Hatchback/liftgate Support Device problems of the 2003 Mercury Mountaineer

Tl-the contact owns a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer. The contact stated when attempting to the close the rear liftgate the right side support hinge fractured. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the defect. The approximate failure mileage was 90,000. Js.

Liftgate panel above emblem (outside) has cracked completely top to bottom. When I took to Ford service, they stated other side will crack and eventually panel could come off. My truck is only 6 years old. If panel comes off, odds are it will come off while driving. I do alot of highway miles and that could be serious. I was told there are recalls on same problem but for different year. This needs to be reviewed.

I have a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer and the liftgate has cracked around the Mercury emblem. I have seen several other Mountaineers with exact same cracking around emblem. This makes me wonder if panel could fail causing glass to fall out. Since this problem has been reported in numerous websites , is there going to be a recall to fix this problem. It is obviously a defect or this problem would not be rampant.

I opened rear liftgate and removed some items as usual. Upon trying to let the gate down 1/4 way down the glass shattered. The struts hung not allowing me to be able to close gate.

Crack in liftgate.

Crack in liftgate to the right of the Mercury emblem. On January, 24, 2008 I went to put something in the back of my Mountaineer only to find before opening it that there was a large crack in the liftgate. I'm not exactly sure if this effects the integrity of the glass back window, but I'm sure with time it will spread. . . . . Then what!.

Just like every other Mountaineer or explorer of this era the lift gate has cracked around the vehicle logo. This has caused problems including corrosion, rust, and locking mechanism failure on the liftgate. This problem can be seen on every single Mountaineer or explorer of this era. It's pretty ridiculous that Ford has not been forced to remedy the issue or done it voluntarily. It is clearly an engineering failure.