I've got a 2008 Escape, V6 3L, 2wd. It's got 1/2" lean towards the drivers side of the vehicle which is noticeable both front and rear. Tire pressure is fine. Dealer swaped from side to side both the front and rear springs with no change in the lean. Does anyone have any ideas as to the cause and solution? It would be greatly appreciated.

 

Problem fixed. Got a Ford engineer involved and found out the following:

All Escapes could have this problem. Somewhere along the assembly line they are supposed to be checked and if the problem is found they are supposed to be corrected but a lot of them are getting through for whatever reason.

The reason there is no TSB's on this is that not enough people have complained about the problem.

The fix is to insert shims in the rear between the sub-frame and the suspension. This is what Ford does to fix the problem on the assembly line.

 

Update... Problem not fixed.

After working with my dealer on this problem I've found the following:

1) In my case it's not possible to shim the body both front and rear enough to solve the problem. For example, if you try placing enough shims to solve the lean on top of the front strut you'll run out of threads on the strut bolts.

2) In the rear you've basically got to double the shims for the amount of lean. For example, if you've got a 1/2" lean you've got to place 1" of shims between the rear sub-frame and body.

3) I've found that my '08 Escape is not a rare occurence of this problem. I've gone to 2 dealers and found that the first dealer had six '09 Escape's on his lot. I got out my tape measure and found that every one of them had the lean, from 1/4" to 3/4". I went to the second dealer which had three '09 Escapes, got out the tape and all of them had the lean also. I also called my son who lives in NY and had him measure his '09. He's got a lean.

WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?????? From what I've found I can only assume Ford is sending the Escape from the factory with this "defect".