This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Can not drive car power train and engine blew out dont drive drive far only in my city and up to maintence and all of sudden girls stop shifting one day while on road very scary had to pull over in middlke of intersection after tht\at day bought another transmission and same thing happened didnt last month spent so much money on trans that cannot afford new agin
My vehicle, without any warning at any speed, including highway speeds, shuts off completely, without any warning or indication that it is about to do this. Always on a straight road with almost a full tank of gas. The cause a relay switch which is soldiered into the memory board that controls the vehicle's brain box that shorts out. After doing research on the internet, I am both shocked and disgusted that the nhsta has not investigated this faulty design by Ford and made them recall all of the 2003- 2008 Expedition. You only have to pull it up on you-tube or google to see the 1000's upon 1000S of complaints from Expedition owners concerning this constant and dangerous problem, which clearly endangers every Expedition owner and their family. The worst part of this, the Ford dealerships want you to spend $1000 of dollars needlessly to try and diagnose this same, old problem, before they finally deal with replacing the entire fuse block panel, just for the relay switch, which is the cause, the shorting out relay switch. The internet shows again and again, that this problem is so rampant, that it isn't if it happens, but when, because it was a faulty and defective design, which endangers all Expedition owners made these years. The faulty fuse block's fuel pump relay switch burns out and between that and the thin wires grounding out under the hood, drivers, unsuspectingly are left in panic modes on the highway, scrambling to get out of harms way, as a result of your vehicle turning off at all speeds, ie, 70 mph. Imagine a semi is behind you and you don't have the safe means of escaping the dangerous predicament you are now left in to get over to the side of the road? a recall is needed asap before too many people are needlessly killed as a result. Expedition's are family vehicle's and usually have lots of children in them! this is too dangerous to keep overlooking.
When driving in cold weather the vehicle continues to accelerate after you have released the accelerator. It doesn't matter whether you are using the cruise control or not.
While driving on a 3 lane highway where the speed limit is 65, I began my transition to the right lane to exit. We were traveling approximately 60mph. As I began to change lanes the vehicle noticeabley began to accelerate. At first I thought the cruise control had been activated, but when J attempted to stop, the car kept trying to accelerate. As I entered the exit ramp the car did not slow down the way it should have and the brakes did not feel sure. As I was able to come to a safe roll, I placed the car I to neutral at which time the car accelerated violently. I felt for the gas pedal which seemed to to depressed as if the cruise control was on. However, I was stopped. The engine did finally slow to within normal RPM. I was somewhat convinced that something may have been stuck, but soon realized that the gas pedal is hinged from above and not into the floor, nor was there anything on the floor.
While slowly braking to a stop behind traffic stopped for a red light, the engine suddenly accelerated with my right foot still on the brake pedal. I pressed harder on the brake and when I realized the engine was still revving (at over 3,000 RPM), I put the transmission into neutral and noticed the engine speed erratically bouncing up and down in roughly the 2500 to 3500 RPM range. I still had my right foot firmly pressed on the brake pedal. I finally shut the ignition off and put the transmission into park. I waited a a few seconds and restarted the engine. This entire time I never lifted my right foot off the brake pedal. The engine started and idled at a normal 600 RPM or so. I carefully put it into drive so I could get out of traffic. At each subsequent stop, I would put the transmission into neutral just in case of another incident. I promptly drove straight home which fortunately was only 2 miles away. I checked the floor mat to see if the accelerator pedal could have gotten stuck but there was plenty of clearance. The floor mat is anchored to the floor so doesn't move. This is the first time something like this has happened to this or any other vehicle I've owned or driven.
- Foster City, CA, USA
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Vehicle had a sudden unintended acceleration event which nearly resulted in an accident. This was a very nerve racking experience and I had difficulty stopping the vehicle (despite applying full brakes) as the RPM continued to increase to approx. 5000. On stopping the vehicle I managed to place it in neutral and the engine continued to rev excessively. I turned off the engine. Vehicle was brought to local Ford dealership who confirmed a high rev problem with the electronic throttle control and recommended a "throttle body" replacement.
The contact owns a 2004 Ford Expedition. She smelled plastic burning in her garage; however, she observed flames coming from underneath the hood of her vehicle. The fire department extinguished the fire and the vehicle is in her garage. The vehicle was destroyed and there were major damages to her residence. The dealer was not notified. Her insurance company stated that Ford will be sending out an investigator to determine what caused the fire. There is an incident report from the fire department.there is a recall on Ford vehicles for the cruise control switch but at this moment they don't know if that caused the fire to occur. The failure and current mileages were 79000.
