2010 Ford Escape: windshield wiper failure

Filed Mar 13, 2015 · Visibility · 69,297 miles · MI

Tl* the contact owns a 2010 ford escape. While parking and attempting to close the hatch door, the glass shattered. The vehicle was taken to a dealer, who diagnosed that the wiper motor and the glass needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 69,297.

Filed Apr 19, 2013 · Visibility · 3,000 miles · MD

Tl* the contact owns a 2010 ford escape. The contact stated that the rear windshield wiper only exhibited two speeds settings and would not completely clear the window when driving in rainy weather. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnosis. The technician stated that the vehicle was performing as designed and no repairs were performed to the vehicle. The VIN was not available. The approximate failure mileage was 3,000.

Filed Nov 9, 2011 · Visibility · 38,521 miles · VA

Subject: rear window "exploded". I closed the tailgate, not the window, and by the time I was 2-3 steps away, the window "exploded". The car was parked for about an hour before opened and I closed the tailgate door, then the window chattered into pieces that flew in all directions. I only opened and closed the door, I did not operate or touch the window but it chattered. It was the first and only door I had opened when it happened. Glass flew in all directions in little pieces like 8 feet away on the outside and like 3 feet on the inside. The sock absorbers are sticking out of the window and are too hard to retract and can't be put back inside the car. The rear wiper asembly is hanging and the heater elements are dangling too. The outside temperature was around the 40's at around 10:40 pm. Nothing could've touched the glass at the time of closing door since I only had a charcoal bag laying flat on the cargo area with a small box of aluminum foil, a small toolbox (like 4" x 8" x 12"), also laying flat on the cargo area floor, and a small blanket.

Filed Oct 25, 2011 · Visibility · 4,500 miles · MI

Rear wiper fails to operate at constant speed, often preventing driver from seeing what is behind, which creates a safety concern. Owner's manual (page 66) states that rear wiper has a normal speed and an intermittent speed. However, dealership and ford customer care claim that two intermittent settings (one with longer delay) is the design intent. This is absurd. No other vehicle with a rear wiper which I have driven (rent frequently) does not have a constant speed operation.

Filed Aug 7, 2011 · Visibility · 45,000 miles · IN

2010 ford escape limited(hybrid) rear windshield glass exploded sometime during the day while I was working a 12 hour shift in the parking lot of my current job. Location being indianapolis, in, yesterday was in the 90 degree range of temperature. Walk out to my car about 1:30 a.m. This morning and saw glass all over the ground, looked up to my vehicle, and noticed the back window was still in one piece in the middle and glass cracked out all around the edges. No sign of an accident or damage to the exterior of my vehicle except little scratches from where the glass had busted out. Components holding the glass were hanging out of the latch including the windshield wiper component, hinges glass was attached to., and glass latch you would use to open the compartment. Being that this happened on a saturday night/sunday morning, no replacements were done as the ford dealership will not be open until monday. Have a 5 year/100k warranty on the vehicle and plan on taking it in the first thing tomorrow morning. The trunk compartment had not been used all day or even the vehicle since about 11 am earlier saturday morning. Had been sitting for close to 13 hours. Glass exploded out about 4-5 feet behind the vehicle. Very displeased.

Filed Jul 13, 2011 · 24,283 miles · WA

I drove my 2010 ford escape to the olympic penninsula from seattle on a sunny 70 degree day (taking the bremerton ferry to save on mileage) and drove one hour to my property in lilliwaup on a paved road. After unpacking the the escape I closed the back hatch as usual and it exploded blowing a million pieces of glass 10 feet in all directions. I had my daughter and 3 yr old twin grandsons with me who were standing closeby. Miraculousy none of us were hurt but we were all very scared and shaken! It was like a bomb went off in the back of the vehicle. Glass was still hanging from the window frame and the wiper and struts were dangling outside. It took me 2-3 hrs to clean up the glass from the car and the property. I duct taped the edges of the frame so any remaining glass would not blow back in when I drove home and put socks on the struts so as not to scratch the paint. Luckily it was not raining on the way home as it often does in seattle. I googled the problem when I got home and found out that there are 18 other complaints about the same problem on this vehicle. I drove my escape to bill pierre ford service center today and told my story and they are replacing for free and giving me a free rental car until the new back window comes in which they said would be 2-3 weeks! They said they just had another 2010 ford escape there with the same problem. This can be life threatening if it explodes again and hits someone in the face or body and I want to make sure that it never happens again to anyone! I want ford motor company to publicly acknowledge this problem and fix it! I also want to make sure that the new window I am getting is safe. I have my grandsons with me in this vehicle all the time.

Filed Dec 6, 2010 · Visibility · 8,100 miles · MI

Simply closed the rear hatch of our 2010 ford escape and the back glass exploded in our faces. There was nothing in vehicle that hit or contacted the glass whatsoever. There was no extra effort used to close hatch. Simply closed it as we always do (not slammed) and the glass blew up all over us, our groceries and the interior of vehicle. We went to dealership and talked to service manager who replied "it was because you live on a dirt road". I said, "so if you live on a dirt road you should avoid purchasing a ford escape?". He had no reply to this only said ford would not cover the damage. There are thousands of escapes with this problem online and nothing seems to be getting done about it. We had to replace the window at the cost of almost $500.00 with no guarantee it wont happen again. Looks to me like the weight of the rear wiper motor over the latch is too much weight and causes stress on window when closing.

Filed Sep 12, 2010 · Visibility · 12,999 miles · MD

I rented a 2010 ford escape SUV from dollar rental car in san jose. On 9/11/10 at about 6:00 am at my hotel I went to load my bags to return to the airport. By accident I unlocked the rear liftgate glass with the remote. (I did not think to re-lock it before opening the liftgate.) after my bags were loaded, I closed the liftgate firmly (not softly, but not like king kong); upon impact of closing, the rear liftgate glass exploded, showering glass all over the pavement and in the back / on my luggage. There had been no contact with luggage in the back / my bags were low-profile (I have photos to prove; also, I have a 3rd-party witness who was loading his car several spaces away.) the ambient air temperature was around 60 degrees; the weather was fair / clear. The car had not been entered since the day before; I did not ever use the rear defrost or wiper during the course of my three-day rental. When reviewing the damage, I noted how heavy the rear wiper motor is that is attached directly to the glass. The suspension rods for holding the liftgate glass in the raised position must be very strong to support that motor, especially with the shallow angles involved. (others reporting exploding rear windows explain that the compressed gas inside these devices causes the explosive nature of the failure.) presumably this failure occurred because the glass was not locked, as it had not exploded during previous closings of the liftgate. There is no warning in the owners manual to be sure that the glass is locked before closing the liftgate. Possibly there was an invisible defect in the glass that contributed to the failure. I was "booby-trapped" by this car. In my 53 years I have never damaged a vehicle simply by opening and closing its doors. There were no other factors than those described above; I have photos, a 3rd party witness, and will be happy to testify these events in court. Updated 01/06/11 *bf updated ivoq 01/07/11*tr updated 05/12/11 *bf updated 12/29/11