Bought an Escape Hybrid
 

I sold my GTO a week and a half ago and bought an Escape Hybrid a few days later. 2006, FWD, 132,000 miles. I haven't driven it yet (stationed in Korea), but my wife loves it and is getting 30-31MPG according to the factory instrumentation in mixed driving. It is mainly my wife's car, so mods will have to be hidden or approved by her.

Planned mods:
Replace the missing trim on the front left fender
Remove the roof racks
Sidewall max psi in the tires (probably down to 40psi while my wife is the main driver, if she complains)
Grille block and cover the fog lights, as unnoticeable as possible
Rear wheel skirts, if I can sell my wife on them
Full/partial belly pan, depending on how smooth it is stock
Small kammback/spoiler, similar to the BMX X3's

Anyone have any other ideas? I'll try to make good use of the hybrid system when I drive it, but I don't expect my wife to do so unless she wants to, so I want to maximize the efficiency at which it goes down the road. I noticed that there's only one Escape Hybrid in the garage here, and I haven't found much about aeromodding Escapes on Google. I might have to be a pioneer for Escape specific mods.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...d3/IMG2763.jpg
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I see you are planning on remove the roof racks and pumping up the tires, good start. Two small things but if you don't need the front license plate mount remove it and the mud flaps.

By far the best thing you could do would be to learn (you and her) to drive it for the best mileage. I know a local lady who has one that tops 40 mpg all summer long.

My old v6 escape did realy good coasting to stop signs/lights in D which improved my fuel economy by alot without having to switch to neutral

I was considering the front plate holder. I need a front plate, but I could probably mount it directly to the bumper (with some foam in between). There probably isn't much of a difference either way, I'll go with whatever looks best.
Mud flaps will probably go unless they're a pain to remove or the paint is damaged under them. I thought they were standard equipment and that Ford might have designed them to not be air brakes, but it looks like they were probably a dealer add-on.

I'm going to shoot for mileage whenever I drive it. My wife dislikes driving as it is, so I'm not going to pressure her to drive it as efficiently as possible. I will try to give her some tips if there is something easy she can change, though.

From what I've read, the hybrid will also coast in D. It will only regen in L or when applying the brakes. It does have the added advantage that it can kill the engine while coasting.


I have an Ultragauge, but I'll probably get a Scangauge II to see some of the hybrid stuff that's going on. It doesn't have the navigation system, so it only has the little display under the tach to show MPG info. I haven't seen anything to suggest that the average MPG is inaccurate, but the instant MPG display is just a bar graph from bad to good.

To help fix its blockiness, I'm thinking of building a removable boat tail that could be easily attached for long highway trips. It will clip onto the liftgate. For ease of construction and installation, I'm planning on having the sides follow the liftgate between the tail lights and the raised parts of the bumper. It would then wrap around the bumper. I would prefer not to connect any lights to it, but I'll make sure the the 3rd brake light is still visible/relocated to the end of the tail so at least 2 brake lights are always visible.
I'm wondering, how much of the benefit of a boat tail would be lost to the fact that it isn't the full width of the vehicle for the bottom half?
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I'm back home for a few weeks and got to drive it. Filled it up when I got home, 29.5MPG with my wife driving is for about 80% of the time (me the other 20%), about 50/50 city/hwy. So not too shabby, about average compared to the others on Fuelly. I've been the only driver the last few days, about 30% city, even going 75MPH with the AC on for about 30 miles, it got 36.2MPG. I had a cardboard grille block slapped over most of the upper grille for that tank.
I see the Escape Hybrid as being a great option for someone that needs the size of an SUV, especially a hypermiler. I can go up to about half a mile in EV mode going about 25MPH. Overall, I'm very pleased with it. Can't wait to do some mods. :thumbup:

Your main post had me seriously cracking up. No one else in my family approves of eco mods. "You work, and have a job, spend some money on fuel"

I know my better half will do the same, she currently has the base model of the 2008 Escape. I filled her tires for her before a trip, 400+ miles, and she didn't understand how she got there on one tank lol

I hope it all goes well for you.

What's the advantage to covering the fog lights?

You'll never get her to ride in it with a boat tail on it. Hell I wouldn't even ride in it. LOL

The sunken-in fog lights cause turbulence, covering them fixes that. Not a huge gain, but every little bit helps.

For the rear, I'm thinking of making a tail similar to a Trailer Tail. Should be pretty light and hopefully able to make it retract and deploy on the go to keep it safe in traffic and when parked.

I managed to average 32MPG over 2500 miles while I was home. Most of that was cruising at 70-75MPH with the AC. The only current mods are 44PSI in the Dunlop Radial Rover A/T tires and I removed the roof racks. I'm confident that 40MPG tanks should be reachable with some minor modding and fairly "normal" driving.

I have given my wife the MPG bug. She isn't as crazy about it as me, but she now has the Ultragauge installed to help her see what's good and what's bad. She should be able to maintain the 32MPG average.

There are a couple good LRR tires available that will fit the Escape. That could help you pick up a couple mpg. Check out the Bridgestone H/L Dueler 422 Ecopia and the Goodyear Assurance CS Fuel Max. I hear the Continental CrossContact LX20 with EcoPlus is good too.

