FocusCanada Forums

Consider this a cautionary warning so far:

The rear trailing edges (down near the rear fender and bottom corner of the door) of the rear door frame (at the rocker) are prone to "road abrasion" from pavement dust, rocks, sand, gravel and anything else the front tires can grab from the pavement and fling rearward. I'm not sure how this affects the ZX3 but I can state that the ZX4/5 are definitely affected.

Additional info: the car's not quite 6 months old (to us) and has 7800KMs on it (hit that pulling up my street this afternoon). Road abrasion is starting to be apparent on the passenger side and is definitely evident (down to base) on the driver's side.

I called the Stockfish bodyhouse today and they're like, "no problem, bring it by whenever you want". So, I headed over at 3PM from work.

The bodyhouse manager inspects it and writes the workorder, which mirrored the last one for the sedan: prep and repaint affected areas, coat with protective 3M tape, rehang doors. Fine by me, it worked great on the sedan for well over a year.

I'm then told, as I expected, that it was covered under warranty for 3 years or 60K.

He then pauses, scratches his head and says that Ford actually only covers road abrasion for 1 year or 20K!!!

I didn't take him to task on it, arranged for a detail job at the same time (and for them to buff out that scratch on the rear pass. fender), thanked him and left. Appointment is for next Thursday.

Can anyone substantiate the 1 year "road abrasion" thing for the warranty? Ken?

If nothing by Monday, I'll call FoMoCoCan on Tuesday to inquire. I'm not impressed that "road abrasion" is skirted in the warranty if that's true.

I guess I should go get my warranty booklet out of the car, eh?

let me know what ford says cause i was told 3 years
and i have same on my zx3 heres a couple pics

Thanks for those man!

Do you have a pic of the rear edge of the front door where it meets the rear quarter panel (I'm assuming you have a ZX3)?

Thanks,

Adam

Hey Adam ... sorry to hear about the damage - so far I've been relatively free of it and I'm already at 17,000. My deer mishap is coming back to haunt me though, as the paint job on the new hood isn't up to factory paint standards. Anyway ...

Ford has an "unofficial" 1 year 20k period where they will fix under warranty some things that normally wouldn't be covered if they show signs of abnormal wear - rotors for example, or a clutch, sometimes tires - virtually every Focus I've owned I've asked for and rec'd new rotors under warranty and I've made a point of going in before 20k.

I would imagine that the abrasion on the trailing edge of the wheel opening would not be covered in the same way that stone chips on the hood or bumper would not be covered - and so if they're going to fix it, bonus - but probably not covered after 20k.

On the other hand, abrasion on the leading edge of a door caused by misalignment (ie: the door edge "hangs out" relative to the fender) should be covered by warranty because it is not normal - caused only by the misalignment.

On one previous Focus (one of the '02s IIRC) the leading edge of the rear door opening experienced abrasion because the door itself wasn't properly adjusted and the door opening was exposed.

If some of your abrasion is caused by a mal adjusted panel, you should get them to fix that too.

NOS2Go4Me,May 18 2007, 03:39 PM Wrote:Consider this a cautionary warning so far:

The rear trailing edges (down near the rear fender and bottom corner of the door) of the rear door frame (at the rocker) are prone to "road abrasion" from pavement dust, rocks, sand, gravel and anything else the front tires can grab from the pavement and fling rearward. I'm not sure how this affects the ZX3 but I can state that the ZX4/5 are definitely affected.

Additional info: the car's not quite 6 months old (to us) and has 7800KMs on it (hit that pulling up my street this afternoon). Road abrasion is starting to be apparent on the passenger side and is definitely evident (down to base) on the driver's side.

I called the Stockfish bodyhouse today and they're like, "no problem, bring it by whenever you want". So, I headed over at 3PM from work.

The bodyhouse manager inspects it and writes the workorder, which mirrored the last one for the sedan: prep and repaint affected areas, coat with protective 3M tape, rehang doors. Fine by me, it worked great on the sedan for well over a year.

I'm then told, as I expected, that it was covered under warranty for 3 years or 60K.

He then pauses, scratches his head and says that Ford actually only covers road abrasion for 1 year or 20K!!!

I didn't take him to task on it, arranged for a detail job at the same time (and for them to buff out that scratch on the rear pass. fender), thanked him and left. Appointment is for next Thursday.

Can anyone substantiate the 1 year "road abrasion" thing for the warranty? Ken?

If nothing by Monday, I'll call FoMoCoCan on Tuesday to inquire. I'm not impressed that "road abrasion" is skirted in the warranty if that's true.

I guess I should go get my warranty booklet out of the car, eh?
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Ken,

I'll remind them Thursday to check it for proper fit/flow down the lines of the car. I'll take a picture tomorrow of the road abrasion for sure.

It's just really, really annoying that the new Focus is doing this so quick. I remember asking them about it on the old one when we first bought it and they're like "that's because she lived on a dirt road". :rolleyes:

I don't think I've driven down a single dirt/gravel road since we bought the car. I've limped it through a dirt lot several times (at work) at 10-15 KM/H cause that's all my ears can bear.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out. As it stands I'm still way more than impressed with the car. This is just a minor setback that's easily covered by the warranty. Judging by where it's hitting, it's obviously due to misalignment of the rear doors. I should check the leading edges of the front doors too.

I still love it, I still have to force myself out of it at night and I still have half-decent plans for it down the road (in my mind, anyways). :)

My old red sedan was doing the same thing on both sides. I was told it was because my back doors were not lined up right. Though they were line up well enuf to close properly.

i checked near the back of my door and sure enough its wearing a little not as bad as near the front though
hope ford has good news

My ZX3 is 7 years old with 175,000 KM and I don't suffer from this...

I have this on my sedan at the back doors.... I touch it up every year and it always comes back.

From what I'm gathering so far it's because the 4/5-doors flare out before you get to the rear of the rear door frames (follow that? lol) and the ZX3s have their trailing door frame edge well before the rear fender flare.

Frost - you can get your doors rehung so that won't happen again. Some 3M tape on the frame and about 6-7 inches of the back end of each door will prevent quick wear, too.

my ZTS is 6 years old and has almost 150 km's on it...it's got some "road abrasion" on the back corner of the front fenders and other spots....almost with peeling paint in said area. Doesn't bother me though, I want to get the whole car repainted as the trunk has some rust spots and I still haven't fixed the 2 key marks...

nothing like that on mine 06 20000km

Hi NOS. I just bought a used 05 ST in black from Stockfish. It has 42000kms after this weekend on it. I didn't notice before I bought it since it was raining---the rear door ahead of the rear tire is abraded to the point it is quite noticeable for an area of a square foot or so. This is on both sides. I suspect it is from grit thrown off of the top of those wide tires. Just thought I'd mention it. I can't think of a cure for it because mud flaps would protect the rear quarter----fender flares if available would help I think. I'll have to look for some and see if that will protect the paint.
So far love the car except for the tickets I know are coming. It just flies on the highway.

Just a note to the 2007 crowd (maybe the 06s and earlier too, who knows)... I had a wicked "creak" coming from what seemed to be the front end. Apparently I need my ears checked :o

It's a TSB for the parking brake cable and how it's mounted underneath the car. All taken care of today, plus the steering column "clunk" is normal apparently. That and my rear mudflaps in 2.5 hours all told from the time I dropped it off till the time I got the call that it was done.

Another positive vote for Stockfish.

For the record this is a sedan problem. Not sure why but it seems common on the sedan.

many cars have this problem not just the Focus...