Fifth Occurrence

Hot day here in Southern California. My A/C is not working so I rolled down all 4 windows before using the vehicle to let the heat out. Only 3 of the 4 windows will roll back up.

The 4th window, Rear Passenger Side (RH) would not roll back up. Am very familiar with the issue as I have replaced window regulators on this vehilce 4 times already... Rear Passenger RH Side 2 times, Rear Passenger LH Side 1 time, Front Passenger RH Side 1 time.

I ordered the part immediately online from FordPartsGiant.com price was $76.75 + $15.27 Shipping for a total of $92.02. The dealer wanted $126 + $10 tax for the part. Vehicle is out of warranty, so I am not even bothering to get a repair estimate, I'll fix it myself (AGAIN).

I already know how to replace it as I've replaced 3 of these myself. The failure mode is such that the window stays down, so I really have no choice but to repair it.

Part is of sh*t quality and poor design. Still have this vehicle, but when it finally eats sh*t and dies, I will buy something other than Ford. Capital F capital U capital C capital K Ford Motor Company!

Update from Aug 26, 2020: actually this is the 6th occurrence. I had replaced the regulator on the same window, Rear Passenger RH Side in July 2017, but never posted a complaint here. I am using this to document the occurrences for others, but also for myself as a historical record.

I have never had a car where the window mechanism stopped working. A passenger in my car slammed the passenger door a couple of times and then the window glass started falling down. I can still hear the motor working but window will not roll up. My mechanic says it's the regulator. Cost estimate is $320. After googling this problem it seems like it's a very common problem with this make and model due to a cheap plastic part in the regulator. I was going to attempt to fix it myself but after YouTubing it, just taking off the door panel seems like a real pain in the ass. Very annoying issue. I've owned many cars, many of them with well over 100,000 miles and have never had this issue.

Fourth Occurrence - Aug 7, 2015

This is starting to get old!! I've posted about this issue before (scroll up and look for Jake A. Post #11) and just today this happened to me AGAIN!! 4th F***KING time. This time it is the Front Passenger (RH side) window and just like the other times the regulator failed, the window slid down and cannot be rolled up.

Just like I did back in March 2014, I am going to order the part which is around $75 - $100 (depending on the shipping/tax costs) and install it myself. It is easy enough to get the door panel off and then just tape the window up, detach it from the regulator assembly.

3 bolts are used to mount regulator motor to the door and one bolt mounts the regulator slide/rail assembly to the door. 2 screws mount the window to the regulator slide assembly via plastic clips.

I am very familiar with this repair. It is a very easy repair which the dealer will gladly overcharge you. But it is frustrating to have constantly replace a regulator almost once a year! All because because Ford sucks and decided to cheap out on the design to shave off a few pennies per part (which adds up to millions in savings for them). Avoid this year/model if you can...in fact I'd avoid Ford altogether in the future.

For the D.I.Y. types out there, there's a how to on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmTXMrijJro (although for a 2007 model but I've had the door panel off on my 2008 before and it is very similar).

After an extra long day at work, I came outside to find out that my wife's Ford Escape passenger rear window was down. Initially, I thought that I accidentally rolled it down and left it open the whole day and was worried was worried because I have left some valuable in the car. I knew that anyone walking by could have easily grabbed my bags and to top everything off, it was abut to rain. I tried to roll my window up, but I have no luck, I could hear the motor turning but the window would not go up or down. As soon as I got home, I started looking online and I was infuriated to see how many people are having the same issue.

My wife’s 2008 Ford Escapes rear passenger window regulator is a piece of sh*t. It costs about 75 dollars to replace, but I should not have to replace it because the issue is on how poorly the part was designed and made. No other car brand has problems like this. I will never buy a Ford again.

Over the past three years, we have replaced all four window regulators in our 08 Ford Escape. The fourth regulator went out just last month and we had it replaced. Now, my wife just called from work, and said that the driver's side window fell down inside the door panel and would not come back up, which indicates that the regulator is bad once again. This is the first regulator that was replaced a little over three years ago.

I called our local Ford dealer, where all four repairs were done, to see if there was any warranty on the windows, and I was informed that there might be something if it was replaced since 2013, but unfortunately since this particular window regulator was replaced the year before (2012), we have no warranty.

To top it off, the dealer's service guy said that he was only taking appointments from a week from now, so if we opted for the dealer, we would have to drive around Phoenix with the window down for a week with the outside temperature ranging in the 105 to 110 range. Consequently, I am taking the car to our local mechanic who is by far more dependable than the Ford dealer and letting him take a look at it. He, by the way, can see me tomorrow morning, first thing.

Rear window slid down and would not roll up. I could hear the motor turning when pressing the power window switch and also heard some clicking sounds.

This is actually the third time this has happened since I bought the vehicle new in Nov 2008.

First occurrence - April 2011

Went outside in the morning and noticed the Rear Passenger Window was down. I didn't recall leaving it down the night before. Went to roll it up, but it wouldn't roll up. Took it to Ford Dealer where I bought it and they had to replace the regulator assembly. Luckily, it was under factory warranty, so there was no charge.

Second Occurrence - Oct 2012

Parked at a Starbucks and went in to get a coffee. Came back to the car and noticed the the Rear Driver Side Window was down. Again, didn't recall leaving the window rolled down (I practically never roll down the rear windows in this vehicle). I tried to roll it up and it wouldn't roll up, but I could hear the motor turning. I took it to the Ford Dealer where I bought it and and they had to replace the regulator assembly. This time the Factory Warranty was expired, but I had an Extended Warranty, so it only cost me a $100 deductible (total BS).

