Rust on my 9 Month old 2013 Edge Limited Door Panel

[edge1217]

I washed my 9 month old 2013 Edge Limited AWD today and noticed some rust forming on the inside edge of the right rear lower door panel. It's where the outer door panel skin is rolled over the inner door panel/frame, right along the bottom edge of the door at its front corner. As you can see in the picture below, the outer door skin isn't continuously welded to the door frame and sealed, it looks as if it was designed to serve as a channel for water coming out of the weep holes (a weep hole can be seen to the right of the photo). This is the way all 4 doors are designed, and it's a natural water trap for anything that gets inside the door when driving in the rain or washing the car. I've never had this issue on any other car I've owned and it seems weird. The raised bumps above and to the right of the rust spot seem to be paint over factory body filler, so I'm not concerned about those. Check it out on your Edge and you'll see what I mean.

 

 

Fortunately the rust has only started to form on this one door. If it ever does rust through it would be hidden by the plastic rocker panel trim, but I still feel like this is a really dumb design flaw and it should be fixed. I'm not sure if the rust extends into crevasses in the corner that I can't access. How do you suggest I fix this, and what can I do to the other doors to prevent rust? Would you trust this to your Ford dealer to take care of? I can picture some yahoo just spraying over it with matching paint and not really getting the job done right. I'd assume it's covered under warranty, although it hasn't perforated or rusted through so that might be a limiting factor.

 

Any thoughts or reactions are welcome. Thanks very much!

Edited June 20, 2013 by edge1217

[edge1217]

Hope to take it to the dealer today, this is really bothering me. Are there any service bulletins out on this? Seems to me I've heard of this problem before but I don't remember where I saw it.

[Gurufarmer]

Let us know what you find out at te dealer

[edge1217]

OK, I went to the dealer today and they said they never heard of this happening and they were very interested to see it. 3 people in the dealer's body shop came out to look at it and they were shocked at the rust spot that had formed sometime during its 9 months on the road. They felt it should definitely be covered under warranty, but of course they have to submit a claim to Ford for authorization and Ford will have the final word. The claim needs to be submitted by the service manager, along with photos that he takes, then it will take some time for Ford to review it and decide what they want to do. Unfortunately he was out at training today and tomorrow so I'll have to go back on Monday. Everyone seemed to feel there should be no problem having Ford pick this up as a warranty item, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

 

The dealer (so far!) was very good to deal with and for now I'm cautiously optimistic. They busted my chops over how clean and shiny my Edge is, right down to the clean wheel wells and door jambs, so they know I take really good care of it. I took one of them for a short ride back to the main building and she asked it she had to take her shoes off before entering. Yeah, it's that clean, and yeah, you really do....

 

I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, I'd strongly advise you guys to check your doors to be sure your Edge isn't starting to rust out too. It will just take a minute or two for either a little piece of mind, or a chance to spot the problem and stop the rust before it gets too bad. Look at the pic I posted above and you'll see the area to look at. If it could happen to my lightly driven, garaged, and well-maintained car with less than 9 months on the road, it could certainly happen to someone else's Edge. Please let me and the other readers on this forum know one way or the other whether or not you find any rust.

 

Personally, I think it's a design flaw, but what do I know? I don't mean to second guess the designers at Ford, but for the life of me I don't understand why they would leave the channel open like that on the bottom of the door and not continuously weld it or fill it with body sealer before painting? It would seem to me that with the channel filled, the rain or wash water would exit the weep holes, run over the filler, and drip off the bottom of the door panel. This is the way my wife's Honda is built, and I'm positive this is how every other car I've had was like that too going all the way back to my '62 Falcon. This entire area is well below the rubber door seal gasket so having the water run over some filler and straight off the bottom of the door shouldn't pose a problem in terms of water getting inside the car. I really don't get what they did here at all, it seems like the design is just begging for problems.....

 

Or maybe the design is ok but my Edge just got shortchanged in the primer department and it started to rust. Or maybe there's supposed to be a line of filler covering the open channel, but they just forgot to apply it on the production line? That gets me thinking -- I'd be curious to know if that bottom channel on your guys' Edges are filled with sealer or if yours are open too.

 

So many questions....

[CARR142]

Do us all a favor, when you return to the dealer.

Look at the other Edges' on the lot to compare with your vehicle.

This does not look at all right to me.

 

Best Wishes, JC

[Limited59]

Design flaw? Come on.... there are how many hundred thousand of these vehicles on the road. If it were a design flaw the 'rusty door seam' thread would probably have more hits than 'report your MFT gripes'.

