1998 FORD ESCORT — Complaint #508368
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS filed November 26, 2004
NHTSA complaint #508368 (ODI reference 10101707) concerns a 1998 FORD ESCORT and was filed on November 26, 2004. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 26, 2004. The vehicle had 55,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to New York based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:rear:springs, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same FORD ESCORT cohort independently describe similar suspension:rear:springs failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 1998 FORD ESCORT shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
WHILE THE STATE INSPECTION STATION WAS INSPECTING THE VEHICLE INSPECTOR INFORMED CONSUMER THAT BOTH REAR SPRINGS BROKE. DEALER WAS NOTIFIED, AND THEY INFORMED CONSUMER THAT THIS VEHICLE WAS NOT COVERED UNDER A RECALL.*AK
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 508368 |
| ODI Number | 10101707 |
| Date Filed | November 26, 2004 |
| Failure Date | November 26, 2004 |
| VIN | 3FAFP15P1WR |
Similar SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS Complaints for 1998 FORD ESCORT
TL*THE CONTACT OWNS A 1998 FORD ESCORT. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE REAR COIL SPRINGS BROKE IN 2003 AND WERE REPAIRED. THE VEHICLE WAS AT A REPAIR SHOP GETTING AN OIL CHANGE WHEN THE CONTACT WAS INFOR
BROKEN REAR SPRINGS. *JB
BOTH REAR SPRINGS BROKE. THIS IS THE SECOND TIME IN LESS THEN 6 MONTHS FOR THE 2002. THIS SEEMS TO BE A MAJOR DESIGN FLAW IN FORD ESCORT. I HAVE A 1998 & 2002 AND BOTH HAVE BROKEN REAR SPRINGS. AL
DT: VEHICLE BROKE REAR SPRINGS 2 YEARS AGO. *AK
BOTH REAR COIL SPRINGS ARE BROKEN. THE VEHICLE HAS SEEN MOSTLY HIGHWAY MILES AND IS WELL KEPT. THERE WAS LITTLE TO NO SYMPTOMS OF THE PROBLEM ,AND WAS FOUND DURING AN INSPECTION OF THE REAR BRAKES. IT
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.