Bought a 2020 escape last year and the door hinge arm on the driver door broke this week. 57k miles no wrecks while I’ve owned it, bought CPO from a ford dealer with the optional ford extra warranty.

the dealer tells me that this is a known issue and they see it a lot on this model but because there’s no recall it is not covered and since it’s a weld they need to replace the door. He said it would cost about $5000.

any advise on this? First Ford should cover it, second, $5000 seems like 3x what this should cost. If he had said $1500 I would have actually just done it. This is some insane gouging to fix Fords mistake.

 

You might consider doing the following,

Call a few body shops and get an idea of how much just the door shell costs.
There could be a lot of labor involved switching all the interior components , like power window mechanism, power door lock parts any other cosmetic parts that may not be able to be reused.There will probably be door speakers to change too, not difficult , but still take time . After this switching is finally done , now we need to make sure all the things work, some more time. There no doubt may be some reprogramming involved, one of the great things that come with all the conveniences.

Do you think you want to get all this info and confront the people that provided the high estimate?

Of course you might just get other estimates from regular body shops. to do the whole job.
With that info I believe Ford would have to sit down with you and explain why they can't/won't cover the problem.

 

I recently had to trade my 2020 ford escape in becuase of the door welds, my window shattered because of the door and they couldn’t replace the window because basically everything in the door was shattered! And my door only partially opened. This known issue has been going on for along time and my door welds cracked 1.5 years ago. There is absolutely at this time nothing they can do, I had no choice but to trade it in, I would say watch that door close, the window can shatter, the door may quit opening and can actually open when it’s not suppose to. This is a really crap thing with Ford this should have been an immediate recall. And we tried to find a door, there aren’t any becuase they all have the cracked welds!

 

Did you consider checking with a good welding shop and see if they can redo the weld crack ?

 

Yes my husband is a welder, has been for 40
years, my welds cracked and there was no fixing them, the door had to be replaced and you can’t find a door cause they are mostly all bad, and I am
not paying to fix a junk door that should be a recall
to get another junk door and risking the door flying open while driving

 

Since no one has had any success with Ford, what if ?

You have an advantage since you have an experienced welder to come up with a good solution that might allow you to feel safe driving your vehicle.

As an experienced welder he probably has a good idea how to overcome the weakness problem and your vehicle would be better than the others waiting for Ford to do something. Maybe it is not a good idea to do this, but at least he would know you were safe driving it. What does he say regarding this ?

 

Same issue just happened on my 2020 Escape on the Drivers door, 37k miles, also the window will not go down very far, this forum and other google searches helped me understand that it is a issue that Ford and NHTSB is aware of.
I also found a youtube video "2020 Ford Door Stop Repair" by Fully Tek Mechanical where they drilled out the failed spot welds and riveted the plate back into place, seems like this might be a more cost effective solution if the vehicle owners have to pay for the repairs if you can find a bodyshop to do the work...

 

There is always that liability issue, but what good is a vehicle that cannot be used ?

A good shop will know what is good and safe and as posted earlier , there is a good way to repair the problem. By the time Ford does something, you could have a good shop repair it correctly and safely AND have the use of your vehicle.
Of course you can always pursue payment later from Ford.