The contact owns a 2004 Ford Expedition. While entering the drive-way, the vehicle lurched forward without pressing the accelerator pedal. He had to remove the key from the ignition to stop the vehicle. The vehicle has not been diagnosed by the dealership. The current and failure mileages were 90000.
On three occasions starting 6/21/06, after putting the car into gear (forward twice, reverse once), the engine immediately raced and lurched, and an inordinate amount of pressure had to be applied to the brakes to try to control the car. There were three different drivers each time who will attest to this. The last occasion, my wife was backing into our driveway, stopped, put the care in 'park', and then, after a minute, into reverse again, where it immediately accelerated to a very high rate of speed, smashed into my son's van (totaling it), pushed the van another 15 feet over two trees, where she finally had control of the brake. We are very fortunate that no one was hurt, but I'm very concerned at Ford's response. I took it to springfield Ford, where I purchased the care, and was told that, after a thorough check they could find nothing wrong with the vehicle, and that they even talked to the Ford 'hotline', and that the Ford engineers had 'never heard' of a situation like this. I told the service rep that if he googled 'sudden acceleration' and 'Ford' he might get an education. Needless to say, I have appx $3-4,000 in damages to the Expedition, and the van, a '99 Windstar is beyond repair. I'm sure that by contacting the local dealer, I'll get nowhere, as it's very apparent they either don't believe me; don't care; or are covering up what truly is a serious issue. Thank you for your time and consideration.
1998 Ford Expedition caught on fire while the vehicle was parked and the engine was cut off. The consumer believed his Expedition suffered from the same defect in the cruise control deactivation switch as other vehicel's.
On 9-18-04 darrell baldwin, denice baldwin and devin theisen were in 2004 Expedition sitting in driveway preparing to leave for a soccer game. Darrell put the vehicle in drive with the brake firmly applied. The car involuntarily accelerated at high rate until the brakes quit and shot us into our other vehicle parked in the driveway. We veered right trying to miss the truck but was unsuccessful. The car continued across our yard heading toward our neighbors house across the street. During this time the brakes were unable to stop the car and the gear shift wouldn't go into neutral. The path left skid marks down our driveway, across the street and finally in the driveway of our neighbor. This was an extremely unsafe situation. Usually there are children out playing and had this occurred when children were present it could have been a potentially fatal situation! there is a problem that needs to be researched. Ford has taken possession of vehicle for investigation.
While the vehicle was parked and running it suddenly accelerated, causing it to collide with another vehicle. It was taken to the dealer for inspection, and problem was not resolved.
The consumer was pulling out of a parking lot in light rain, made a right turn and the vehicle surged forward and veered into the street. The consumer was standing on the brakes, but the vehicle continued to surge forward. The vehicle hit and scraped a parked vehicle, damaging the right side. The vehicle was finally brought to a stop and taken to the dealer, who examined the vehicle and could not find anything wrong with it.
The vehicle transmission was in the park position while waiting on a slow train. When engaging the transmission into the drive position, after the train had passed, the vehicle uncontrollably fully accelerated on it's own. To avoid a seriously collision with oncoming traffic, the driver turned the vehicle on to the railroad tracks where it came to a stop after damaging two wheels and high centering on the tracks. This is a very dangerous vehicle.
On Sunday, 3/14/2004, I was driving my 2004 Ford Expedition on dry pavement when the vehicle began to shake with acceleration (15-20 mph). I checked to be sure there were no flat tires and proceeded. Once the vehicle was up to 45-50 mph I attempted to brake and the vehicle's brakes did not properly respond. The brake pedal began to vibrate and shake but the vehicle did not slow down. I applied the brakes harder and the vehicle came to a slow stop. Once the vehicle stopped a warning buzzer sounded and the vehicles message center stated "check advtrac". the advtrac feature disabled and I was able to drive the vehicle home safely. The next day, (today 3/15/04), I drove the vehicle to the Ford dealership without event. The dealership had no idea what the problem was but stated they would contact Ford and let me know. This event took place on a clear paved dry flat road. Fortunately, there were no other cars in my path of travel. Had there been, a collision would have occurred due to the failure of the braking system. The vehicle has 2014 miles and the VIN is [xxx]. the vehicle was being operated in the "2high" mode. This is a serious system failure related directly to the advtrac system. Update 07/30/2012 information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
When coming off a ramp and merging into oncoming traffic the accelerator became stuck. The driver had to slam on the brakes and place the transmission into neutral. At 1,470 miles while pulling into the driveway the truck suddenly stopped accelerating and would only go in reverse. The automatic transmission piston had disintegrated.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Upland, CA, USA