I was driving my children to school in October and the temperature was just around the freezing mark, when I turned on the rear defroster. As we were travelling down a busy road the rear window suddenly exploded inwards and there was a rectangular hole (following along the lines of the electrical defrost wires) and glass everywhere inside my van! My daughter was seated in the seat behind me and had glass in her hair - thank God she was not in the back seat as she could have been blinded or seriously cut. Ford and my dealer have refused to become involved and maintain this is not their responsibility. I have sent pictures and emails to Ford Canada, who responded with well trained and polite customer service personnel who indicated after 3 seperate calls (2 initiated by me) that they could not help me and mailed a follow up survey inquiring about the quality of their phone service! I have since heard of other Ford vehicles with the same problem and I believe Ford has agreed to replace the rear window on some Ford Escapes (once they exploded) but they will not acknowledge any electrical problems with the Freestar dispite the fact that we have had other problems with our cd player, back-up sensors and advance tracking system. This is our 7th vehicle and my family travels a lot and I can say with certainity that we have never had something happen like this before and will not buy another Ford product ever. It is sad and disappointing that a company that preaches safety is so willing to lose a customer over something that is clearly dangerous and not regular wear and tear.

 

I'm not taking sides here, but have a couple of questions in regards to this issue.

1. What year Freestar?

2. Was there any cargo in the back that the door was closed against that may have applied uneven pressure to the rear door assembly?

3. Do you have any type of glass coverage on your auto insurance?

4. Have you contacted your insurance company?

 

In response to your questions:
-My van is a 2006.
-The third row of seats were actually down and there was nothing in the back if the van except for a pair of sandals.
-My insurance deductible is $500 and the glass dealer gave me a deal ($400) after seeing my van (Ford quoted me $700 - $800) so although I do have coverage it would have been more costly to flooow that route.
Hope this answers your questions.

 

With the questions answered, I would suspect that it was just a fluke temperature expansion rate that caused the window to pop. Yours is the first I've ever heard of. I know that when Ford re-designed the Explorer for the 2002 model, they had rear windows breaking due to a design flaw and the new Excapes were/are having sun roof windows popping. I was just wondering about your insurance because I carry a $200 deductable with FULL GLASS ($0 deductable). Some insurance companies will not give you full glass coverage if you carry a high deductable. It may be different between the U.S. and Canada coverage allowances.

 

2007 Freestar rear window exploded 2013 January-

We were just driving along in cold weather (=10 deg C) for a short drive with the rear defroster on when the rear window shattered and a rectangular piece 1 foot x 2.5 feet just dropped out. The hole was quite rectangular, but not with perfectly straight edges. The hole was angled slightly relative to the defrost conductors, the long edge of the break crossing 2 or 3 conductors

A bizzare kind of failure, but very similar to the one you reported.

My experience with our Ford dealer is so perfectly awful that I will not bother to contact them. Our Freestar and Windstar were great vehicles by design and served troublefree except for this. But the dealer, Terrace Ford in Burlington Ontario, was a showcase example of how to abuse a customer, from the order onward. We bought the Freestar used somewhere else after the Winstar expired in a collision. Eventually I wrote Ford Canada and the dealer's president. The dealer never answered, and some of the abusive behaviour eg around rustproofing and parts replacement was clearly a deliberate and long standing tactic. Ford Canada did answer and tried to offer some incentives, but we moved on.