I bought this 1999 Escort from a dealer. It was used with around 20K miles on it. I made the dealer change out the tie rod ends before I took it because I noticed they were bad. The car now has 54K miles on it and the passenger side tie rod end failed causing the car to skid and turn into oncoming traffic. Due to a quick-reacting oncoming driver, no accident happened. However, this could have led to a serious accident and possibly deaths. The tow truck driver said that whenever he gets a call for a failed tie-rod, its an Escort. This was definitely changed too. I checked it myself after the dealer did them. Therefore the tie rod ends only lasted for around 35K miles before extreme failure occurred. Something has to be wrong with the steering/suspension design in this model car. Every other car I have owned I've driven into the 100K mile range and still no problems with the tie rod ends. What is the deal here?

- Mamaroneck, NY, USA

I took my 99 Ford Escort to a auto repair shop to fix one front tie rod (another frequent problem on Escort) and the mechanic told me that one of the spings in the rear suspension was broken. I did not notice anything different when driving and I don't know for how long it has been broken. The mechanic also said that this is a frequent problem with Escort, and advised me to check the existance of a recall with a Ford dealer. To this date (Jan 2006) there is no recall. He also advised me to keep the receipt of the repair ($ 750 to replace the springs and struts on both sides) in case a recall will be made in the future.

- Vernon, CT, USA

The vehicle was a 1999 Ford Escort. Both of the back coil springs were broken. Consumer found this out when getting the brakes inspected. The front brake rotors, tie rods and the rear struts including the coil springs needed to be replaced. The inspection took place on 7-8-05. Consumer took the vehicle to a Ford dealer to have all the parts replaced. They were replaced on 7-20/22-05. Vehicle was shaking before hand. Consumer knew that Ford company issued a recall issue concerning this problem with some of their other models. Updated 11/02/2005.

- Brooklyn, MI, USA

During a state inspection, the consumer was informed by the state officer that the front end driver/passenger side tie rods were defective and needed to be replaced. The upper left front tie rods were defective in 2002 and 2003. The consumers concern is that the lower right and left tie rod may go soon.

- Danvers, MA, USA

Front outer tie rod attached to wheel assembly failed twice. First time failure was found during maintenance, next time failed while going around Ram, interrupting steering.

- St. Paul, MN, USA