2006 Ford Escape Hybrid Visibility (wipers, defrost, mirrors) Problems

“The back window shattered at the gas station after I got gas and put air in the tires. As I slowly came to a roll my back window exploded in the gas station parking lot. Shattered into a million pieces. It's all over the ground at the gas station and the tiny pieces are all over the inside of my vehicle. The vehicle was barely in motion as I had not exited the gas station parking lot when it happened.”

“31 degrees driving 5 MPH.. I had a 45 min commute to work had the defrost on when I left home.. Got to work and my rear window exploded while driving in the parking lot. No other moving vehicles around and smooth well maintained parking lot. The glass went in billions of pieces outside on the ground for about 10 feet back and inside all the way to the front seats of the car.”

“Car was parked in our carport overnight (12/24-25, 2015). When I came out the rear window was shattered. Most of the glass was outside the car, perhaps 5 percent was inside. No fallen branches, no sign of foul play, none of our other cars were damaged in any way. I looked up and found that similar incidents of random rear window explosion had been reported on Ford escapes, and that there was an active NHTSA investigation happening, so I wanted to add our incident to the list.”

“1) we have been receiving a yellow wrench light indicating maintenance needed off and on for a couple of weeks even though we were well within the maintenance period. This turns out to be an issue with the blend door for allowing air cooling of the hybrid batteries. 2) the power steering went out completely for the car. We have had no prior problems with the steering, and the system check showed no problem (I believe it checks fluid levels) so the problem appeared to be electrical.”

“I was driving home around 9 pm. It was about 40 degrees outside and the rear defroster was on. My two kids were in the back seat and my husband was in the passenger seat. The rear window of my 2006 Ford escape just shattered. We pulled over to see if someone had thrown something at the car, but there was nobody around except a father and his young children. He hadn't seen anything but said he heard the window break as we drove by. There was glass on the inside and outside of the car. I am thankful that my kids were not hurt, but I am shocked that something like this could happen. …”