Front two cooling fans will not engage unless manual pressure is applied to the each electrical conector

Try applying a little bit of bulb grease to each connector and re connecting them. While you have them apart make sure that each wire is firmly connected and fully pushed down into the connector. Do the connector hook directly to the fan motors or do they plug into a wire pigtail from the motors?

The fans each have one standard two wire clip/pigtail connection. I think attached a photos showing both. I thought (hoped) the problem was in the pigtail so I made my own that directly connects to the drivers side fan. I checked prior to applying heat shrink around it that it is supplying 14 +/- volts to the fans at the appropriate times. Same problem- if I apply manual pressure to the connector- push them in HARD the fans engage. I'll try the bulb grease, not bad thinking. After that I'm tearing the fans out to get a look at them and the way the connection is made eternally, Thanks for the input.

I been working on this 08 escape. Same prob did a ton of tests tried to. Control the fans with my snap on scanner With no luck after pushing in on connector it kicked in until I let go of the connector The fix for this vehicle was the cooling fans. I removed the old fans and went with a couple of puller fans for around 50.00 and wired them to the old connectors. They work perfect. But that was 1 case. I had another that I could control fans with my snap on scanner checked values of the coolant temp sensor and that was the cause Hopefully this will help someone. As I haven't seen a solution to the original posters question. I think either he fixed it or traded it maybe even junked it.

Would it be worth trying to see if you could clamp it down permanently with a zip tie or something of that nature? It's only stupid if it doesn't work.

mine don't run either. only if I unplug the sensor by the plug wires will mine both come on ??

I finally got the fans running well with a couple new pig tail connections from NAPA, $2.00 ea. I believe. About a month after that all the dash lights started acting up. One day they'd work but the console lights wouldn't then none would work. Sometimes I'd down over a bump and some or all would come back. I traced everything I could think of never did locate the problem. I made do with an LED light strip attached to top of the steering column. Not long after that the tranny started slamming into 2nd and to got rid of it. I was a Ford guy for 30 years. After the Escape gave me so many head aches my daughter joined the military and I baby sat her Toyota 4-Runner for about a year. Then about 6 mos. Ago I bought a new 2017 Mazda CX 5. Drives great and gets good mileage. Be a long time before I look at buying another Ford.

Put bulb grease on electrical connections.. They become corroded and lose contact, or replace connection.. Most of the issues come from the fan cooling switch located in the side of the thermostat housing it activates the fans to come on when reaching hot temperatures.. dont forget to put bulb grease on the connectors...