Thank God this happened while I was sitting in the driveway. Was just getting ready to take my son to school, put car in reverse and suddenly the drivers front just dropped to the ground. I got out and checked and the tire was flat and laying on the rim. I looked around thinking maybe one of my kids left something out and it was under the tire. After more inspection, I felt around the inside of the tire only to find a snapped coil spring cut into the tire. spent 70.00 to get towed 3 miles and 1100.00 for replacement to both front coil spring strut assemblies. wrote a letter to ford to make them aware that this could be a safety issue. ford's response was blah blah blah, wear and tear, sorry to hear about your troubles and thanks for being a ford customer. well, not anymore. last New vehicle we purchased is not a ford.

I had the same problem with My Wife's car. Backing out of the garage, tire blew and when I looked and saw the problem I was Pissed! I spent 40 years in the auto industry as an Engineer and after working for all the US car companies (GM, Ford, AMC and Chrysler) considered Ford to have the better product...Shame on Me!

I think we should voice our complaints to the Manufacturer of the defective spring, not Ford. Ford did Not make the spring...I don't know who did, but I will try to find out. My wife drives 120 miles a day (round trip to work) and I wanted her to have a safe vehicle so I had all four springs replaced at a cost of $750. Have not had a problem with the aftermarket struts, they proved to be a much better product than the Ford Original Equipment which I venture to think is made in MALAYSIA. I know for a fact thats where those Plastic Sway Bars are made (it says that right on them!!$%^&!!)

A week after rear strut and swaybar replaced, and not driven for a week, I decided to take it out for a spin. I started the car and it began right away to make an awful noise. I thought it was from sitting in this hot and humid weather.

Anyhow, I drove a block away, and my eyes began to water and sting, and it reeked of the smell of something burning. Then an awful bang, and smoke was rolling out the front of the car something awful. This was at 20 miles per hour. I immediately pulled over and stopped, with cars honking at me and motioning towards the car, to let me I had a problem. I thought the car was on fire.

The spring, strut and swaybar had given way and blew my front drivers side tire to smithereens and caught it afire. A nice passerby offered to drive it back to where they had repaired just a week ago. Now this was a huge problem. If I had been going down the highway at 55 miles per hour, my car would have possibly rolled over, and I could have been killed or killed or injured someone besides myself. Wouldn't you think that being as this horrible incident happening just a week from repairing the rear with no symptoms, that they would have inspected the whole side and repaired all of it before passing it. This is definitely a road hazard. The best part of it is Ford will do nothing about it. I put in a complaint to the vehicle safety board and was told that unless they had the parts from the original repairs, there was nothing that they could do. They totally ignored this last problem period.

I will never get in and drive this car again. And I don't intend to spend anymore repairs. What's next? The right front and rear doing the same thing. Oh no. I will junk it first, where it should be along with all other Ford Tauruses.

My wife was leaving school and went to back out of her parking space when she heard a snap and then the sound of tire pressure being released from her front passenger tire. She stopped reversing and went to inspect the outside of the car when she had noticed the front passenger side tire was completely flat. She contacted me and when I arrived to change the flat, I could not remove the tire easily, I had to really work to get the tire off. Finally upon removal I noticed that a 5 inch section of the broken front spring was lodged in the tire.

This was the third of four spring on the car that have broke within the past 18 months(previously both rear springs were broke and replaced by myself and a family member who is a Ford Mechanic). The brand new tire is a total loss and when I had contacted the dealership(on hold for 20 minutes) to discuss the issue and look for a resolution on the issue at hand I was told that there was in fact a recall for this issue, but not my particular model it was only in place for certain vehicle built at certain plants and my vehicle was not covered under the warranty. I was quoted a price to fix both front springs which was double the price of my mechanic and the dealer was focused on getting me to use Ford OEM replacement parts at which time I had ask why would I use the same parts where 3 out of 4 have already proved to be defective. I realized this was not going to be resolved with the dealer so I contacted Ford Customer service department and explained my concern and dissatisfaction in an informed and polite manner to the first employee and then her supervisor both of which assured me that there was nothing that they could do. I then asked for a contact further up the chain of command and was denied, so I asked for contact info to the CEO of Ford Motor Co. and I was provided with a case # and an addressed to mail a written complaint. and then I was told to have a good day my 10 minutes were up and let go.

