2005 Escape Hybrid passenger rear shock mount rusted through. Car does have 340000 miles but is in excellent shape...all highway miles driven in central VA, in some snow but not like in the north. My local Ford dealership will not perform the work, I found a shop that might be able to perform the work. The wheel wells are heavily undercoated and it appears to have rusted from the inside out, very cheap and thin panels. Ford has recalled 2001-2004 only. I have called Ford and filed a complaint. I have always purchase Ford cars and am now going to look at other manufactures.

Fords cars owned and not the compete list, my wife had several Fords before we were married: 1965 Mustang 1969 Mustang 1986 Bronco 1992 Taurus 1996 Thunderbird 2005 Escape Hybrid 2010 Taurus Limited 2013 Edge Limited

While driving my 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid with 157,593 miles, I heard a noise that I thought was a front bearing. After investigating, I discovered the rear passenger side wheel well was completely rusted through. The noise was the result of the upper shock support banging into the remaining wheel well metal. This was a surprise since the rest of the body does not have visible rust which is great considering that the Escape has spent its entire life in Chicago. Upon investigation, I learned that other 2005 Escape owners are experiencing the same rust issue. This leads me to believe that the Ford supplier who supplied the inner wheel well used inferior metal that rapidly corrodes leading to structural failure of the rear shock support. It is surprising that Ford has not issued a recall to address this major problem considering that current 2005 Escape owners cannot ethically sell their used car without fixing this structural problem . As a solution, I spent Saturday afternoon welding in metal patches to support the shock which eliminated the noise. I am safely back on the road. Estimated cost $25.

Over the past month or two I would hear an occasional knock in the back cargo area near the rear left wheel in my 2005 Ford Hybrid. I didn't think much of it especially since I had my vehicle serviced with a full point inspection at the Ford Dealership just two weeks ago and nothing was mentioned to me about the rear shock or the wheel well. This last week the noise became loud and constant when I drove it so I looked under the rear passenger wheel well and was shocked to find the top where the shock connects to be completely rusted out and the insulation was showing. The driver's side rear well on the other side appeared solid and intact.

I did a Google search and found out this rusting out in a Ford Escape is not an anomaly, but apparently a widely experienced problem. And from what I could find it is usually the passenger side that rusts out. I am going to get an estimate from a welding shop later this week to see if they can repair it and if so what the cost will be.

I've owned my Escape for 8 years. It only has 89K miles on it and it has been garaged for all of that time. As my wife says "I didn't know cars rusted out anymore". Apparently Ford Escapes still do.

Update from Mar 28, 2014: I call our local Tom Cherry Muffler shop and they recommended a local welder fabricator to fix the problem. I contacted the welder and after looking at the vehicle he offered to rebuild and undercoat the wheel well for $250. He said he had done the same work on another Ford Escape. He can't get my vehicle in for two weeks, but if it comes out as promised I will be quite delighted.

While the vehicle was under warranty, it was in for several problems on the right rear side and, nothing was ever mentioned about the problem of the under body rusting out at the right/rear shock mount . This makes my vehicle unsafe. Since this has happened I've found several complaints, with different degrees of severity, on the same issue. Since I've had my problem I've notified another 2005 escape hybrid owner of it, just to warn them. When they looked under their vehicle, they found that the left rear under body had been very lightly undercoated but the right side had been extremely undercoated. This makes me realize that Ford Motor Company has always known of this problem. I'm disgusted and currently without a usable vehicle. Please let me know of a fix and what it's going to cost me. Also let me know if there are any current lawsuits regarding the above said issue.