NHTSA Complaint #11618599 — 2017 FORD ESCAPE

My family has 2 Ford SUVs. A 2017 ford escape and a 2018 Ford Flex. The 2017 Ford Escape started having an issue a couple years ago regarding moisture/water seeping into the tail lights/brake lights panels. Our cars have never had rear damage or hit anything that would cause them to be susceptible to water leaking in. It has to be something that happened over time. When you lift up the trunk gate, if you push the trunk up high enough, you can get most of the water to come out. Well, during the rainy seasons the water builds up quickly and it caused the LED brake light to go out. The panel piece costs about $400 and to get it fixed at the local ford dealership was a little over $700 a year or so ago. Well, the same thing happened to the other side and it went out as well. Over the last 3 years since the problem started, my wife and i have been more aware of condensation/moisture buildup in taillights and have noticed a lot of fords with the same problem. Our flex has a similar less severe problem where the taillights form condensation in them but they later dry up. Water hasnt gotten through, yet. Because we have noticed so many other ford SUVs with this same moisture problem in the taillights, i wanted to take the time for my first time ever, trying to see if a recall petition could be started on these taillights that are not properly blocking water from getting in. If it was just a simple lightbulb replacement that would be one thing, but because ford installed LED panel lights, they are incredibly expensive to replace. If just our city has a lot of cars with similar problems just on Ford SuVs, i have to imagine there are thousands more across the country. Thank you for your time reading this, and hopefully looking into it. [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)