O.K., I admit it - car moron. Others wrote it is "obvious" to see. What exactly am I looking for behind the car to show that rear differential?

And I agree - removing the "4WD" badge completely is a bit lame. It should be somewhere on the vehicle.

 

It is centered between the rear wheels. You will see a drive shaft running from each wheel into the differential and a drive shaft running down the center of the Escape into the differential. From the rear end of the car you will see the cover that is removed to access the gears and refill the differential with oil.

You do not need to do anyhting to see it other than go to the back of the Escape bend down and look underneath.

 

That's a good point. I suppose not everyone knows what a differential looks like!

There are pics in this forum that might help illustrate, here

https://www.greenhybrid.com/share/sh...php?i=1573&c=8

or here

https://www.greenhybrid.com/share/sh....php?i=163&c=8

There's a round-ish hole visible in the center of the rear suspension sub-frame. That big hole where the differential goes. Since the differential is missing, you can see light through the hole. That tells you these are both FWD. There would also be rear drive shafts if these were 4x4s.

Following is a link to a photo of a 4x4, where you can see the right-side rear drive axle and part of the rear differential. The diff occupies the lower left corner of the photo and the drive axle goes out of the diff, from left to right, connecting to the center of the right rear wheel. The bolt in the very bottom left corner of the photo is one of the mounting bolts holding the diff in place.

https://www.greenhybrid.com/share/sh...php?i=2060&c=8

These are earlier models than yours, but the old and new ones are mechanically near-identical. Crouch down and look at the rear of yours and it should look the same.

 

This is a differential on a solid axle



This is what is inside




In rear indepent rear suspension (What we have) it looks like this