How do you remove the door panel on a 2002 Ford Escape?

Answer 1

On my 2001 Escape, you remove 4 screws (1 under covers in upper corner near hinge, 1 under cover in recess of opening latch, one in door handle, one on door edge). Then there are only pop-out grommets. Just apply gentle pulling to the panel close to where it is still binding to the door, and these will pop out one by one. They sound like they are breaking (and on some cars they break easily), but none of mine did. There are no screws under window/lock controls, so don't bugger things up by trying to pry that open! Above procedure worked on my 2007 Escape, but I have a couple of tips. 1) note exactly which of the four screw goes where, because they're all different.

2) There are six pop out grommets that are quite tricky to release cleanly. I used a shim wedge as follows. Starting at the bottom of the panel, slip the thin end just inside the door panel edge and work the wedge in with the longer side parallel to the edge of the panel. Keeping the shim no more than a quarter inch inside the panel edge, pushing the shim along will now pop the grommets one by one. With the lower ones popped out, you'll have enough room to get a hand behind the panel and locate the the upper grommets and ease them out too.