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.
This van has a bad computer board (PCM) due to rainwater that is allowed to funnel under the hood due to poor design of the hood. It is also possible that the transmission is being affected by this as well. The vehicle just stopped shifting into gear, followed by all sorts of electrical problems. The mechanic said the PCM was full of water and would need to be replaced. There are numerous message boards on the internet discussing this exact same problem with Ford Freestars ranging from 2004-2007 model years. Ford needs to issue a recall on these vans as this causes the engine to stall and this could happen at any time - in the middle of a busy intersection, on the highway, etc. This could have devastating results if it happens at the wrong time. Also, from what I've read on these message boards - this is a repeat problem!!!! once you fix this you will have the same problem in a year or two. NHTSA should do some research outside of formal complaints filed as I'm sure most people do not know the proper route to go. A simple internet search (that would allow you to contact or respond to individual reports) would direct you to hundreds of people with the exact same issue!
On 12/04/2011 driving on a busy 2 way highway with no pull off areas. The transmission started jerking and loss of power. After getting the van back to the house to change the fluid and filter, I find a chunk of metal on the magnet. ( which I still have ) with this van only having 110,883 there is reason for this van to be down with transmission problems. I have a 2003 Ford crown vic ( police unit ) over 356,000 miles on it- still going have a 1999 Ford F250 with over 120,000 miles on it - still going so what's the issue with the 2005 Ford free star? I will never buy another Ford unless Ford steps up and fixes these transmission.
The vehicle starts fine, but as soon as I get to about 20mph, the vehicle stalls. I have taken the vehicle to the Ford dealership atleast four times. At first they said it was something in the transmission, then they said it was the torque converter, finally they decided it was the PCM getting wet. They said they sealed the PCM to keep it from getting wet, but all they did was caulk around the brackets that fastens the wiper cow on. Finally after getting tired of taking the van back to the dealership, I decided to pull everything apart myself. What I discovered was the PCM is located in a place that it shouldn't be. It is located on the passenger side of the firewall under the wiper cow. Water runs behind the wiper cow directly on the PCM. I have contacted the dealership about it, but all they say is, " we cant do anything about it because there is no recall". I looked online to see if other people are having problems, and to no surprise, there are literally hundreds of consumers with the exact same issues. I feel that this could potentially be unsafe to motorists, simply because the entire vehicle shuts down as you are driving. When the vehicle shuts down, there is no longer power steering or power brakes, which makes it difficult to safely control the vehicle. Please do what you can.
Total loss of power occurred, engine kept running but transmission did not engage. Mechanic found bad transmission / torque converter and needs to be replaced at estimate of $2500. This occurred in heavy traffic while my wife was driving and created a very unsafe condition. It just rolled to a stop. There were no warning lights, loud sounds or other symptoms.
The contact owns a 2005 Ford Freestar. The contact stated that the vehicle would not accelerate in drive or reverse. The contact towed the vehicle to a local mechanic where the mechanic informed the contact that the transmission needed to be replaced. The contact called the manufacturer and the manufacturer stated that the vehicle was out of warranty and there was nothing they could do to assist. The failure mileage was 50,705.
- Oakville, CT, USA
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While traveling on the interstate at 70 miles an hour, I notice that when I put on the gas the engine would race but there was a loss of forward motion. So I am on the interstate and losing speed rapidly. I was able to slow down and pull over to the side of the road on a bridge. Cars, buses and trucks were flying by at 70+ mph. The bridge would shake and there were times it looked like we would be hit by other cars. We call aaa and after an hour and 30 minutes were rescued by the tow truck. Our van was towed to the closes Ford dealer. The next day we were informed that our transmission torque converted had failed and the repair would be approximately $1,800. At a 104,594 miles and no warning the transmission was done. This was the second time in 27 months that the torque converter has failed. When the van had approximately 59,000 miles on it the torque converter failed. It was repaired at the local Ford dealer and has failed again. This torque converter is defected and places the passenger of the van in great danger when it fails.
I was drive my 2005 Ford Freestar van and as starting to go up overpass loss all drive power, engine was running ok but transmission was gone. Luckily this was a new bridge which had a place to pull over. I made to the top over the over pass because of speed before transmission quit. I had no warning just an all the sudden loss of the transmission. When I stopped on top of bridge I tried all gears including reverse and nothing. This is dangerous me and my wife could have been rear ended and killed because of this, between loss of drive train and crazy drivers while waiting for a tow truck to take us home. Ford need to fix cause of this problem and fix every Ford Freestar ever sold.
