ford4v429 Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 a friend of ours has a nice little explorer- had a clunk in the backend, took it in to have shocks replaced. there was NOTHING holding the rear shocktower in- the entire wheelwell on passenger side was missing- rusted, cracked and fell out of the car, she had to have a new one welded in. I looked at her car, its otherwise clean, figured maybe it was a fluke- nope- NHTSA site has a lot of reports of the same thing- passenger side shockmounts tearing out and hitting interior panels by the rear seats. I fear its just a matter of time till a rear seat passenger gets hit with suspension parts or a flopping shocktower shreds a tire. anyone in areas that use salt, please take a good look in the wheelwells above your rear tires- these panels must have been made from recycled chevy vegas or something... I built a new frame for our 65 galaxie, thought that was the worst rust I'd ever seen- nope- this takes the cake- these cars are not that old, and it seems localized to the one rear wheelhouse panel. My Mom and Stepdad have two escapes, gotta call them tomorrow and be sure they look theirs over, consider undercoating/bedliner coating if its ok... Colorado dont use much roadsalt, hopefully theirs are ok, I got a feeling this is likely to become yet another recall...hopefully if Ford looks into it, they can get after it soon, the windstar axle rust recall was years too late, cost them a fortune...coulda been a few dollars in painting of the axles, instead they spent thousands in parts plus thousands in rentals...most woulda been cheaper to buy and scrap. I sincerely hope Ford gets more proactive on materials and coatings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
transitman Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 You need to add model years to your rant. I would expect a 2001 Escape or 1991 Explorer to have significant rust by now. Priming and painting technology has improved since then and unless there's extenuating circumstances, you're less likely to see life ending rust on new cars. The Windstars affected were 1999 to 2003 MY, that's a long way from the 2013-14 MY. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escapism Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 I can only hope that my Escape, being a world design (European), did a good job of rust-proofing. I live in Virginia, and since no one knows how to drive on bad roads here, they put enough treatment down to cover the moon. Now they are spraying something, and I don't know what that consists of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ford4v429 Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 You need to add model years to your rant. I would expect a 2001 Escape or 1991 Explorer to have significant rust by now. Priming and painting technology has improved since then and unless there's extenuating circumstances, you're less likely to see life ending rust on new cars. The Windstars affected were 1999 to 2003 MY, that's a long way from the 2013-14 MY. sorry- was late... 2004-2006 are the years affected, otherwise clean cars have the one rear wheelwell crumbling. heard they changed the panel in 2007. our windstar was a 98- and yes salt is cruel...the windstar axles were a bathtub on top, small drain holes, seems somehow somebody never thought about dirt/salt. these escapes though are odd- no apparent reason for the severe corrosion on just that one panel. ecoat/paint has come a long way, but nobodys perfect- our 3 s197 mustangs and most others ive seen all have bad sealing behind the inner rocker 'flap' in front of the rear wheels on one side or both. if you could see it before it got dirty, you can plainly see where the sprayer used for applying the coating was held at a angle resulting in the 'flap' blocking the spray- leaving a open seam behind it. Noted it when I tore my brand new 06 apart, pulled fenders/fenderwells/door panels/interior panels and injected heavy paint into all downward pinchwelds, as it seeped thru the razor thin gaps, ductaped bottom lip to keep the voids filled, leaving only the lowermost drains open- found a lot of spots where the seam sealer missed the seam completely around the rear shocks/floorpan joints- I'm kinda guessing this was the likely cause for the escape thing, but would have to look at a mint one to see. I put a thread up with pics of all the bad sealant work on my 06 back then, i'll see if I can find pics. but again, anyone with a (04-06) no matter how clean it looks, please check that passenger wheelwell- you can just look right under, no need to jack it up. catch it before it breaks away. worst part of the repair is removing the interior to prevent fires Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdnFrosty Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Isn't this the Escape Forum? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howie411 Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 I can only hope that my Escape, being a world design (European), did a good job of rust-proofing. I live in Virginia, and since no one knows how to drive on bad roads here, they put enough treatment down to cover the moon. Now they are spraying something, and I don't know what that consists of. Ain't that the truth! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escapism Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Ain't that the truth! Holy cow, it's Howie! How's that fusion working out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howie411 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Love it, adaptive cruise control is the best thing ever (well that and 49 miles to the gallon going to work). Also my wife just picked up a C-MAX SEL a few weeks ago. Driving it feels like the Escape but smaller. Why oh why did Ford not make an AWD of it or a Hybrid Escape is beyond me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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