The car was parked under a carport with no one around. Me & my son in law were sitting in my back yard talking and then boom a loud explosion and we looked to the street first, then my son in law says your back window on the escape is gone...no reason 76 degrees it just blew. What a mess some glass was 15' from the car. 50% was in the car & 50% was all over. I have taped clear plastic on it and will call the dealer to see if its a recall tomorrow. I will let you know the outcome but from some of the complaints i've read I may need to go in my pocket.I've heard that some plastic parts brake causing the window shocks to shatter this glass. There are plenty of working parts on this window & Ford should address these issues....

I never thought about checking the internet regarding this issue after it happened. I started to back up car and bam the window exploded. Scared me and my passenger to death. It was cold out but the car had only sat for about an hour since I was last driving it. By the looks of all the complaints this has been going on for a number of years with the Escape. Of course, never happened while the extended warranty was in existence! The dealer at first said oh we have never seen anything like this. But when I took it to actually get fixed the person stated he thought he knew what happened. The 2 struts that are attached to the rear door to keep it open are metal but what holds them in place are pieces of plastic. The plastic broke causing the strut to swing and hit the glass. People have spectulated because of the cold that is why the window broke. I had never even turned on my defrost yet and the car has went thru numerous winters without a problem. His explanation makes more sense to me. So why hasn't Ford offered a recall...$386.00 to fix

So, check this out. It was about 0515 Sunday morning and I was awakened by my car alarm. I got up and looked out the window and didn't see anything or anybody & and my motion activated security light (over my driveway) was not activated.

I got dressed, went outside to find that my rear window was shattered. Naturally I called the police (thinking it was a break in) and when the officer arrived and pointed his bright lights onto the car & we could see the left and right window shocks poking through the shattered window.

I have after market window tint that remains in place and held the window together so we can see there was no clear evidence of a blunt force. The officer told me "I'm no expert but it looks like this may have simply exploded." He told me that he heard of this happening and really cant see where an impact was made. So, once the report was made, and he left, I Googled "exploding windows" and found this site.

So, yah! I was shocked to read all these similar complaints. I wonder if Ford has issued or will issue a recall or will stand behind its product. Clearly there is a pattern here.

Anyway, I'm pretty bummed out seeing it is early Sunday morning and I can't get it fixed till Monday. Good luck everyone. I will come back and update this post once I figure out what I am going to do about the repair (cost, insurance, etc.)

Happy Holidays! SE Michigan Here

Air temp 32 degrees, lightly snowing. Had defroster on only a couple of minutes - within one minute of turning defroster off while sitting at a red light I heard a VERY LOUD POP (like someone shot a gun) followed immediately by the sound of glass breaking. When I looked in the rearview mirror I saw the defroster wires hanging, the windshield wiper all cockeyed. The fact that this problem has existed on the Escape for several years is unacceptable and Ford should be held responsible for this defect. I missed a day of work, it cost $369 to replace the rear windshield and now the wiper motor is making a strange sound.

When I called Ford Customer Relations they told me that there is no recall on the Escape Tailgate Windshield. Well THERE SHOULD BE RECALL - before somebody is seriously injured by one of these exploding windshields. Apparently the Explorers have the same problem (happened to my boss) and Ford has done and will continue to do nothing about this defect?

Customer Relations told me to have the vehicle inspected by a Ford Dealer.

Who would have ever imagined EXPLODING WINDSHIELDS? We are all stunned and speechless yet FORD acts as though the problem doesn't even exist.

I don't get it !!! I'm ready to sell this vehicle because I am afraid of it happening again.

I have now lived through the second explosion of my rear window on my 2004 Ford Escape. This time the truck was sitting in a parking lot at my place of work. A co-worker asked me why I had no rear window!!!!! Needless to say it was 20 below and snowing at the time and there was glass everywhere. I guess it would not have been so bad if I had not already gone through this once before in 2005. Ford Motor Company said this is my responsibility as I am out of warranty and they have no recalls or bulletins on file. This is a safety issue and inferior workmanship and needs to be addressed. I am now afraid to drive my truck which I love very much. The dealership was wonderful but Ford correspondence leaves a lot to be desired. They could care less! But did give me a free oil change...big whoop! I am not done with this yet.