CarComplaints.com Notes: The Freestar was introduced in 2004, but it was essentially just a rebranded Windstar. While there was a redesign of the interior and exterior, the Freestar still inherited some of the design flaws of its predecessor.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
3 / 2
Injuries / Deaths:
5 / 0
Average Mileage:
77,610 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
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.
The contact owns a 2004 Ford Freestar. While driving approximately 45 mph on normal road conditions, the vehicle hesitated when the accelerator pedal was depressed. Suddenly, the transmission failed without warning. Roadside assistance was called to the scene and the vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic. The transmission torque component was determined to be the cause of the failure. The contact was concerned of the safety risk involved. The current and failure mileages were 68,000. Updated 12/15/08. Updated 12/15/08.
2004 Freestar while driving at approximately 35-40mph transmission stopped working can was still running but would not move. Luckily was able to pull to the side of the road safely talked to local dealership was quoted 3500 to repair was told needed new transmission.
2004 Ford Freestar.........splines on transmission shattered and ruined transmission...Ford made me so angry with "non-response" I had local shop fix it. I would not pay Ford any $$$$ for anything....van had 80000 miles on it when trans went out.....many stories on-line with similar issues.
My transmission went out on my van without warning or notice and I had to fight traffic really busy traffic with my kids and grandkids in the car around 1:30 am. This shouldn't have happened and it did. Why no warning and why all of a sudden did it quit. This is a recall problem and needs to be recalled so this can be fixed so I can find a job. This caused lots of grief and problems and now I am out a car and it costs over $3000 to fix it. What can be done to fix this? please recall this so others like me can bet there van fixed... thank you
Last week, in order to prepare for a trip away I had my 2004 Ford Freestar serviced and got new tires, etc., and then the mechanic said I needed new brakes and rotors and spent $1,000 on parts and labor (including the tires). He showed me the rotors and explained how bad of shape they were in, there were deep grooves in them. At least feeling confident that all this work was completed and I was ready for my trip, off I went. Then all of a sudden driving at 70 mph on the pa turnpike I realized the power had gone from the gas pedal and the van would not go forward. I quickly pulled to the side and turned vehicle off, then tried again, it would not go in drive or reverse or any lower gear. My van is now in the transmission shop and the mechanic has just informed me that the torque converter is totally shot and he explained to me that this seems to be a problem with these vehicles and now I have to spend another $1,000 or more to have this problem fixed. So within one week, I have now spent $2,000 on this vehicle. If it was an old piece of junk I would have just bought a new vehicle. But it's only four years old. This is totally unacceptable and I will never buy a Ford again.
- Susquehanna, PA, USA
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On October 14th, 2008 as my wife and 4 yr old were traveling in I-90 outside of cleveland, the 2004 Ford Freestar she was driving began to slow although the engine began to rev higher. The car eventually stopped in the center lane of I-90 and luckily a passerby stopped to help get the vehicle off the road. My wife and 4 yr old walked to my place of employment and then took my car home. I had the 2004 Freestar towed to john lance Ford where it was diagnosed as having a failed oil pump in the transmission which caused the failure of a drive shaft and the burning up of essential gears. The cost of the repair was $1,600.
The transmission on my '04 Ford Freestar failed. The dealer fixed it telling me that it was the torque converter. The next day while traveling on the highway the tachometer started to bounce around 2000 rpms and I could feel surges where the 'torque converter was not converting.' I returned it to my Ford dealer this morning and they told me there is nothing wrong. So here I am with a faulty transmission and Ford claiming it is alright. I wonder how long it will go before breaking down? I have no confidence in driving it at all. Hopefully when it does break down there is no car barreling down behind me as I cruise to a stop. Fortunately no deaths or injuries, so far.
My wife was driving our 2004 Ford Freestar SE down a country road yesterday. Without warning, the vehicle slowed to a stop and would not move forward or reverse. This is the first time we have had this trouble with the Freestar. Upon having the vehicle towed to a mechanic, it was learned that the transmission had gone out. The vehicle has 107,000 miles on it and gave no warning signs to indicate trouble. We haven't had the vehicle fixed yet as it's going to cost between 1800.00-3000.00 plus. Depending on if we have the transmission rebuilt or purchase a used or new one. This is money we really can't afford right now. While I was looking at a forum, I found this was a very common issue with the 2004 Ford Freestar transmissions. Yet, Ford has not issued a recall. Now, I"M stuck with a van that does not run and a lot of payments still owed on it. I hope something can be done about Ford and these Freestar's.
