I've got an '02 Eddie Bauer that's developed a serious problem with the
upper glass portion of the lift gate.  This is the one that now has a recall
due to hinge failure.  Mine has gotten harder to latch recently and even
opened itself a couple of times before we were made aware of the hinge
issue.  The local dealership is handling that issue next week.  But that's
not the really irritating problem that I'm having.

About one month ago, I notice a small horizontal crack about 1" long near
the top center of the painted section of the upper liftgate.  This at first
surprised me as I thought this panel was metal and discovered that it's
plastic.  This crack rapidly worsened in a matter of days and then developed
into a complete vertical split in the panel. There is a gap of approximately
1/16", like the whole thing shrunk.  Really getting frustrated over this
development and this being a garage-kept vehicle, I took it by my dealership
this morning.  The service manager looked at it and asked me if it was still
under the 3/36 warranty.  I said it wasn't but was under a 100k powertrain
warranty.  I've got about 50k on it but it's less than 2.5 years old.  He
said it wouldn't be covered by the factory otherwise and sent me to their
body shop foreman to let him look at it.  He took one look at it and said
that he'd seen this before on several '02 Explorer's lately.  It seems that
there is an incompatibility issue concerning window washer fluid solvents
and the paint/plastic/epoxy compound that the panel is made from, but
wouldn't be covered other than by the 3/36 warranty.   I told him that was
ridiculous as the car was less than 2.5 years old and clearly a factory
design defect.  I've went round and round with the dealership and they said
my only recourse is to approach the Ford regional manager.  Right now, I'm
furious and think this whole deal is absurd.  Has anyone else ran into this
problem and what have you been able to do about it?