Third Occurrence - March 2014

I parked the car at a friends house in late March 2014, opened the rear passenger door and got my backpack out of the rear passenger back seat. I then closed the rear passenger door (No, I did not slam the door) and the window slid down and would not roll back up. Seems like the power window motor works, I can hear it trying to turn, but then I hear clicking and the window stays down. Upon inspection, the plastic clip which holds the steel cable taught and in place, and the steel cable itself have broken. Solution? Yup need another regulator.

Starting to wish I never bought this vehicle as, in addition to this issue, there are other unrelated issues/annoyances I have with this vehicle.

The dealer says that on hot days in a warm region, the plastic parts heat up and the cable tension causes the plastic to break, and that this is a common problem with ALL cars. The vehicle is now totally out of warranty and they want to charge approx $400 to fix...ummm...no thanks...EF THAT!!!

Again I call BS! I know lots of people and family members who drive 10yr old Toyota's and this has never happened to them. I think it's just Ford being overly cheap on their Design/Engineering/manufacturing. BTW...I've owned Ford vehicles most of my life and they always tend to have stupid annoying problems like this. I'm fed up with Ford, so this Escape is the LAST Ford I will ever own.

The Fix - This time I'm buying the part online which is around $75 - $100 and then replacing it myself. The install is easy, there's a how to on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmTXMrijJro (although for a 2007 model but I've had the door panel off on my 2008 before and it is very similar). When I get the part, I might make a video so that those with the 2008 - 2012 Model Escapes can see how to replace this part on those models.

I had just taken my daughter out of the car, closed the rear passenger door, and the window fell down into the door. I've experienced this problem before... too many times with other cars, which is why my first car out of college had hand crank windows! I used my GPS suction cup to hold the window up from the inside while I got the part I needed from the Ford dealer. It was a fairly easy fix for me, cost $97 after taxes for a new window regulator part that included the motor, cables, and metal window track. The window attaches to the rail guide with two simple 10mm socket screws. I expect to be replacing all of the other window regulators as they break, but at least I have a simple fix to use a suction cup to hold it up in place while I get the parts I need. After seeing the parts, it would be impossible for you to replace only the plastic guide on the metal track that failed. You'd need some way of keeping tension on the cables at the same time while putting it all together... not an easy thing to accomplish. I can't really complain much about this because after 86,000 miles, this is the most annoying thing I've had to deal with so far, including last year a belt pully bearing that went bad, and 4 years ago, a transmission cooler recall fix that was free.

After inspecting the plastic part that broke, Ford definitely made a slight design error and didn't provide enough reinforcement for the plastic area that holds the cable ends in place. All they'd need to do is add a couple more mm of material there and it would last to 200,000 miles easy. This is just a gut SWAG from an experienced engineer:)

I purchased this car with 34,000 miles on it. One day I took it to get the oil changed & noticed when I picked it up the window was "down". When I tried to put the window up, it wouldn't go up. As soon as I got home, my fiance' realized that the window regulator had "malfunctioned". He took apart the entire door to get to the tiny little piece of plastic (regulator) that had broke. Fortunately he was able to order the part (same piece of plastic) for $90.00 & do the repair himself. We complained to the Ford dealer where we purchased the part; asking why they would sell the same piece of cheap plastic if it obviously breaks so easy. They had no explanation. Since August of 2011, we have replaced (as of last night) three CHEAP PLASTIC "REGULATORS"......Really??? Who dreams up this stuff???? I'm in the wrong business!!!!!

Alright, a few months ago, my rear passengers side windows regulator broke and the window wouldn't roll up or down. It was an annoying problem, but an easy(if expensive) Fix.

No problem... until a few weeks ago, several months after the previous fix. First, the passenger side front window broke. The very next day, not even 24 hours later, the rear drivers window did the same, thing, and then finally, not 24 hours after that, the front drivers side window did the same thing. So, within three days of each other, 3 of my windows fell and I can't get them to roll up or down, the three windows that I didn't get fixed.

What kind of messed up build job is that? Its utterly ridiculous that now all 4 windows broke, and the last one was the one on the door I use the most, so I doubt its user error.

Daughter parked her car in our driveway last night, got up this morning and found the rear passenger window down and not working. We had just fixed the exact same problem 2 months earlier for the front driver's side window. As before - had the window just stopped working, we could just live with it. In Texas it's too hot to roll the windows down anyway. But the window was stuck open, could not be manually closed, and had to be fixed immediately. Once again, it's a a major inconvenience given that my 20-year-old daughter needs the car for work. Spent $425 - a week's paycheck for my daughter. That means she'll spend 2 of her 12 weeks of pay from her summer job on car repairs on a relatively new and low mileage car. Expecting the other two windows to fail soon. As I said in my previous rant -- likely my daughter will buy half a dozen new cars in her lifetime - and she will be buying Toyota from here on out!

Update from Aug 7, 2012: Third window failed - three of the four have now failed, with repairs at $300-$400 per window. Each instance creates a problem, because it has to be fixed immediately - she can't park at work with a window down.

This fix is the second within a month. While visiting friends in another state, my driver's side window failed and slid down into the door. Consequently, I had to pull it up with needle nose pliers and tape it with duct tape to hold it up during the drive home to Arizona. I got it fixed the following week at the Ford dealership to the tune of $400. Two weeks later, the left rear window failed also. I suspect that rotator motors, which had to be replaced in both cases is an issue for this year model.