The front subframe rusted out, allowing the passenger side wheel to swing wildly, with damage to components in the vicinity.

The only good news is that the vehicle was quite slow at the time - could have be very bad at highway speed.

This seems to be the same issue as the earlier recall on the 2001-04 first generation Escape/Tribute. Ford corporate [first tier customer support] was unhelpful, but did take a report, including the VIN. New subframes do not seem to be available, but used ones seem plentiful on a web search. I have not made a decision about repair / scrap as I have not gotten estimates in dollars or clock hours for the cost of the repair.

Repair is likely to be less expensive than purchasing a slightly newer equivalent vehicle.

Awful issue, but when you've got the right parts to fix it, it's not that bad. My mechanic told me they've done a few using the reinforcement bracket kit from BSS auto parts. I ordered mine from them online for under $100 and ended up installing it in less than an hour in my driveway, nothing hard. Nicely designed brackets that fit like a glove. No cutting, no welding.

I'm glad I found something like this. Otherwise because of how the rust is spreading on the body, it makes it impossible to weld in a new fender - that's what I've been told. Some people ended up paying hundreds and hundreds on an extensive welding job... they get a bad surprise when the guy starts to seek for healthy metal for welding and takes the whole day for the job... welding the fender is not the way to fix it. Instead bolt this bracket on the frame, it's cheaper on parts and labour, and truly solid. My two cents for what it's worth...

I want to start off by stating that I loved this vehicle! Many winters it drove me by bigger 4x4's that were stuck in the snow. It would literally go anywhere! The problem comes with the quality of the steel used in it. First the emergency brake system all rotted away, making it impossible to engage. I could live with that, but eventually there developed a knocking noise under the back. Upon examination it was determined that the mounts that held the rear end in place had rusted away allowing it to shift and the driveshaft to hit the underneath of the car at certain speeds. While this was horrible to think about just loosing a driveshaft driving down the road the bad part was the fuel tank was located directly above where it was hitting and had a hole starting to come in it. I was able to get stabilizers welded onto the rear end to fix this but unfortunately the rest of the under body is rusted away.

Just bought this used Ford Escape 2005. Bought it from a dealer that has REALLY good reviews on line. Bought if FIRST because it just felt good. The 10 year old car was one owner, garage kept, no accidents, lots of certified annual service records and got great reviews on car fax. The price was even high comparatively because of the low 54k miles. We liked it, it rides great, feels great, looks great. We took it to our mechanic for a once over, even though we had finalized the deal.

Our mechanic told us to take it back and get our money back. Said there was a bad bushing and control arm and a rusted out subframe. He never put the car up on the lift. He simply slid under it and did not like what he saw. We were shocked. We took it back to the dealer. Again, we really like the car. The dealer put it on the lift and looked at it and does not agree with our mechanic. He is adamant this is not a rusted subframe. Is there some surface rust? sure there is. But he claims there is no rust that is a problem. We are sort of stuck on the one hand, because we bought the car BEFORE we had someone we trust check it out.

So, we are left pretty much holding the bag so to speak. We are going to take it back to our mechanic to have him give it a second look. In the interim, I slid under the car to take a look myself. I'm not a mechanic, but to me, the car looks pretty damn good for being a 10 year old vehicle. There are some signs of rust and I'm sure, at some point, some things will have to be replaced. But I took a screw driver under the car with me and everywhere I found rust I banged and scraped and pushed and hammered, and everything really seems solid. I believe we have a decent car. What do we do now?