[PupsterDO]

Hey Guys,

Last July I sprayed rubberized undercoating on the gas tank shield underneath my Escape due to there being a hairline crack in the metal. Well, the long and the short of it, I put too much on and the weight make the metal crack and expose a gap. My mechanic told me that the shield has about six holes in it and looks like swiss cheese...

Should I just leave it alone or get it replaced? He also said that the pieces of metal will continue to fall off the car as it continues to rust out. If the gas tank gets exposed, is there a chance debris/rocks can crack the actual tank? Is there another metal shield around the gas tank itself? I thought I saw another piece of metal wrapping around the plastic tank. Is this right?

 

[CrashNburn]

you could get another shield from the junk yard i bet they would be the same for all the years that has the spare in the same spot as yours.

 

[PupsterDO]

The shield is huge, covering from the driver's side to the passenger's side. It also goes in between the car's sheet metal and drive shaft. I couldn't replace it, myself. :shrug: Believe me, I've thought about it.

 

[PupsterDO]

My main concern is not how it looks but more If the gas tank gets exposed, is there a chance debris/rocks can crack the actual tank?

 

[CrashNburn]

anything can be changed by yourself lol. i doubt it will damage it unless you drive off road.

 

[PupsterDO]

Is there another metal shield around the gas tank itself? I thought I saw another piece of metal wrapping around the plastic tank. Is this right?

Does anyone know?

 

[PupsterDO]

JPark or Squishy, do you happen to know? Could you look up the installation instructions?

 

[PupsterDO]

bump.

I just took another look at my gas tank cover shield and the crack is getting progressively worse. Should I be worried of debris cracking my actual tank when this shield falls off? Or worse, could this cause the tank to explode?

Please advise...

JP, could you look up the installation diagrams to see if there is another piece of metal in-between the shield and the gas tank? Any advice would be great!

 

[PupsterDO]

bump please i need advice/ diagrams please

 

[Dasha]

Pupster, I'm sure JP or Squishy will get to you on this. Since JP is on vacation, he isn't on EC as much right now.

 

[Scooter Scott]

Pupster....how far away is the shield from the actual tank itself? (wanting to know for something I will mention later)

How big would you say the crack actually is? Can you show us a picture of the damage? If it is just cracking and has holes that are no more than 1/4" - 1/2" in diameter I wouldn't worry too much. The propability of getting the perfect sized rock to come shooting through the shield into the tank is slim. I think it would take some much larger to damage that tank. Anyways...is there a way you could get some stainless steel or some type of skid plate that you could bolt onto this shield or is there a way you can make your own cover for it? That would give the shield the support it needs and possibly stop it from doing further cracking due to the shield not having to support the weight anymore..what do you think?

 

[PupsterDO]

Hey Scott! Thanks for the response. The shield is probably a little less than an inch away from the tank. See what happened was there was a crack that started two summers ago and like an idiot I tried to spray some rubberized undercoating on it to "seal" it. Well, to make a long story short, I sprayed too much and the weight of the coating I think made the crack worse, now opening up a big crack along the side of the shield. I can reach my finger into it and tocuh the tank. Not a good situation. If I wanted to, I could rip the metal shield right off probably. Not much is holding it on there.

My dad said maybe we could fiberglass it. he'd take a look later this winter. hopefully some metal is still there when he looks at it he also said not to worry about it as many cars don't have gas tank shields. the escape probably has it for off roading use, which i dont do any of. but regardless, I don't want to explode or anything like that. :lightning:

basically i dont know what to do. I really would liek to know if there is another piece of surrounding metal around the tank. i think there might be. JP i know you are on vacation right now but when you get back o you think you could take a look at the installation diagrams to see if I have anything to worry about here?

i'm at a loss for what to do and am afraid of driving a moving bomb.

:wacko:

 

[Scooter Scott]

Can you get a picture of the underbody for me? I wanna take a look at what we are dealing with here...

 

[PupsterDO]

Yeah, Scott. I'll take a picture of it tonight and send it to you.

 

[PupsterDO]

I was able to take a couple of pictures today with my cell phone:

 

[Scooter Scott]

Holy cow batman...that's not a crack...that's a huge gash lol :box:

 

[PupsterDO]

What do you suppose I do about it ?

 

[Scooter Scott]

Is the entire peice rusted through? Is there any way that you could weld a peice of scrap metal overtop of it? Or like I said before could you maybe rip it all off and make your own type of a skid plate for it?

 

[camusdarrach]

Hmm, thats a quite severe attack of tinworm, but............

I wouldn't worry at all about it, indeed would rip the remains off, as the fuel tank itself can survive quite a substantial knock without any problems, indeed my Maverick is the first car I've owned that has had a fuel tank shield, my Laguna's tank is both a lot larger and lower down, but has no shield.
Any car on sale here has to pass a type approval test, which includes the integrity of the fuel tank without any shields, and if there was any doubt, the Maverick wouldn't have been allowed on sale.
Most 4x4's have a shield, which is only there to protect the tank when off roading in terrain which, in all honesty is beyond the reaches of the Maverick/Escape/Tribute capabilities.
BTW, my Landrover Defender has a plastic fuel tank at the same hieght, but has no shield.
So, I would say that it's nothing to worry about, as if there was any doubt as to the strength of the fuel tank whatsowever, Ford would not have been able to retail the car in the first place

 

[jonas1022]

You might check out some junk yards in your neck of the woods and see if they have one worth transplanting if you bothered by it. I think I might, if I were in your shoes anyway. I don't know that it's worth doing a new shield, just something for peice of mind is all. "Junk yard mechanics" around here will remove the old and install the transplant for cash on their time off it you feel it's beyond your capabilities.