The problem has been subtle over the past few thousand miles and then, pow, it sounded like the drivetrain was going to lock up. Car started making a marble grinding sound that seemed to be coming from the left rear wheel, as I arrived home one evening. I took it to the local Ford dealer in Sonora California and described the issue of hearing the grinding sound, and then feeling the car essentially lurch after backing up and then moving forward. Initially, they could not find an issue as the noise and feeling had magically cured themselves on the slowly driven 7 mile trip to the dealers shop. Later, I insisted that they start at the left wheel and keep working inward till they found the issue because it felt like it would lockup while driving.

3 weeks later after pestering the dealer maintenance several times for a progress report, they had replaced a bunch of unrelated stuff like shock absorbers, and told me that the PTU (Power Transfer Unit) was bad. They had found significant metal in the oil that was removed. The part was quoted as about $4500 dollars not including labor. I asked what the result of driving it could be and they said that it could suddenly lockup and was a risk. I took the car after paying my significant bill. Unfortunately I had in recent prior months just put many thousands of dollars into the front end drive line and suspension.

I see rebuilt PTUs for several hundred dollars and am considering this as an alternative. Truly it seems I should not have had to do anything and the dealer should have been given factory support for new parts and Ford management should be apologizing to one more of the numerous owner/customers that are suffering from this apparently consistent mechanical issue. Are there any class action suits yet filed? Apparently, a failure of this part at the wrong time could result in a fatal accident due to drive train lock up and resulting tire lock up as well. This issue should be covered by an emergency CD (Carworthiness Directive) from the DOT as it could harm occupants and other vehicles operating near an affected Ford Escape. Please advise if I can help encourage a legal firm to push this issue with Ford.