I bought my '01 Escape XLS in February '09 with only 59,000. I now have 82k and have yet to repair anything.

However, within two months of purchase I noticed a couple of rust pimples forming on the lip of the fender of the driver's side rear wheel well. I decided I had better nip the problem, so I took it to the body shop. He told me that he would sand, treat the rust and repaint, but warned me the rust would probably reappear. Once started, it is nearly impossible to stop.

Well, it HAS returned and the edge of the fender lip has rusted all the way through and with all the salt this winter on the roads, the rust is going to town.

I returned to the body shop and asked what would be a permanent repair. He told me that replacing the quarter panel--cutting it off midway up the rear window pillars was what was recommended. He quoted me a cost of $2300 for the job! I was stunned. I am no stranger to paying for body work, but this seemed over the top! Nearly $1400 for the fender panel alone! I asked if there were after-market or recycled parts, but he said no. Obviously, I will try to get estimates at other shops, but I have always dealt with this shop and felt they were fair and did excellent work.

Does this seem excessive to you guys? Are there some alternatives other than letting rust eat it up. The rest of the body and paint is in superb shape. This is the only rust on the vehicle. I have never seen rust like this on any Escape, and around here there are hundreds on the road.

 

If you can find someone to cut and weld the fender, you can get a much smaller section replaced, which may cost a lot less. You may be able to find good parts in a junkyard, but they want to sell the largest 'piece' that is usable, rather than cut apart an otherwise usable part. Find one that has dents above the rusty area on your truck, and ask for a reduced price on the smaller part you would need. Then find someone who can cut out the old and weld in the new. Then grind smooth, fill, sand, prime, paint, blend and then clear coat. Just because it is a small area does not mean it is a small job.
If you want to tackle it yourself, get one of the 'rust killing' solutions, remove the paint all around the rusty area to clean, un-rusted surface. Apply the rust killer to the rusty spots on the fender. Make sure you get inside, too. Once it is rust free, and the rust has been treated, you can use bondo-type body filler to fill in the rusted out areas. Mix, and apply in thin layers. You can stuff screen or paper behind the opening to hold the bondo in place. Build it up to a bit higher than the surrounding metal, and sand it to blend in. Prime, paint, etc. It may come back, but its a lot cheaper than $1400...
tom

 

Thanks for taking time to reply, tomw!

I have considered going to Bondo route. That's what I did on my old Bronco, and the rust didn't come back for about three and a half years, and then I sold it.

 

I wonder how many others have this exact problem on their Escapes. I have an 03 and partner has 04, and both have considerable rust bubbling on the passenger rear quarter panel (is that the spot right above the tire?)
There are a lot of Escapes in my area, I'm going to make an effort to notice if they have the rust in this area also.
It's annoying and if it's inherent in this vehicle, Ford should fix it IMO.

 

It's not a Ford issue, any vehicle that is driven in the salt and snow will do this. Do you take care to wash out the wheel wells and under carriage after salt/brine whatever they put on the streets in your area? Just running it through a carwash does not count. If not, the stuff just sits up there...

 

Archion, when a particular model rusts out it can sometimes be a design defect. If you are old enough you may remember the ChryCo products, Aspen, Volare, and Chrysler versions of the same body/chassis. The fenders would hold mud, salt, water, rocks, whatever was thrown up on a shelf behind the headlights. American Motors had a similar problem, and the mid-60's GM vehicles rusted out at the bottom of the front fender, just rearward of the wheel well, in addition to rusting out at the rear window near the decklid hinge area. Mid 70's Pintos, Bobcats rusted out the bottoms of the doors, from the inside out. They also rusted out the rear fender wheel well edges.
All of those problems would perhaps have been 'helped' by flushing, but some were just poor design that trapped corrosive stuff.
It may be that the Triplets have a problem that is now coming to light.
There has been a lot of reported corrosion of the liftgate where the skin folds over the inner panel at the bottom. There's no direct route for corrosives to get flushed inside, but they are rusting just the same. I think that there was a problem with the sheet metal coating such that an area where the metal was held for assembly was not getting coated in all cases, leading to a corrosion problem. If you inspect the lower left corner as viewed from outside, you might find some rust where the paint, never touched by any road ammunition, has started to flake off, and there is rust underneath. If you sit on the bumper, and look up, it will be the inner edge of the liftgate at the bottom.
tom

 

On the Chrysler stuff, I thought the patina was pre-installed, you just had to get that cumbersome paint out of the way... I think the worse I have seen that was a "flaw" was on the OBS Bronco's. The tailgates would come apart on those if you looked at them cross eyed...

 

Any Ford escape 01-07 will rust on the rear wheel wells. It's a design flaw just like the 97-03 f150s rockers rust out. Washing the wells out will slow it but it will eventually do it.

 

Later Escapes are known to get rust at the bottom of the "tailgate" (rear hatch). There's a topic on an Escape forum that has 13 pages. Also, others have mentioned rust inside the doors, because there aren't any drain holes or the drain holes are mis-located. Both problems sound like design flaws. The wheel well rust was also mentioned in the topic. Some of the rust problems were covered by the warranty.