Brake pedal goes to the floor slowly when stopped at a red light

This is a classic internal master cylinder leak. The seals inside the master cylinder are allowing fluid to bypass internally — so you lose pressure while holding steady, but during active braking the flow rate is high enough that it still works. **This is a safety issue. Get it fixed soon.** The good news: master cylinder replacement on an Escape is pretty straightforward. The part is $60-100 and it's bolted to the brake booster with two nuts. Main pain is bench-bleeding the new one before install. Don't waste money on a brake fluid flush or bleeding the lines — the leak is internal to the MC. Check the [2013 Escape repair guides](/repair/2013/Ford/Escape) for the brake master cylinder procedure.

Had the same symptom on my Explorer. Definitely the master cylinder. One thing to check first though — make sure none of your calipers are sticking. A stuck caliper can also cause a soft pedal, and it's cheaper to fix.

If you do the MC yourself, the trick is bench bleeding. Fill it with fluid, plug the outlet ports loosely, and pump the pushrod by hand until no bubbles come out. If you skip this step you'll spend hours trying to get a good pedal afterwards.