[edge1217]

Actually guys, I googled "Ford door rust" and "Ford doors rusting" this morning and came up with quite a few hits, enough to make me realize I'm not the only one out there to experience this problem. Some of the comments I saw were just the usual rants about the bottoms of some old beater trucks that finally rusted out after who knows what kind of abuse those vehicles took. But many of the complaints specifically talked about the way the channel at the bottom of the door isn't sealed, and I did see a few photos that looked a lot like mine on some Ford trucks (I recall seeing complaints on F150s, Rangers, and Expeditions). People are referring to a "lip" or "gap" or "channel" on the bottom edge of their doors, and there were several complaints about rust on relatively new vehicles. Even for Edges, I saw a couple of complaints that seemed to be from Edges in the prior series (around 2008 I think) that had started rusting by 2010, so at about 2 years. Not saying it's a widespread problem, but I do see that others have complained about it before.

 

Limited59, I agree that this is probably a fairly small-scale problem given all the Edges on the road and the lack of big complaints. I did only find one other similar complaint on this Edge forum this morning, so not too many people seem to have experienced or noticed it on their Edges, which is great. But also keep in mind that the problem is in a very hidden area, and from the outside of the vehicle it is covered by the vinyl cladding, so a lot or people probably just don't ever notice it.

 

bce, thanks for looking at yours and reporting back. Interesting that your 2013 isn't like that. I wonder if there was a change in the production run? My August 2012 '13 build has the same design on all 4 doors with the open lip or channel and the same corner effect at both the front and rear of each door. So to me it would appear to be the way the car was designed, as opposed to a one-off fluke where a bad door got through the production line.

 

CARR142, I'll take a look at some other '13s on the lot when I go back on Monday. I'm really curious now, especially with you and bce saying your doors don't look like that.

 

Thanks for your input, guys.

Edited June 22, 2013 by edge1217

[Lowery89]

Mine started 3 months after I got my 13 sport, took it to the stealer, they took pictures twice and ford covered it... No issues since but water still does sit there. I found out about this issue on here in the winter, went and looked outside and had the same issue starting

[edge1217]

Thanks very much for confirming that you had the same problem, Lowery89. Three months? Geez, I think that's a record from what I've seen. I didn't notice mine until the car was 9 months old and I thought I was the record holder up until now. Sorry to hear that it's there, but as they say, misery loves company. Now that the issue has been confirmed it serves as a good warning for other owners to check their Edges periodically so they can get on top of the issue before it gets out of control. Hopefully most people don't have any problem.

 

Good to hear that Ford covered your 2013 door rust problem. So tell me, what did they do? Sounds like they didn't apply any filler or body caulking if you say the water still sits there. Did they have to repaint the door's outer skin? I'm hoping on mine that they can get it all from inside and they don't have to touch the outer panel. No doubt your Sport is as prisine on the outside as my Limited, so I'm sure you know the feeling!

 

Good to know that you found out about this problem right here on this forum. As soon as I saw the rust on mine I remembered hearing complaints somewhere, so I'd probably seen that same thread. Yesterday I went back to see if I could find it here and I saw something that sounded like the same problem, but that was just a month or two ago so it was probably another guy reporting in after the thread you saw this past winter.

Edited June 22, 2013 by edge1217

[mtbalser]

Just checked my 2012 limited, about 18 months in Michigan weather (salt), no problem.

[Lowery89]

They brushed it off, repainted it and that's about it. No issues since but with as often as I wash my car it does stay wet there for that time to dry. I haven't been able to as much recently been busy alot with work. She's just sitting in the sun getting dirty.

[shantz]

This is due to the door shell being painted prior to the inner mechanisms being installed. Small metal shavings from the self tapping screws used fall inside the door skin and become stuck at the lower seam.

 

I have a previous post regarding this same issue. I purchased a product called 'IronX' and sprayed it in the doors. After agitating the solution with an old toothbrush in the cracks and crevices it rinsed clean.

[shantz]

Here is my original post;

 

http://www.fordedgeforum.com/topic/6593-2011-edge-sport-rust-spots-on-front-doors/

[edge1217]

Thanks SHANTZ for your very helpful post! Lots of good information about this problem in the 3 pages there, and it seems like you're right about the shavings from the ST screws for the door hardware. It's the only thing that makes sense and others on your thread seem to be pointing to the same root cause. It's surprising now to see so many cases documented, not just here but on other sites as well.

 

I saw your Iron-X solution and it makes perfect sense that it worked, now that I understand that the problem is either metal shavings or rail dust/brake dust resting ON the surface, rather than being untreated sheetmetal that's beginning to rust. Seems like others did the same thing and it worked well and the problem never returned. I've used IX before and it's great stuff, safe on paint as Richy pointed out in your thread. So far my dealer hasn't gotten back to me with Ford's official response to my problem, and I don't take that as a good sign. At least now I know there's a simple solution if Ford lets me down.