My Family member who is a Ford Mechanic stated there was a recall for this problem and the fix was not to replace the actual parts(springs) that are faulty, but the fix was to attach a plate that when the spring broke(because they no they will) this would shield the tire from being punctured and creating more damage as well as the risk of personal injury from the defective parts. I for one have always been a Ford fan until now. The address that I was supplied to mail my complaint to is as follows:

"Ford Motor Company P.O. Box 6248 Dearborn, MI. 48126 Attn: Customer Service

I will be writing to this address once a week until my concerns are addressed properly. Although I am going to be out a considerable amount of time and money over this issue that was preventable, I am more concerned over the possibility that my Wife could have been seriously injured if this problem had happened on the highway at a higher rate of speed as well as if my two children could have also been in the car.

It seems a shame that a company that has long stood for quality and pride in craftmanship and innovation is reluctant to address a safety concern such as this, especially when in could result in the loss or serious injury of human life.

Shame on Ford Motor Co. for selling and not owning up to cars with serious mechanical defects. This is a prime example why Hard Working Americans are finding value by choosing to purchase imported cars over ones manufactured in the USA. Once again what a shame."

I will update my complaint as needed upon status and resolution. I encourage everyone who has also experienced this issue to write to the address above and mark on your envelope as I will be doing "Safety Issue 2002 Ford Taurus defective springs" perhaps if they receive enough complaints someone will have to address this problem in a more professional matter.

Feel free to contact via email if anyone wishes to know more about what research I have done on this issue. jkrogh31@sbcglobal.net

John Krogh

Backed out of garage and drove about 2' forward and heard a noise like a crunch from right front, thought it was something in the snow so I easily backed up a few feet and drove forward again. It was very hard and rough sounding going forward so I stopped and looked, expecting a flat tire. Yup flat. I slowly drove part way back into the garage to have a solid surface to change the tire instead of in 10" of snow. Discovered that I had shredded the inside of the tire from the broken spring sticking out. Fortunately the donut was about 1/2" away from the spring tip so I could drive the car to the shop without having to have the car towed. $1300 for 2 struts and link kits and about $110 for a new tire. Nice job Ford. The old Ford spring diameter is about 1/2" while the new Monroe Quick Strut has a much thicker spring diameter, about 5/8".

My wife was using my 2002 Taurus to visit me in the hospital. She was a mile from home, heard a loud noise when the tire blew, pulled the car to the side of the road and waited for the tow truck. Come to find out the front spring broke and went thru a one year old tire. I just put rear springs on this car last year because both of them were broken at the bottom of the springs.

Having owned a 1998 Windstar that also had broken front springs, which I didn't realize until I went to have it inspected, I would not even think of buying another Ford product.

i know this isn't going to do any good but i'm going to complain anyway. as with everyone else, as i backed out of my garage the front spring broke. i had my grandson in the car to take him to school. had to call my son to get him to school, called repair & they had to tow it. they did replace both front springs & struts because they said the other will probably go too. only 40,000 miles on it, my only means of transportation & i had just put all new tires on it the month before. it was a very scary thing & was also very upsetting, it's something i just could not afford but had to have my car.

I was in my driveway leaving for work when I heard a loud BANG. I thought my daughter had left a toy in front of the car and I ran over it. I got out, looked, nothing. Started down the driveway again to a really loud noise. Backed up, thats when my husband came out and asked what I ran over. He said spring was breaking. he tried to drive 3 miles to our mechanic and it totally broke and punctured the tire. The car was a fairly good car until one thing started and now it seems like the whole thing is falling apart.

