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Ford Freestar Transmission Problems

1889 messages,  Last post on May 07, 2013 at 10:10 AM

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What is this discussion about? Ford Freestar, Mercury Monterey, Transmission, Van


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Messages Page 36 of 189

#350 of 1889 Add yet another one to the list... by gatorz1970

Aug 30, 2008 (1:55 pm)

My wife was driving home from work last night and while going over the Indian River bridge at 55mph, the engine revved up on her and acted like it was in neutral with no warning whatsoever. Our van is a 2005 Mercury Monterey with 57000 miles, and we don't have the extended warranty. However, it makes no sense to me that a transmission should fail on a car we have owned for less than 3 years. I have filed a complaint to Ford Motor Company, NHTSA, and have also emailed every local news channel's consumer investigator department. I suggest we flood a couple major news channels with complaints, it worked with the Dodge dashboard problem. Anyway, I had the car towed to the nearest Mercury dealership which doesn't open until after Labor Day. If anyone has more suggestions please respond. My wife's lucky she was able to get over the bridge and coast to the side of the road, but eventually someone's going to get injured or worse.

#351 of 1889 Re: Add yet another one to the list... [gatorz1970] by jgenovese

Aug 31, 2008 (8:11 am)

Replying to: gatorz1970 (Aug 30, 2008 1:55 pm)
You are absolutely correct.It is just a matter of time before someone is injured or killed because of this defect. A Ford rep has already admitted that it is defect to a customer here in MD so they can't continue to deny responsibility or knowledge of it as they have for the last few years. NHTSA certainly can't deny it anymore either. At some point, somebody from one of these organizations will have to step up and do what is right. Our job is to NEVER GIVE UP until this happens. Thank you for taking the time to report your experience. It is this type of grass roots, consumer driven effort that will force the issue and cause some action to be taken. If nothing else comes from it, we may just be able to save someone's life.
 
Jim Genovese
Annapolis, MD

#352 of 1889 Re: Add yet another one to the list... [jgenovese] by ohninethirteen

Sep 02, 2008 (10:13 pm)

Replying to: jgenovese (Aug 31, 2008 8:11 am)
I was driving home on Aug. 31 with my wife and kids, going approx 45-50 mph when suddenly the van acted like it was in neutral and wouldn't pull. Luckily there was no traffic and was able to get it to the side of the road. I checked all the fuses none were bad, ATF was full, no warning lights no indication of any problem. I guess I will be going to the dealer tomorrow to see what lies they will tell me. How do you send a message to NHTSA? Maybe if we all send a message they might do something.

#353 of 1889 Me Too! by drew999999

Sep 04, 2008 (1:58 pm)

Bought our 2005 Freestar new off the lot. Had the tranny fluid changed at about 29k. Last Friday at 41,005 miles, the wife pulled up to a stoplight with no issues. Took her foot of the brake and touched the gas and no-go. Not a bump or clunk.
 
First thing that came to mind while pushing her van to a parking lot was the linkage. Everything looked good. Then I checked the fluid while the engine was off and then again while running and both read a bit high. That's when I thought it may be the torque converter. Found this thread about 5 minutes after getting home. Had it towed to aamco and they finally got it torn apart and confirmed that the converter splines are stripped. Metal fragments lodged in the valve body also. $2600 for a rebuild. I've never heard of a vehicle with more failed transmissions under 50k and no TSB. The guys at aamco have been pretty good with me so far. I was skeptical, but I'm not about to give ford another nickel. They are documenting what was found and I even talked them into snapping a few pictures of the converter splines and metal fragments in the valve body to pass along to ford.
 
I've always had good luck with fords, but this van is the worst. It chews through front rotors like nothing I've seen before. Good luck all!

#354 of 1889 Re: Me Too! [drew999999] by jgenovese

Sep 08, 2008 (6:47 am)

Replying to: drew999999 (Sep 04, 2008 1:58 pm)
It is absolutely amazing to me that neither Ford nor NHTSA will do anything about this fiasco. It is just a matter of time before somebody gets killed because of this defect! Your story is identical to mine and so many others. We are trulyblessed that no one has been hurt yet. My wife and 5 of my 6 children were in our van when ours failed in the middle of an intersection. Our Ford dealer, KOONS FORD OF ANNAPOLIS, flat out lied to us and told us they had never heard of this before and said it was our fault because we didn't have the tranny flushed at 30K. What a bunch of nonsense! This was the plan all along because Ford new this defect existed when they rebadged the Windstar as the Freestar and likely long before that! Most recently, a Ford rep admitted to a customer here in MD that it was a defect. This rep was flown in by Ford from Detroit so, it is obvious that Ford has taken notice of the problem. I doubt, however, that they will do anything for the thousands of families like ours that are out thousands of dollars and forced to drive a vehicle that we can no longer have faith in to keep our families safe on the road. The irony of it all is that we bought this vehicle based primarily on Ford's claims of its "Best in Class" safety. What a fraud! Thank God for the internet. Were it not for our ability to link up in forums like this one, we would not have a chance to fight this. However; because we do, we have strength in numbers and the power to keep this going until either Ford or NHTSA gets up off of their cowardly behinds and does something before somebody gets seriously injured or killed.
 
Keep the faith and keep spreading the word. Tell everyone you know, especially others with this ticking time bomb, about it. In situations like this, there is nothing more powerful than a knowledgable consumer.
 
