Ford Escape, model years 2001 to 2004. Filed by Ford Motor Company and reported to NHTSA on 26 July 2012. 529,719 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Ford Motor Company is recalling certain model year 2001 through 2004 Escape vehicles equipped with 3.0L V6 engines and speed control manufactured from October 22, 1999, through January 23, 2004. Inadequate clearance between the engine cover and the speed control cable connector could result in a stuck throttle when …
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
Ford's own number for this recall: 12S37. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 12V353 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 12V353 cover?
- Ford Escape, model years 2001-2004.
- What is wrong with them?
- Ford Motor Company is recalling certain model year 2001 through 2004 Escape vehicles equipped with 3.0L V6 engines and speed control manufactured from October 22, 1999, through January 23, 2004.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- A stuck throttle may result in very high vehicle speeds and make it difficult to stop or slow the vehicle, which could cause a crash, serious injury or death.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Not yet, on the wording NHTSA publishes today. Ford will notify owners, and dealers will repair the vehicles by increasing the engine cover clearance, free of charge. The safety recall began August 3, 2012. Remedy parts are expected to be available in mid-August 2012.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Ford calls this recall 12S37, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “A stuck throttle may result in very high vehicle speeds and make it difficult to stop or slow the vehicle, which could cause a crash, serious injury or death.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 12V353 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | FORD MOTOR COMPANY |
| System at fault | Engine And Engine Cooling |
| Reported to NHTSA | 26 July 2012 |
| Model years | 2001-2004 |
| Vehicles named | FORD ESCAPE |
What the notice says today
The consequence
A stuck throttle may result in very high vehicle speeds and make it difficult to stop or slow the vehicle, which could cause a crash, serious injury or death.
The remedy
Ford will notify owners, and dealers will repair the vehicles by increasing the engine cover clearance, free of charge. The safety recall began August 3, 2012. Remedy parts are expected to be available in mid-August 2012. Until then dealers will disconnect the speed control cable as an interim remedy, if parts are not available at the time of an owner's service appointment. Owners may contact Ford at 1-866-436-7332.
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 588 notices in the record whose component field names engine and engine cooling. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 47 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 12V353, wording as read on 17 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/12v353/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
Other Ford notices we hold
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- 26V577: 2026 F-150
- 26V576: 2026 F-150
- 26V550: 2026 Maverick, F-150, and Bronco Sport
- 26V548: 2026 Explorer, Bronco, Bronco Sport, Mustang, and Ranger
- 26V547: 2024-2026 Mustang
- 26V532: 2026 Explorer
All 776 Ford campaigns we hold · Every manufacturer in the record
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 12V353 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
086b8863 - Consequence
99a18f5d - Remedy
6b28978b
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 12V353 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Ford Escape, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
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Owners of these cars
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