My wife was parking the van and backed up for better access to the parking space. When she shifted back to drive the vehicle would not move. She called me and I went to check out the vehicle and found no transmission engagement in any gear. I checked the manual linkage and it was connected and tight. I checked the oil and noted the oil was quite a bit above the full level like the transmission pump had quit working. We towed the vehicle to the shop where I work and removed the transmission pan. We found the transmission pan clean with only normal amounts of metal on the magnet and no indication of burned clutches. After reading the descriptions of many similar failures on the various boards I am fairly certain we will find torque converter/input shaft failure when we remove and disassemble the transmission.
My wife and I own a 2005 Ford Windstar. On Oct. 21 2011 my wife arrived home from work and I took the van to pick up my son from his school. Without warning the vans rpms went up and then the van stalled. I restarted the van but the van acted like it did not want to shift gears and the van stalled again. I was only 1block from home and was lucky to make it home while having to restart the van several times. I called the local Ford service center and they said to tow it there and it would cost $100 to hook it up to their computer. I love how it cost me $100 to have Ford tell me whats wrong then wants me to pay them to fix it. It only takes 5 minutes to hook up the computer with all the complaints I have seen you would think they should know. I was lucky to have a friend who works at Ford and he had to replace the PCM due to water coming into contact with the PCM. We got our van back on Thursday Nov. 3rd 2011. Then on Nov. 7th 2011(4 days later) my wife was on a busy interstate ramp getting ready to merge on the highway at about 45mph when the RPM's shot up the van hesitated and lost power she started coasting to the shoulder while traffic was speeding around her. It was also on a curve so traffic could not see her until they were right on top of her. Even on the shoulder when she called me she was terrified that someone was going to hit her because the shoulder was very narrow and traffic was within inches of the van. We had the van towed to Ford and they are going to take a look at it this Monday (Nov. 14, 2011) we are due to go out of town Friday Nov. 18th and we do not know if we will have a van to go on a vacation that has been planned for a year. My wife and I do not even know if we can trust our Ford Freestar to make the trip so we our going to have the extra expense of renting a car. We are out $750 so far and another $400 to rent a car. We have 83,000 mi.
I was driving with my 2 children when my 2005 Ford Freestar just stopped in the middle of the road. Thank god it was daytime, and not a lot of people on this road at the time. My car has only 54,000 miles on it. I was told afterward that it was my transmission. The transmission needs to be replaced. I had to wait standing with my 2 small children on the side of the road 20 minutes for a tow truck. This was very unsafe! their is no reason this should be. It is going to cost me $2000 to fix which I do not have. Of course my warranty only covered up until 50,000 miles. Ford said that's to bad. This is terrible something needs to be done immediately! this is no way to do business or to treat people. Someone needs to fix this...
My wife and daughter were traveling on a highway when without any warning the transmission suffered a complete breakdown. The engine was running fine, but the transmission was not transferring any power to the wheels. Stranded in the middle of a busy highway for three hours awaiting a tow, my wife and daughter tried in vain to get the vehicle to move off of the roadway while cars raced around them. The transmission gave no prior indication of impending mechanical problems and was always properly serviced. In my opinion a vehicle with only 56,000 miles showing no indications or warning signs should not have such a catastrophic failure. From my limited research it would appear that this is not one isolated incident of this exact circumstance. It seems likely that a defect in the torque converter caused the splines to shear off resulting in complete and sudden loss of power to the drive wheels which renders the vehicle inoperable. This can be particularly dangerous if it happens while merging, crossing an intersection or being stranded on a busy highway. Ford should be made to correct what seems like a very dangerous design flaw before someone has to be seriously injured or worse.
The contact owns a 2005 Ford Freestar. The contact was driving 50 mph when the vehicle stalled without warning. The contact drove in neutral to a local mechanic who advised that the fuel filter would need replacing. The vehicle was repaired but the failure recurred two weeks later. The vehicle was taken to a repair shop where the power control module was replaced but the failure persisted. The vehicle was towed back for inspection and the contact was advised by the mechanic that the transmission needed replacing. The transmission was replaced bu the failure was not corrected. It was then found that waster was entering the vehicle through the windshield and contacting the wiring for the power control. The mechanic removed the water from the tubes of the power control module and added caulk to prevent water intrusion. There was an investigation under NHTSA action number: PE10033 (vehicle speed control power train:automatic transmission:control module (tcm, PCM)) that could possibly have been related to the failure. The vehicle was repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 97,950.
