I was amazed at the cost of the converters - $2000.00 - $2500.00 for all 3 when they come from Ford. I never did find an aftermarket alternative. I want to be responsible but when the value of the vehicle is not much more than the converters it seems silly.

 

what has happened it the catalatyic converters in the manifold have broken off chunks and plugged the rear cat in the exshaust pipe creating back preasure blowing a crack in the egr valve . all three cats will need replace so exspensive sometimes viehical isnt worth doing this . ford wont replace these on warranty they argue till blue in the face .youll probley need a lawyer. the problem could have been a easie fix if they had flanged the cats so they could be removed with engine in place. cats are like 500 each and the labour will be outrageouse. probley a 1000 im guessing. good luck and too bad very common for escapes. ive tried opening up cats and putting oxyegen sensor trickers on the lower sensors and cant get it to idle very good when cold but is ok when warm. opening cats is illeagal by the way. but impossible to prove if you do it your self. shops wont do this.

 

hmm.. i wonder if this is why my Escape stinks like raw exhaust when started cold..exhaust also seems noisy but i can't find any leaks, but i know there is one somewhere..replacement cat/exhaust manifolds are over $600 a piece at autzone..so they aren't getting replaced anytime soon..

 

they stink from new .if they are plugged youll have to change them youll blow out the egr valve [put a hole in it] it just wont run good . its not even the price of the cats slide under and look at whts needed to change them .one each manifold and one before the muffler. i opeend mine ip and put cheaters on my oxygen sensores to back them out of the exshaust pipe. illeagal in usa .they look like hydrolic fittings gm ones are a computer chip plug in . fords are pipe exstentions.

 

Original coils here: 208,000
But they are electrical so they can last 10miles or 1,000,000 miles (the coils that is).

 

Scott, the thing that seems to happen with the coils is that they get overworked by spark plugs with huge gaps. That apparently leads to coil breakdown and eventual failure. The other thing that happens is the plastic on the top of the coil breaks and the coil gets damaged, I assume[bad idea] by moisture. May be its the other way around, in that the plastic gets blown off by the coil and then moisture does its thing.
Either way, the 100k plug recommendation may be a bit too long.
I was wondering why I was seeing vehicles that looked so good being sold here for "Parts Only". Any dealer has to provide a valid emissions test result[passed, of course] before they can sell a vehicle. If I were such a dealer, I'd be having some crew comb local boneyards for replacement Y-pipe/cat assemblies that were functional.
what ever.
tom

 

Your on limited time

 

Did you get the problem repaired? Would you recommend me take my 2002 with 98,000 miles to the dealer to have repaired. I recently bought for $3,400 -- I willing to spend up to $2,000 to repair.

 

Paulbf67:red? Would you recommend me take my 2002 with 98,000 miles to the dealer to have repaired.

I would recommend replacing the spark plugs. I would bet that the gap is wider than recommended from wear. I had just about that mileage on mine, and the gap on all 6 was beyond the limit, and the electrodes were rounded off.
Pull out a front plug, using a 5/8" socket and extension. Check the gap. The other 5 should be just about the same, unless you picked one that has already been replaced. It is preventive maintenance that can be costly{COPs, converters} if ignored. When you put the plug, or new plus in, be sure to finger-start the plug, and use a torque wrench as the threads in the aluminum head are soft and can be damaged by cross threading or over-torque.
The computer can actually be damaged by COPs from what I have read here or elsewhere. I think, no $ on the line, that back EMF from COPs that cannot fire the plug, can pop the driver transistor. The transistor provides ground to energize the coil, and when the ground goes away, the coil collapses, causing spark to be induced. If things are just 'wrong', I guess it can cause damage. There was even a TSB about some plugs that could do the same, somehow. I am not Tesla.
tom

 

Just a couple of thoughts and issues we had with the 3.0 2001 Escape of ours.
Most salvage yards in our area will not sell used Cats for a couple of reasons - 1. They are not really supposed to (Used Cats are supposed to be only sold if re-certified by law) so you have to beg and plead, or know someone to get them to sell any to you. 2. They make a good chunk of change from the sale of them for the platinum - paladium - etc inside each.

The issue of Ford saying the V6 could go 100k between "Tune Ups" was because they charge a fortune to do it at a dealer. To change the rear plugs it requires removing the upper intake manifold so they charge for all of that plus new gaskets etc. So they figured if you only thought it was required every 100k you would feel better.

Having the plugs get bad and cause coil failure - and in this case Cat failure - really is a shame because the plugs really should not asked to go all the way to 100k. We did one change and used original intake seal (lubed with vaseline) and at next set bought the new gasket. This was not a great idea by Ford but it was the way they could stuff the V6 in the Escape. Ours runs great but we repair it ourselves.

 

I bought a set of upper and lower intake manifold gaskets before I changed my plugs. Came to find out the lower set is not necessary. I still have both sets in the box, as I re-used the uppers, and did not remove the lower intake. I did re-torque the lower intake to spec, just in case it had loosened. I took each O-ring out, and inspected it for damage or flat spots, and found none. Re-installed them in the grooves in the manifold, and put it back together. No problems to date, and that was 6k miles ago. The O-rings were pliable and not flattened or deformed, and as I was doing the labor, I had no problem with removing the intake again if there had been a problem.
tom