@LawrenceBrackett
I feel bad for you. That car is no longer safe to drive.
What did Ford have to say to you?
Guys, it has nothing to do with the hybrid, Both the hybrids and non hybrids both rust there, its a known problem on the escape. I was looking at one at the used car lot and found that there was undercoating sprayed in the rr wheel well. My knife showed that there was a hole behind the cover up undercoating. It was a 2005. The owner claimed he knew nothing of it, even though it was painfully obvious that they just sprayed undercoating, I could smell it from 5 feet away…
Just got home from the dealership and our examination of my right rear well and the exposed insulation. It is exactly as described in the question above. The strut was hanging from the piece of metal that was separated. There was no staining on the insulation, which we were concerned about… wondering if it was a hybrid battery problem, which we don’t believe it to be. The estimate of $2600 to repair it from the dealership. I appreciate all the comments here. Any follow up from those who have had repair work, send them! Thanks.
I suspect Ford is dealing with this on a case by case basis
I suspect Ford is telling everybody with this problem that it is the first time they have ever seen it.
I suspect Ford is denying assistance to anybody outside of the “rust-through warranty period”
I suspect Ford has decided it’s cheaper to keep a low profile than to do the right thing.
Good luck to all who have this problem
Back when AMC, I think it was at the time a guy who worked there told me a story. After the fenders were stamped they were stacked, in a spot where the roof leaked. Water would collect in what would be the area above the wheel and rust. The fenders were sent off eventually to be painted, but no attempt to remove the rust before priming and painting. It was his assessment this was the reason for the cars turning into rust buckets. You can’t make this stuff up!
It’s tough to tell by the picture where it started but it could just as easily be caused by road salt or poor drainage from water thrown up by the tires. Poor priming and paint in these areas accelerates rust too. But, unlike fender, door, running boards and rear quarter panel rust, this is in a visible area. If you suspect anything, just slap the old wheel bearing grease to the area on both sides, once a year. That is you want o buy another Ford Escape. It’s pretty cheap and very effective. In my experience , as limited as it is, Some manufacturers seem to go out of their way to disregard easy body rust fixes. Friend’s early 2000’s Ford truck on it’s second set of doors, each had no drain holes. This has nothing to do with Chinese steel. It’s total incompetence or excellent engineering which promotes replacement sales, which ever way you want to look at it.
If you get the real truth from Ford or others, they would have to say, “it’s part of a long term plan”. 10 years ago when my 4Runner was new, I installed a rear bumper guard using the crappy steel bolts that came with it. I knew eventually it would have to be replaced, as they all do. I just kept a coat of grease on the bolts and nuts ( usually when I though of it but not more them twice more in the ten years). This year I installed a new one and the old hardware came off like they were brand new. So, grease works ! So, when I saw it start before I knew how to control it, I would just just stare at it each year and hope it went away. Now, we grease it.
Undercoat spray just makes you feel better.
This is all very disappointing, because the Escape is supposed to be a pretty good car
I suppose you have to live in the southwest, and far away from any coastline, for that statement to be true
@db4690
It doesn’t have to be and you can still buy an Escape if you like if you live anywhere. Depending on where you live and regardless of what kind of car you own, many have their own particular poorly engineered areas where rust can occur. You can keep your cheapest Chinese steel that has already started to rust from rusting anymore.
Ford just announced a recall on certain models due to wheel well rust. You need to check with Ford to see what years and models are involved but they are fixing them with new wheel wells and relocated mounts evidently. It was on the news.
OP is out of luck
The recall is for 2005-2011 Crown Vic, Grand Marquis and Town Car
We also have a 2005 Escape, not Hybrid but this problem affects both models. The rust is that bad to the rear passenger wheel well the shocker is no longer attached to anything and I had to take it off to prevent further damage.
We called Fords help line, they could not help and told us to go to the dealer. The dealer had not seen this problem on the Escape but did say that Ford had recalled the Freestar vans for the same problem.
They looked up the part which is currently on back order with no expected delivery date.
We wrote to Ford on 10th Feb 2014 certified mail but so far no reply.
There is a facebook page about this problem with almost daily new additions. There is also a couple of other blogs on Ford Forums etc.
PLEASE WRITE TO NHTSA.GOV AND LEAVE YOUR COMPLAINT. The more reports they get the more likely they will make Ford do something.
Thanks
Once the strut towers rot out to this extent, the vehicle is no longer safe to drive and not repairable for anything close to a cost-effective number… if at all. If it were me, I’d junk this and look for another make for a replacement. My car is a 2005 (the OP’s is a year younger), with over twice the OP’s mileage (209,000) all accumulated in NH, and my vehicle isn’t rotted out like this. Mine isn’t rotted at all. If it were, I’d be highly reluctant to replace it with another of the same brand.
In many vehicles that do not affect a significant number of people, companies can and do just flat refuse to help individuals rectify their poor design. Corporate decisions to do such things are justified by the inability of the individual to break through corporate law liability protections. In the same light, class action suits are less feared because of the lower numbers of sales. Now, if all Fusions suffered the same problem. Ford might react differently. Your alternative is to make rust prevention as a maintence requirement on the part of the owner and not depend on the manufacturer to solve the problem. Alter all, this is a problem that increases sales and profit for the entire auto industry in general. As much as they have pulled the wool over our eyes by using more rust preventative measures, so called, cars still rust at alarming rates. We must get off out collective astoroids and practice rust prevent our selves.
Every time I purchase a new car, I go to a local body shop for advice from the technicians on the best ways to access panels that are prone to rust that are specific to my car. I have been doing this for 35 years and have never had a car or truck rust anywhere I choose to treat.
“The dealer had not seen this problem on the Escape . . .”
I think the dealer is lying
If I found a lot of stuff on the internet about rusted out Escape wheel wells, you can be DAMN sure the dealer is well aware of this problem
Is the battery on the right side. I seem to remember a post about the right side corroding on Escape Hybrids.