Road salt inside the doors | Page 2 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Road salt inside the doors

I am hoping all this stuff is put on through warranty or am going to have a lot to say!! Ford should have made all the dealers aware of all this crap. I shouldnt have to be going back and saying this and that part is supposed to be there. I don't like taking my time to research and fix all this stuff after what I paid....and how a company like this can let stuff like roll out of their factory at this day and age with that many problems to pad their bottom line is sad.
The dealers aren’t in the dark. They know about all the missing parts BS. Never believe a dealer when they say “ We’ve never seen this before”. Cars dealers are scumbags.
 



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The dealers aren’t in the dark. They know about all the missing parts BS. Never believe a dealer when they say “ We’ve never seen this before”. Cars dealers are scumbags.
Disagree 100%. You can't paint all dealers with the same brush. The dealers I have dealt with are great and go the extra mile to help with the few issues I've had. It's unfortunate that there are some that are the exception to the rule and give all a bad rep.

Peter
 






If you charted the morales of every profession I’m sure car dealerships would be in the bottom 5. I’ve had my fair share of poor dealership experiences, but the majority of my bias comes from the scads of former dealership mechanics, and employees that had to move on because they couldn’t work with such crooks.

You’re also comparing your local friendly Canadian dealership with dealerships in New York and New Jersey. I assure you those are apples and oranges.
 






It would be the honest car dealer that is the exception.
 






Rust starts at any bare steel, which is usually a rock chip outside, or a seam of the paint elsewhere. Keep any road salts away from those inner door paint seams. The seams you find there typically have a flexible seam sealer underneath, under the truck it's just paint in the seams. When normal body flexing breaks the paint at any seam, the crack allows moisture and air inside, thus rust begins there first.

In any rust prone locations, I'd treat all paint body seams with something that would be flexible and last. Simple wax isn't going to work, help yes short term, but long term find something better. I like under coating for unseen areas, but a visible area like the door jambs, that's tougher. I'd use Ultra Black RTV everywhere that's easy to apply but not visible much. A clear RTV might be worth the trouble in visible areas, but note that stuff does get hard and crack after it gets old or sees high heat. You might get away with doing that and R&Ring it again every few years. Ultra Black RTV will survive the life of the car if you don't physically remove it.
My bubbling is on the door itself, in the area of the seam where the outside skin wraps around and ends, over top of the inner door panel, all painted body color. No seam sealer evident, just a sharp edge that has begun to bubble on all 4 doors.

Not trying To bash ford, have purchased Three Fords and a Lincoln this century.

My 2004 Nissan Xterra "winter beater/off roady truck" has 115k miles, has 17 winter cycles, and 0 rust in the doors (Or rockers for that matter)

I assume my 17 issue is a combination of the weather seal design that covers the door jambs/inner doors with salt/abrasive grit and sand, plus no seam sealer.

I am going to have it taken to metal and repaired. Just unfortunate for a nice vehicle that's 3.5 years old. I may just RTV the 21 upon delivery, but I imagine that if it has the updated seals, that would be a huge improvement.
 






Have bought the 2021 XLT, driven 50 or so miles in the salt, and can confirm that the door jambs are spotless. Ford also improved the door skin/seam immensely vs the gen 5. I don't see that the new cars will have corrosion issues in this area if they are cared for.
 






There was a similar issue on the 2015-2018 Ford Edge and Ford issued TSB 18-2339 (link to TSB) to correct it. The fix included several things including new design weatherstripping that has an additional lip to seal better. 2019+ Edges already have the updated seal.

Report the issue to Dealer so that Ford makes a fix for it. You would think that they would have learned from mistakes, but seems not. The same issue was also present on the 2010-2013 Taurus and a (expensive) fix was developed (link to TSB) and apparently the design changed on 2014+ models to avoid the issue.
 






From looking at your photos, I think you are missing some seals around the wheel well and lower body. unless this is new to the 2021 models. I just checked on mine and there is a seal around the wheel well and along the bottom of the rocker panel.

You can see that there is just a small amount of splash toward the front of the door from the gap between the doors, but the rest of the area is clean and protected by the seals I circled.
View attachment 327078
Finally heading to the dealer next week so they can document what is missing on my explorer. Can someone verify if there is supposed to be seals in this same place but on the front doors too. I assume there is supposed to be.
 






Finally heading to the dealer next week so they can document what is missing on my explorer. Can someone verify if there is supposed to be seals in this same place but on the front doors too. I assume there is supposed to be.
The lower seal is one piece that runs from the front doors to the back
 












Out of curiosity, I looked online and found the below picture of a 2021 Limited (for sale in FL somewheres).
You can just see the extra trim at the bottom right of the picture.
Not the big piece of plastic, but the thin trim that runs down and to the left.
Hopefully the dealer corrects this without fuss.

2021-ford-explorer-limited-agate-black-metallic-9.jpg
 






8380196D-303C-43E8-81E8-B3C74EED35B6.jpeg

this is my 2020 ST with 6/19 build. Looks identical to the 2021. Unfortunately, missing parts are commonplace with our cars and Ford is taking the position of dealing with it after the sale--if you even notice that it's missing. I'd be surprised if both sides were missing the trim pieces though.

35DD0C4B-611F-4FDB-BCD4-EEC8C5BF4F7B.jpeg
 






Update...so that c pillar trim is actually a seal that I was missing on the side with the salt issue. That seal at the bottom running the full length of both doors like in post 6a is missing also. There is a very thin seal in a groove at the very bottom of the plastic trim piece where you step. My local dealer was being difficult because he didn't think all that stuff should be missing and possibly fell off... along with my air deflector and tow hook. Good grief. At least my customer service gal from ford was more than willing to help and called my local dealer to get me in and get it taken care of.
 






Those items just don't fall off. Might be time to find another dealer.

Peter
 






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