2004 Ford Escape. Consumer writes in regards to lower control arm rust recall notice. The consumer stated while driving on the interstate, he heard a loud noise from the rear wheel well on the passenger side. He pulled over, and discovered the shock was hanging down. He was unable to pull it of. So he drove back home, and upon further examination, he discovered there was no fender left on the shock. Also, the trunk lid was rusting. The consumer he was able to remove the key from the ignition while the gear was in drive. The consumer stated he pulled into the driveway, shut the engine off and placed the keys in the console. He exited the vehicle to remove items from the back seat. Soon after, the vehicle started to roll backwards. Updated 06/01/16.

- Deerfield, OH, USA

I was driving down the road and hit a pothole, after hitting the pothole there was a loud clunking noise coming from the rear. After inspection the entire shock mount had rusted away from the body and became separated. It was free to jolt around and cause further damage. Not safe to be driving this vehicle now.

- Hopkins, MN, USA

Steering failure.

- Rapid River, MI, USA

The contact owns a 2004 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving 25 mph, the steering wheel seized and the brake and accelerator pedals would not respond to pressure. The contact was able to move the steering wheel after much effort but shortly after, crashed into a utility box. The contact was not injured. A police report was not filed. The vehicle was destroyed. The failure and current mileage was 90,000. Updated 04/22/14 MA when the consumers daughter crashed into the electrical box, it caught on fire, and spread to the vehicle. Updated 04/24/14

- Del Mar, CA, USA

On two separate occasions while driving no more than 30 mph on city streets, I have lost power steering on my 2004 Ford Escape XLT. The first time this happened was 8/11/05 while I was 207 miles away from home on vacation. I made a right hand turn after stopping at a traffic light and all of a sudden I lost power steering. It was very hard to steer, but I managed to ease to the right hand lane. Fortunately, no one was behind me. Once to the side of the street, I placed car in park and started trying to turn the steering left & right until I felt the power steering return. I stopped at a Ford dealership to check the vehicle before the trip home. Dealer only looked under hood to check fluid and look for any obvious problem. No problem was found, and we made it home safely. The second occurrence was 9/6/05, same situation. I lost power steering after making a right hand turn after stopping at a stop sign. I managed to move to the side of street again, placed car in park, tried turning steering wheel until I felt power steering return. Drove to local dealership where they once again found no problem after checking wiring, pressure pump, power steering rack, & module. Nothing was replaced. I voiced my concern to service advisor that this was 2nd occasion and fortunately I wasn't on freeway or no one was behind me these two times. On both occasions I had my children in the car. We may not be so lucky the next time. I also asked service advisor about just replacing parts since can't find a problem, and he advised Ford doesn't allow them to do that since they didn't find a problem. This is the 2nd Ford/Mercury vehicle that has caused me nothing but problems, and I do not feel that we are safe in this vehicle.

- Folsom, CA, USA

I purchased a 2004 Ford Escape XLT on 12/8/03. On the way home from the dealership, the vehicle pulled strongly to the left, and an appointment was made to have the vehicle serviced. On 12/17/03, the left rear power window had an electrical short and would not close. It went into service and the electrical short was repaired. On 12/19/03 we brought the vehicle in to service for the pulling to the left. They tried an alignment on the vehicle, and it still pulled to the left. The service people told my wife to drive it for 400-600 miles to see if it corrects itself. On 12/22/03 I brought the vehicle back to the Ford service department to have them correct the problem; as I did not feel that continuing to drive it was a proper solution. The service tried the alignment again, tried to rotate the tires, changing the tires, but nothing corrected the vehicle from pulling to the left. They contacted Ford who advised that the trouble may be the steering rack. On 12/26/2003 I brought the vehicle back to the service dept, and they put on a new steering rack, but the vehicle still pulled to the left. The informed that they have no idea why the new 2004 with now 600 miles on it still pulls to the left. The informed that they will have a Ford engineer come out to see the vehicle to see if they can figure out what the issue is. I have spoken to the Ford salesman that sold me the vehicle and the sales manager on my concerns on buying a new vehicle with these issues right from the start. They informed that there is nothing they can do until the Ford engineer comes to check the vehicle out. Our concern now is that the vehicle pulls to the left for unknown reason that the Ford service experts cannot figure out, these problems are occuring when the vehicle had only 42 miles on it.

- West Haven, CT, USA