I've been reading some reviews of LRR tires on Tirerack, and they don't paint a pretty picture. However, most of the reviewers only have a few thousand miles or less on the tires, so they have to be taken with a grain of salt (likely because the tires are so new/ever changing). The current tires have about 75% tread left, but they have some weather cracks. I probably won't replace them for at least a year. I'll wait til then to do more research and look for reviews on forums of them on Escapes.

Thought I would post a little update since there's not much info on Escape Hybrids here.

It currently has 137,000 miles. My wife is managing to maintain a 32MPG average. She's not really trying to hypermile, but she is at least aware and tries to keep the MPGs up most of the time. Only mods are still just a roof rack crossbar delete and 40-44PSI in the tires (my dad filled them to 44 last week, they were down to 40 from not being filled since June).

I got a Scangauge II and OBD-II port splitter. The Scangauge and Ultragauge appear to play nice with each other from the quick test my wife did. Unfortunately, unless I can convince her that programming x-gauges is fun, it'll probably have to wait until I get home in January. I'll be able to have a total of 10 gauges visible at a time. The ultragauge will still display the normal car stuff like instant mileage and RPM, and I'll use the scangauge for some hybrid specific gauges.

Now to the less good news. The MECS pump, which circulates the coolant for the motors and electronics, died a couple months ago. Was about $300 for a new one from the dealer, but it was an easy install. They're available online for less than $200, but we couldn't afford to wait. The old one appeared to be original, so it lasted longer than average from what I've read. Then the 12v battery decided to die a few weeks ago. It too appeared to be original, which seems to be about average or maybe even longer than most.

I just found this forum today. My wife and I drive a 2010 Escape hybrid 4WD. I haven't done anything to it yet, but I have a few thoughts. We had a FWD one prior to this that was rear ended and totaled because the battery was cracked in the accident and the insurance company said that ford said it was $9,500 to replace with a new one !!!!!!!!!!!! The FWD version we had was getting about 31 mpg average. It had tires with not much tread life left. Now with the 4WD version with new, non LRR tires we are getting about 28 mpg. I'm trying to figure out what else I can do to bump up that mpg. I just put in a K&N filter to hopefully help it breathe easier. Also I have been keeping the tire pressure up around 40psi.

The K&N won't help MPG one bit. My advise is to go back to paper if you want the best filtration. It's more effort to maintain the K&N properly, as too much/too little oil on the filter can cause problems. It probably won't matter much one way or the other, but I plan to go back to paper on my motorcycle the next time I dig into it.

A grill block and roof rack delete is likely the easiest/best mods.

Now that I'm seeing this thread, I'm considering a hybrid Escape myself. Any typical problem areas or years to be aware of? Are there better alternatives to the 4x4 Escape hybrid?

A 3MPG difference between the FWD and AWD is about right. I've been running 44PSI in my non-LRR tires since I bought it, seems to help negate the non-LRR. I would suggest getting a Scangauge II to keep an eye on the hybrid goodies (also handy for diagnosing any problems you might have).

redpoint - There really are no alternatives that will get the same mileage, especially in city. They're very reliable vehicles. The only sketchy year would be the first, 2005, but to be honest, most of the issues with them have probably been fixed by now (through recalls or parts failing and being replaced by the revised versions). There are many that were used as taxis that have over 300k miles and are still running strong. There's even one owned by a security company that recently hit 500k. The most common failures are the MECS pump (circulates coolant for the motor controller, transaxle, and DC-DC converter), the battery blend door motor, HV battery cooling fans, and the 12v battery dying of old age (seriously, it makes the Escape do some funky things til its replaced). All these parts are under $300 a piece if you can install them yourself, none are very difficult.

Mine currently has 145k miles. I've unfortunately had to replace the MECS pump, battery cooling fans, and the 12v battery in the time I've had mine. Everything looked original, though, so it should be good for at least 5 years.

When I was in Germany and Afghanistan, my friend was always talking about the Escape hybrid that she had back home, and now that she is out of the Army, she drives that around, and still talks about it often.

She gets about the same mileage that I do driving Bacon.

Lukewitmer, does the K&N filter still attach to the original intake or just sit in your engine compartment on its own? People who try to make their vehicles faster often go for the K&N and a cold-air intake, but if the K&N is pulling in air from the engine compartment, you actually have a hot-air intake, which people around here like for fuel efficiency, but I doubt that is the best way to do it.

Thought I would post a little update on the Escape. I sold it to my parents almost 6 years ago after getting the Prius. It currently has 230k miles and is still returning upper 20s with mixed driving without them really trying, which is comparable to similar new vehicles. The only major repair it's needed was the AC compressor a couple years ago. It's also had the blend door motor replaced (common issue, pretty cheap and easy to replace), the 12v battery I put in when I owned it gave up the ghost last winter, and I think my dad finally got around to replacing all the struts (they've been clunking like mad for years).

Not too bad for Ford's first hybrid. I would say they're one of the best options for someone who needs a good amount of cargo capacity and mileage without spending a lot. There are newer small CUVs/SUVs that can match or beat its mileage, but I don't know of anything that can really compete on price.

The Lexus RX series had always appealed to me... if I wanted an SUV. I did consider buying the Escape hybrid from Oregon fleet back in the day when they sold surplus on Ebay. Sadly I'm not on dirt roads enough to justify such a thing these days.