We have a Ford Escape thats been a pretty good vehicle. Recently it started vibrating like crazy when stopped but in gear. I tracked it down to bad motor mounts, a problem others have run into as well post 60k miles.

Anyway I ordered up some new mounts and R&R'd them this weekend (ugh, whoever designed the placement of those needs to be slapped). Anyway I did some researching on how to get at the rear transmission mount bolts (which btw simply requires 3ft of extensions and 2 universal joints hooked to a breaker bar). During that research I discovered this model is prone to some pretty serious rust issues. It seems the passenger rear wheel well simply disolves and the entire area can come loose including the shock mounts. Here's a pretty common picture that I ran across:



I took a look in my wheel well area and sure enough, I'm seeing significant rust. Its not perforated or anything but its definitely going to be a problem. I'm glad I caught this now, I'm going to try and trade it off for something else pronto before it becomes a huge money sink to my wallet.

I see tons of posts and people venting about this issue, its definitely an issue and design flaw with the escapes and I'm pretty disappointed that Ford hasnt addressed it yet. I'd imagine having the rear shock break loose at the wrong time could cause a pretty bad accident.

-DallanC

Goodluck with that.
You are talking about the company that thought it was ok to pay compensation to people killed in the pinto crashes as it was cheaper than a recall and fixing the issues.
That photo is a strange one, must be caused by salted roads, no place to trap water in that area.

Yep, vote with your feet!

we had Mazda B1600 ute when I was young fella. techtal rust proofed and all, but hooning down beach to collect mussles and flounder got plenty of salt water/mud under body..result we got a new ute as old one was poked in a year!!!!!
you would think they would sort crap like this out by now, kinda expect it with new Mahindras/hyandrys/saangyoungs and the like but Ford shouldve got it right by now.

That is one very scary picture Dallan...it's good you caught yours before it got to this stage mate.

Studying that picture, I can see a couple of obvious rust points, but the rest seems to be metal fatigue from vibration or movement of the metal. The right hand side of the pic is one rust point, and the top left hand side is another. I'm almost prepared to bet that the design and shape of the particular area does not allow enough support for the top shock mount, leading to buckling of the metal, which in turn "works" the metal causing it to crack and start the rust process. Once the rust has taken hold it further weakens the area, and with the constant movement from the shock absorber, metal fatigue sets in, causing the entire area to vibrate and ultimately fail.

Vibration can cause a lot of problems with metal. I had an aluminium rear mudguard on a two stroke MX/Scrambler split lengthways on the end and also split out a circular piece around the top guard mounts...all vibration.

Chrysler has a pretty good perforation warranty.

It's something silly now like 10 years. Would cover something like that wheel well, but does not cover surface rust (the rust has to go through the panel and make a pin hole before it's covered).

Dimitri

Escape is gone, found a used '14 Nissan Rogue AWD with 10k miles for an absolute steal I couldn't pass up. Rogue has a AWD lock which makes it more like true 4wd for off roading (which i dont care about other than enabling on snowy roads). Really happy with an average of 29.5 mpg, nearly 30% higher than the escape averaged.

-DallanC