Jim Genovese
Annapolis, MD

#355 of 1889 Re: Add yet another one to the list... [ohninethirteen] by jgenovese

Sep 08, 2008 (7:03 am)

Replying to: ohninethirteen (Sep 02, 2008 10:13 pm)
Just go to the NHTSA website and follow the prompts. It is pretty user friendly but you will need to be prepared with your VIN and some other basics about your van such as engine size/type etc. As far as, "Maybe if enough of us report this they will do something"; They have had MANY, MANY reports and still have done NOTHING! When I inquired if there was a "magic number of complaints" or if somebody had to die before they took any action, they replied with a standard Email that denies either of these things. I'm guessing that they are either woefully inept or in Ford's pocket. Either way, the consumer suffers. That said however; we still need to report each and every failure so that when, not if, somebody does get killed, these cowards can't claim that they didn't know this defect existed and they can be held responsible. Remember the Explorer/Firestone tires case? Ford denied responsibilty but then turned around and completely redesigned the Explorer making it a much safer vehicle. What a COINCIDENCE! The Freestar however, will never be back though. It was such a huge failure due to defects such as the one we experienced, that after a name change, (Windstar to Freestar), didn't solve the engineering problems, (Meant to be as ridiculous as it sounds because that is why Ford did it), it was still the same defective failure and eventually dropped from the lineup alltogether. What a shame too because this segment of the market is HUGE and Ford can't comptete. No wonder it is as close to going under as it has ever been.
 
Jim Genovese
Annapolis, MD

#356 of 1889 Caught mine before it went by rgarlitz

Sep 13, 2008 (6:13 pm)

Our '04 Freestar with 32,000 miles was whining in the engine compartment (It started around 31,000) after miss diagnosis, they said it was the alternator - WRONG. So the tranny guy at Ford pin pointed to the Torque Converter. Once they tore into it they also found the Stator Support and Torque Convertor Bushing worn. Thank the holy heavens we purchased the extended warranty, I figure that we broke even on the cost of it. So if you hear a high pitched sound when you take off or just hold the brake and gas it. This is a warning shot. I even flushed the transmission fluid the last two summers before taking it on vacation, so exchanging the fluid did not even stop failure.

#357 of 1889 Re: Caught mine before it went [rgarlitz] by jgenovese

Sep 15, 2008 (8:41 pm)

Replying to: rgarlitz (Sep 13, 2008 6:13 pm)
You are absolutely right. Flushing the tranny will not prevent this failure yet, this is the excuse Ford gives when they say they won't cover the replacement cost if you did not have this done at 30K miles. More proof of the FRAUD that Ford is perpetuating on its customers. What a bunch of cowards.

#358 of 1889 Sucking up got me 1600 discount by notafordguynow

Sep 20, 2008 (8:20 pm)

Wife driving home and transmission on my (her) 2005 Ford Freestar (52K miles) just suddenly stopped pulling while driving down the road at about 50mph. Luckinly it was only about a mile from home and she was able to call a friend to help her push it out of the road. I saw this post for the first time about a week and a half ago. At first I was hoping to find good news, but when I got on the post and read the stories, my heart sank. I got better things to do with three grand. Long story short is this. I saw a post around 9-10 months ago from a lady that said she worked at a call center and that the call center classifies people when they call in using cues like tone of voice, etc. People that call in all mad and demanding action and stating they ain't never gonna buy another Ford again will get no help at all. So I took this to the extreme. I asked the service guy very nicely if there was anything that he could do and his answer was party line, it is out of warranty, sorry. I had a 100K dealer promise warranty from the PA dealership where I bought this thing, so I asked him if there was anything that they could do in a coorpoerative way with the other dealer. Again, party line. Sensing I was getting nowwhere, I asked pleasently for the Ford 800 number and he gave it to me. I called up corporate Ford and told them that my wife and I loved the car (I lied) and were just really surprised to have a tranny go at 50K. I told them that I had bought two brand new Fords inthe last 5 year (which was true) and really like them both and wanted to continue to bur Fords but that the whole tranny deal really had me worried. At times, I was sucking so hard that I had to put the phone on mute because I was giggling at how well they appeared to be believing everything that I was saying. Anyway final ESTIMATE was 3100 for the dealer to replace the tranny. Ford only charged me 1350.... and they gave me a 3 year/ 36000 warranty to boot....Suckers.... Hope somebody else reads this post and is successful at getting this huge discount on a replacement tranny until they finally recall this piece of crap.

#359 of 1889 Re: Sucking up got me 1600 discount [notafordguynow] by gatorz1970

Sep 22, 2008 (3:41 am)

Replying to: notafordguynow (Sep 20, 2008 8:20 pm)
Worked for me too!! The first thing you have to do when this happens is have it towed to a ford dealership. If you take it anywhere else, you are footing the entire bill. I called Ford and gave them the story and told them I have purchased 7 Fords in the last 14 years (which is true, always been a Ford guy). I told them the same thing, that we loved the van and couldn't believe the tranny would go at 57k. The estimate from the dealer was 1650.00. Ford paid 1050. They did a follow up after the car was fixed and I told them that I was still uneasy about my wife driving the car knowing that this is happening to so many people, and stressed to them that Ford needs to design a better torque converter and issue a recall before someone else isn't so lucky.

Messages Page 36 of 189

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