hi my escort had exactly the same problem but wat mine did was wen i turned on the ignition my whole car tripped out, what u need to do is take ur fuse box right out and take every single relay and wire and fuse out and then get ur manual and there is 2 pages 2 show u were all the relays and fuses go and put them all back in, all escorts between 97 and 98 all have this problem or a similar problem lol, hope this helps :)
markymark
December 2007