The transmission on my car went out at 75000 miles. I had a 100,000 warranty so I had it towed to the dealer. My warranty company would not pay for the repairs since I could not located my 30K service on the transmission. I had just moved and since my papers where not available to me I tried to contact the dealer where I had service. I could not get the paperwork from them since they had gone out of business. I tried to located my service online and in the process came across hundreds of complaints of the same make and model transmissions. The problems all seem to come from the torque converter. These complaints have been filed with the NHTSA. Ford has even admitted to the problem and has paid many of the complaints. When I call and asked to have my covered they just kept repeating that they did not cover any out of warranty work. As late as Sept 22 2008 they had just paid a 1600 claim on a car that had 90K on it with no warranty. 1).why is there no recall after all the hundreds of complaints some risking injury. 2).why are they allowed to pay some and not others depending on someone's whim. I call the dealer back and even he admitted to me that if I would have brought my car in before Oct. 1 that I would have had alot better chance of getting some help. This is crazy. I had problems with my transmission at 10K but they "claim" this is unrelated. How can this be allowed to go on. Your warranty that I paid $1000 for rest on a piece of paper and Ford is allow to pick and choose whatever they want to do.
Ford Freestar 2004, 50K miles on it. Just stopped in the middle of the road. Towed to dealership. Diagnostic suggested failure of the torque converter.
Wife was driving down the road, and the van quit pulling. Like it was put into neutral. She coasted to the railroad crossing by our house, and was stopped by the signal going down. There the van sat till the tow truck came.
I was driving my 2004 Ford Freestar on I-44 when it suddenly appeared to be in neutral and would not go forward or backward. A wrecker was called and the transmission was ruined and has to be replaced. We were lucky to not have been involved in an accident. The mechanic said that with only 65000 miles on the van he couldn't find a reason why it stopped. The torque converter was stripped and transmission had to be replaced. We have owned Ford before and never had this type of problem. I have read that this has happened to many people on myride.com. Are there any recalls. We were in a very small town and were lucky to find a transmission mechanic. I have not contacted Ford since I got home. We had to rent a car to get to okc from Missouri.
My husband and I along with our 3 children were driving home from vacation. The whole ride went very smoothly no problems no warning lights nothing. We were stopped at a traffic light, when the light turned green my husband started going all of a sudden the engine started to rev and our van would not move. It was like it was stuck in neutral. My husband got out and pushed the van to the side of the road and called for assistance. When they got there they checked the transmission fluid and it all was good. We have to van towed to our house and there it now sits. I am completely amazed on how a vital part of my van can just stop working with no warning nothing.
My wife and six children were traveling East on I-90 nearing the rt. 615 exit for mentor, Ohio when our 2004 Ford Freestar suffered an immediate and complete loss of the drive train function. Fortunately she was able to coast to the shoulder where she called for a towtruck and had the van delivered to the Firestone auto care center in mentor, Ohio. It was determined that the van, which had no history of drive train problems, had sheared off and destroyed its drive components after the torque converter. Firestone did the repairs in a timely and satisfactory manner. The total bill thru Firestone including the tow, troubleshooting, parts and repairs was $2,867.08. The old parts are not available.
Our family was driving in our car when all of a sudden the car went into "neutral" no advance warning or problems. Thank the lord we were able to coast off of the road without incident and had to have our car towed to a transmission specialist.
I was driving my 2004 Ford Freestar on interstate 95 in Virginia when the automatic transmission cut out. I was driving at 65 mph and was lucky to get off the road. I bought the van used from a Ford dealer last year. It only has 40,000 miles on it.
I have a 2004 Ford free star with only 67K miles on it. My transmission slid out of gear on a back country road with my 3 year old son. My mechanic said this was known issue with Ford vehicles. From what I read on line there are multiple owners of this same kind of vehicle where the transmission is failing at this amount of miles or less. Ford is doing nothing about it. They say there are no recalls on this VIN # I can't believe they wont recall the transmission and have fixed. They know there is a issue with them. I read over 20 different blogs on Ford and there transmissions failing.
Very dangerous. I was driving home with my kids and my grandkids in the car and all of a sudden with no warning, no lights, no nothing, the car recs into high RPM's and then all of a sudden just coasting hoping to not crash the vehicle. No power, wow what a mess. I have read all of the forums on this, Ford or the NHTSA doing anything on this, these cars are suppose to be safe and when things go wrong with them you atleast get a warning of some kind with lights. This really needs to be recalled before someone gets hurt or killed in this matter. I myself was lucky it died at the top of the hill so I coasted to my closest spot off the highway so there was not an issue with carrying babies on the highway? Ford should address this problem immediately. This is suppose to be a family vehicle not a deadly drive. Please take care of this immediately so this does not happen to others.
I was driving down the road and with no warning or lights the RPM's just went nuts and then the car had no power when using gas, the car was still running but did not move, was stuck in the middle of traffic with children in the car. I was told these cars do this with no warning and this is just not fair and safe. So I was told to report this to you with these problems, now I have a big bill on my hands, what really upsets me is that I cou ld have wrecked, the warning lights should have atleast came on and some sort of noise in the tranny should have been there. But no nothing. I have not had it replaced yet but I still was told to tell you about this issue with my van.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Columbus , OH, USA