shotgunning. Shotgunning is the process of getting the customer
to pay for part after part after part, in an attempt to guess what
the problem is. Also make it clear that if they replace ANY part that
you expect to get the OLD part that they removed, given to you
when you pick up the car. (this is insurance in case the new part
does not fix the problem) Make it clear that if they don't fix it
that your going to be calling the national Ford customer service
people and filing a complaint, and that you will not be bringing
your car to them ever again for service, and your going to tell as
many of your friends they are a terrible dealership, and your also
going to be posting your story and naming names on all the online
forums you can find. Be pleasant but firm.

Get all of this out of the way BEFORE they start the game of
nickle and diming you in an attempt to get you to go away.

There are internal password-protected dealer-only and mechanic-only
forums that the general public cannot access, that the dealership
mechanics can ask these kinds of questions on.

> I hate to junk a 3 year old car, but they seem to not want to try to
> help. My next option is another Dealer, but they said that the
> original selling Dealer would probably give us a deal since we
> purchased it from them, and the salesman said that these cars were so
> good, we really did not need to purchase any extended warranty.
>

Do not go to another dealer. You have an intermittent electronic
failure which is the most difficult (ie: time consuming) kind of problem
to fix. Obviously because of that it is the least profitable kind of
problem to fix. The dealer will naturally elect, if given a choice,
to work on the more profitable work out there.

My crystal ball says that since both keys have the same problem that
the problem is not the keys, it is the electronic pickup unit in the
vehicle. Since the car has such low mileage my crystal ball says it
is highly unlikely that something has rattled loose. Since the problem
appears to not happen when the car is stone-cold, and does happen
when the car is warm, my crystal ball says it's a thermal issue such as
a cracked solder joint in the receiver in the car, or other electronic
part failure on that board. My crystal ball's advice is worth exactly
what you paid for it.

Ted