 

I read on your thread that someone recommended sealing the corners and hem flange with silicone, but I agree with others who cautioned against it. Those two weep holes empty directly into the flange (which is like a channel) and the lower edge of the weep hole falls below the top edge of the flange or channel. So sealing the flange would interfere with the water draining out of the weep holes and would trap water inside the door.

 

I'm still scratching my head about why the door is designed this way, instead of rolling the sheet metal with a continuous weld, and then sealing the seam before painting and designing the weep holes to empty above the seam. Must be a cost saving thing.

 

Will let everyone know what the dealer has to say when I give him a reminder call in the next couple of days. If I end up going down the Iron-X path, I'll let you know about that as well. Thanks again, shantz, you really brought the issue into focus with that thread!

[edge1217]

I just wanted to let everyone know that I followed Shantz's solution above and it seems to have worked really well. I got some Iron-X and sprayed a generous amount into each door corner, up into the weep holes, and along the length of the hem flange (the gutter that runs along the bottom edge of the door). I let it dwell for couple of minutes, being careful not to let it dry in the sun. Next, I agitated it with a soft nylon toothbrush, and thoroughly rinsed it with the garden hose at full force until it ran clear, and then dried it with an electric leaf blower to flush out the water. When I was convinced all the water was dried out, I repeated the process again. I did this on all 4 doors.

 

All of the doors showed some evidence of iron particles, based on the way the Iron-X turned purple where there was iron present. The spots that I had pointed out to the dealer turned dark purple right away, so those were the worst spots. But the fact that I saw purple in other areas too indicated that the iron deposits were in more places than I had originally thought. One door was almost free of any deposits, but small traces of purple did show up even on my "best" door.

 

There is no visible rust now that I've done this. Even the paint under the worst of the rust spots looks very sound, even shiny.

 

So based on this, I think Shantz was correct in his identification of the problem (iron shavings from self-tapping door hardware screws), as well as the very simple Iron-X solution. The entire procedure took me under an hour, including two applications on all 4 doors as well as rinsing and drying each application. For the Iron-X, I just got the small 50ml sample bottle for $4.99 from Corey at Car-Pro. This was more than enough for two generous passes, and I have enough left to probably do another two passes if I'm a little less generous the next time around. However, from what I can see and from what Shantz reported before, I think today's application will be all I need and I'm hopeful that the problem is solved permanently.

 

I should note that in the discussion link that Shantz provided above, some guys were advocating filling the corners and/or hem flange with silicone sealer to keep the water out. That did NOT seem like a good idea to me, so I left everything as is.

 

BTW, I'm still waiting for Ford and my dealer to get back to me about a repair under warranty. Hopefully I won't need them now. The idea of one of their shop assistants grinding or scraping my doors and then repainting the spots always made me a little nervous!

 

A big thanks to Shantz for sharing his understanding of the problem and for offering up a very simple but effective solution! I'll be keeping an eye on this area and will let you know if any rust spots re-appear.

Edited July 17, 2013 by edge1217

[edge1217]

Just a quick update. It's been a year and a half and two winters, and still no signs of rust after I applied the Iron-X to the door flanges. So far, so good. I think Shantz was right about it just being filings rusting on top of the paint.

 

Oh, BTW, still waiting for the dealer's service manager to get back to me on the rust issue after he promised to check with Ford. It's ok, it's only been a year and a half....

[Liptoss]

Nope. Isn't filing in my case. Bubbling is under the paint well up the seams along the curve of BOTH back doors and along the lower edge of the back tail lid.

Just like this escape 2010 Ford Escape Rusting Rear Hatch And Both Passenger Doors: 2 ... except mine is a 2013

[edge1217]

It's been 4 years since I originally posted this thread about rust forming on my 9 month old 2013 Edge door panel flanges. My Edge has now been in service almost 5 years, so just for the heck of it I went out tonight and checked it so I could give a long term update.

 

I'm happy to see that the rust has not returned on any of the 4 door flanges. So at least in my case, Shantz was right -- it was just surface rust from tiny metal shavings sitting on top of the paint, which had not been cleaned out in the factory. A little Iron-X brushed on with a toothbrush, and then well flushed and blown dry, is all it took and it was a permanent fix.

[IWRBB]

Good to hear. Our 2010 seems to be pretty good about not rusting so far. I've had some seriously rusty Fords in the past, so I am slightly paranoid in regards to rust.