I was on my way to work this morning. We had snow on the roads. When I pulled out of the garage, I heard a rubbing sound that would increase as I increased speed. I thought that I had a buildup of snow on the mudflap. When I got to the corner and turned, I smelled a burning rubber smell. When I turned at the next block and started to accelerate, I had an increasing shimmy in the front, so I pulled over to check my tire and it was pancake flat! I had to call for help and when my mechanic arrived and took the tire off, he found that the spring had broken and rubbed a wear path on the inside of the tire before rupturing it. After getting it into the shop he found that it had also broken the strut and tore up the stabilizer bar as well as ruining my NEW tire! He said that it tore up a bunch of stuff down there. I have no idea what it is going to cost to repair it all yet. I did not hear any kind of popping sound or anything when my spring broke like some of the other people mentioned. I too, would hope that the company would cover at least part of these repairs, however, I don't know that there is a recall out there for this. Has anyone else had luck with this?

Driving on QEW and heard a noise on right front passenger side, and continued rubbing sound--thought it was a caliper sticking due to ice and snowy conditions; kept driving on the expressway to border-crossing/Peace Bridge to USA (Buffalo). Realized when finally stopped real problem and put blinkers on and made it to repair shop who told me that they found broken spring which fortunately for me did not fully puncture brand new tire!! Had it done so I might not be writing this now for I was doing highway speeds in snow/ice conditions---easily could have lost control and injured/killed myself or others!!!! Realized when I went to your website others have had such problems...NOW I AM RELUCTANT TO PURCHASE ANY NEW FORD PRODUCT...THEY SHOULD HAVE HAD A RECALL ON THIS!! THEIR FAILURE TO DO SO, HAVING DONE FOR A SELECT YEAR ONLY, INDICATES THEY HAD KNOWLEDGE (LIKE TOYOTA) AND WOULD BE ENTIRELY CULPABLE SHOULD THERE BE LAWSUITS.

My husband is 75 and I am 69. We have had this 2002 Taurus for almost 6 years. I do all the driving. For the past few days, I have heard a strange sound coming from the front left side of the car. I took it in this morning to my regular mechanic who immediately diagnosed it as a broken suspension spring. He further advised that Ford had previously had problems like this on Tauruses (2001 had a recall). He pointed out that it is a very dangerous problem and should be addressed as soon as possible. I am having it fixed in the morning; the cost will be almost $1,000. The car is hardly worth more than that. We are on a fixed income and certainly cannot afford a $1,000 car repair! I am going to write directly to Ford and demand that they reimburse us for our repair costs.

If anyone has been able to get reimbursement from Ford for this repair, I would appreciate knowing who to contact to also receive this reimbursement.

Same story. I was backing out of my drive and stopped to look for traffic and my front left tire exploded. Scared the crap out of me. The spring was broken and tore the whole inside of my NEW tire. I had just finished a trip that had it happened on the freeway I could have been killed along with my 10 yr. old granddaughter and my daughter. My car has only 62,000 miles on it. I can not move it with the spare on it for fear it will pop that also. I was getting ready to take a trip next week and was just told my Mother was in the hospital and now I have to wait to get it fixed. I have been told it could cost almost $ 1,000 and that is not counting the towing and the new tire. I just lost my job of 30 yr.( forced to retire early) and have not even gotten SS yet. Now I have to worry about if this is going to happen again.

This is my second Taurus and our 6th Ford over the yrs. I will not take my car the our local dealer anymore however because of very very poor service I received when I bought this last Taurus. I was told by my mechanic ( not the ford one ) that this was a known problem. It is only a matter of time before someone dies and then they will have a big law suit. My brother-in-law owns a Chevy dealership maybe I should look there! We do have a Chevy truck. Something needs to be done and done soon. I think I will contact the local TV station.