I've got an '02 Eddie Bauer that's developed a serious problem with the upper glass portion of the lift gate. This is the one that now has a recall due to hinge failure. Mine has gotten harder to latch recently and even opened itself a couple of times before we were made aware of the hinge issue. The local dealership is handling that issue next week. But that's not the really irritating problem that I'm having.
About one month ago, I notice a small horizontal crack about 1" long near the top center of the painted section of the upper liftgate. This at first surprised me as I thought this panel was metal and discovered that it's plastic. This crack rapidly worsened in a matter of days and then developed into a complete vertical split in the panel. There is a gap of approximately
1/16", like the whole thing shrunk. Really getting frustrated over this development and this being a garage-kept vehicle, I took it by my dealership this morning. The service manager looked at it and asked me if it was still under the 3/36 warranty. I said it wasn't but was under a 100k powertrain warranty. I've got about 50k on it but it's less than 2.5 years old. He said it wouldn't be covered by the factory otherwise and sent me to their body shop foreman to let him look at it. He took one look at it and said that he'd seen this before on several '02 Explorer's lately. It seems that there is an incompatibility issue concerning window washer fluid solvents and the paint/plastic/epoxy compound that the panel is made from, but wouldn't be covered other than by the 3/36 warranty. I told him that was ridiculous as the car was less than 2.5 years old and clearly a factory design defect. I've went round and round with the dealership and they said my only recourse is to approach the Ford regional manager. Right now, I'm furious and think this whole deal is absurd. Has anyone else ran into this problem and what have you been able to do about it?