NHTSA Investigation PE11039

Corrosion of Third-Row Seat Attachment

ODI has received 18 complaints on the subject vehicles from the salt belt states that allege severe corrosion at the rear wheel wells.Additionally, ODI identified 4 similar reports from Ford's response to the investigation.Ford submitted a total of 10 reports to ODI (6 of 10 Ford reports are duplicates of ODI reports).The complaints indicated difficulty or inability to latch the rear seat as some of the complaints reported the entire anchor plate completely detached from the vehicle (rear wheel well).The first report of this condition was received in March 2011 and subsequent reporting frequency indicates a potentially increasing trend over time.ODI seeks to evaluate the potential occupant safety risks resulting from structurally degraded seat anchorages.In addition to the subject vehicles, ODI also will collect and review information on MY 2005-2007 Freestar/Monterey vehicles that appear to have a seat design identical to the subject vehicles.To date, ODI is not aware of any similar complaints on the MY 2005-2007 vehicles.ODI also will collect and review information on Freestar/Monterey vehicles used outside of the salt belt states.This Preliminary Evaluation has been upgraded to an Engineering Analysis (EA12-003) to further assess whether a safety defect exists in the subject vehicles.The ODI reports cited above can be reviewed online at www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchNHTSAID under the following identification (ODI) numbers: 10454977, 10453826, 10452933, 10450587, 10450559, 10450295, 10446564, 10442809, 10441641, 10441489, 10440616, 10438529, 10436592, 10433928, 10424850, 10420028, 10410491 and 10399896.

An investigation is a separate record from a recall and from a manufacturer communication. A manufacturer campaign to repair a safety defect or a failure to meet a federal safety standard.