While driving from Florida to Virginia on Monday, October 31, 2011 at dusk we experienced a sudden and unexpected loss of motive power due to failure of my 2005 Freestar's torque converter as diagnosed by the mechanics at jim bilton Ford. We were traveling 70 mph on I-95 in the left lane when the failure occurred. Fortunately, in spite of traffic, we were able to get into the right hand lane and over into the emergency lane. The vehicle had to be towed to the repair shop where the diagnoses was made. We were told the part was on national back order but they were able to get one in on Wednesday afternoon. When they installed it that part proved to be defective as well. They have ordered another part and it should be in Friday. I am, however, very concerned about the safety of this repair. Will there be yet another failure and will we be as lucky next time. In the meantime we are stranded in South Carolina each day thinking we will be getting our van back tomorrow.
We were in traffic to the browns football game getting ready to exit and the van just lost mobility, it wouldn't move, , I pressed on the gas and the engine revved but the van sat still, I was barely able to get it to the side of the road, the traffic was so bad everyone was trying to get to the game, we were so scared and almost hit several times. We called police for assistance but they never came, I finally found a number to Ford road side assistance, , they were good, and they got a good tow company, we sat and waited about an hour for help, but they came and towed it on a flat bed, we had it towed to spitzer Ford in cuyahgoa falls, they said it would be $2400 to replace the torque converter, they denied any ongoing problems, , but I had already searched it online and found that there is a massive problem with this torque converters just stopping, , I told spitzer service manager mike, we could not afford $2400 he said he could put a used rebuilt transmission in it for 500.00.. we took it to falls transmission for $915 and had the torque replaced, the owner said he is doing approximately 3 a week. They are coming in a lot..since then however, the van is shaking.. so I had to take it to be checked at G & R, they did a diagnostic and found nothing, so it has had to go back to the falls trans 3 times.. it shakes but he is not sure if it's the new torque, or something else. It is also out of align now.. tow bill from cleve $122 tow bill from Ford $50 torque converter $915.90 G & R diagnostic $69.23 total $1,157.13 and it still isn't running properly, , I had no car from October 2nd to October 6th, then I had to borrow a car again for the G&R check, , and 2 times after that when it had to go back to falls trans, , I am taking it back again 10/31/11 and leaving it at night for them to look at all day tues.
I was along the expressway about 55mph, then all unsudden the van made a jerk and begin to lose power and slowed pressed the gas pedal and it would not pick up speed so I managed to let it roll to the side of the road and stopped cut the motor off, and then cranked it back up put it into drive would not move then reverse would not move so cut it off and called for a tow truck.
Driving in parking area at 25 mph when there was a sudden and unexpected loss of motive power due to an internal transmission failure. Had to tow van to transmission specialist garage as there were no apparent reasons for the failure. Waiting for diagnosis at this time. No previous notice or indications of pending failure were present.
The contact owns a 2005 Ford Freestar. While the contact was driving approximately 25 mph the vehicle began to jerk and the transmission failed to respond. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic. The repairs performed on the vehicle consisted of the replacement of the torque converter, master air flow system and egr valve at different times. In addition, the belt tensioner was replaced. The failure occurred on three separate occasions. Most recently, the contact was advised that the transmission would need to be replaced. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 40,000.
The contact owns a 2005 Ford Freestar. While driving approximately 40 mph the vehicle began to hesitate and exhibit a severe jerking motion. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealer who stated the PCM needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired and within two days while driving in the rain the identical failure recurred; as a result water leaked into the PCM. The contact planned to take the vehicle back to the dealer to be repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 120,000.
Driving at 65 mph and auto starts coasting. Engine will rev, transmission has dis-engaged and will not re-engage. This is apparently a very common failure with this model. Transmission is out, no warning or noise; just gone. So many reported transmission failures, one has to wonder why there has been no recalls issued.
As we drove at the 60 mph speed limit on I-64 in St. Charles county, mo, in the middle of five lanes, our torque converter failed. The engine raced, as the cruise control attempted to control the speed as we drove up a hill. We coasted through traffic to the side of the road. At this point, there is virtually no shoulder in the interstate highway, so we were barely out of the way of traffic. We were on the downside of a hill, and on a curve, so there was no way oncoming traffic could slow to avoid us. We were extremely fortunate not to be hit as we coasted through the traffic lanes to the right side of the highway, and moreso that traffic approaching us from behind was able to avoid us. We had the van towed to a Ford dealership, and they replaced the torque converter, at a cost of more than $1,500. Though the van is repaired and back in working order, it was repaired with a torque converter, that. To my understanding, has the same defect that the original had. Therefore, I am uneasy at the thought that the same thing could happen again at any time.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Farmington Hills, MI, USA