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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 72 of 190

#703 of 1889 Stranded in the Desert by zzyxxrd

Aug 01, 2009 (6:54 am)

Good Morning, one and all !
   Although Beauty certainly abounds here with these red cliffs out in Lake Powell area in Az. and I am trying to be hopeful and up-beat, nonetheless, I am truly stranded.
  Had I known that a transmission, in any vehicle,. could just jump ship while on the highway, with no warning, I never would have embarked on a Maine to Los Angeles sojourn in my 2006 Freestar with 73,000 miles on it. I had previously only had the Dodge Grand Caravans, whose trannys go out more like 80,000 miles, and with gradual slippage, etc. I was well aware that a new or re-built one was close at hand and thus was in my area of New Hampshire with mechanics that I know and trust and will even take payments frm me.
    I tell you, I am in total shock about this ! I have never heard of such a thing; that is, until I Googled up "probs. 2006 Freestar trans." and voila ! I was to meet someone in Tuba City, Az. Thurs. so was coming thru Navajo Nation Monument Valley, pulled over to take pics., got back on road, and that was all she wrote ! I thought I would get over to side of road-just barely-and turn 'er off, then back on, and she would roll. Alas, no rolling ! So there I sat, no phone signal for miles, AAA pkg. used up for year, only about $200 in cash or credit, etc. etc.
   Got help frm new Navajo friend. Finally someone went to get a guy with a chain to pull me the 12 miles into Kayenta. Next day realized I had road-side srve w/ Geico and was taken 100 miles to nearest dealership in Page, Az. Still hoping it could be a fuse or small part when they qouted $3800 for a new transmission !!
   Anyway, bottom line, Ford has rendered me homelass as I lave on the road and most everything I own is in the van. Got motel last night across street.They gave me half-price-sweet!-due to faulty air cond. and now will camp out in dealer lot until Ford does something. Actually, was thinking to pack suit-case, leave van there, and start walking .....to Detroit ! The whole point would be to get it out there on Twitter, et. al. and eventually gain national media attention. Since I have just lost everything, I've nothing more to lose ! If, by embarking on said journey, we could force Ford's hand into a re-call or whatever, the lives of an entire un-suspecting family may be spared
     Just putting it out there and looking for feed-back.
        Thank you

#704 of 1889 Mediablitz by zzyxxrd

Aug 01, 2009 (11:14 am)

#705 of 1889 Mediablitz by zzyxxrd

Aug 01, 2009 (11:31 am)

To continue......
    Anyone who would want to do something drastic as attempt a walk to Ford headqrtrs., such as me, would have these stories printed up and hand out along way. Also, a shorter version telling people to go to this site themselves and to follow this on Twitter. The Twitter thing would just make the whole thing explode---and very fast !!!
    I am going to walk to the Page library today and start printing, as well as register formal complaint w/ proper web-sites, as advised herein.My good freind Karen, presently in Palm Springs, knows someone who is in touch w/ Matt Lauer.He, Karen, and I are all New Englanders, so maybe that will make a difference.
     Correction: my van has 73,000 on it now, not frm the start of trip.

#706 of 1889 Wow this sucks by nyyfan132023

Aug 02, 2009 (1:14 pm)

The same thng happened to mine. on the way from Florida to Buffalo. The worst part is other people in my family have the same car and its scary knowing the same thing will happen again soon wth no worry. it just stopped on a highway thankfully we got off safely. I'm assuming it s a torque converter. Hopefully since its a common thing they have the parts instock and can fix t soon. Unfortunatly it happened late on saturday so it wont get fixed until monday at the earliest. It is still under warranty by 16 MILES!!!!!!! So since it wasa a sunday/saturday we can't get a rental car or anything and are spending $100 dollars on a hotel for 2 possibly 3 nights. Worst of all we are going to miss a baseball game we bought tickets too for a total of $250. A complete waste of money the people seem to not care that we are stranded.

#707 of 1889 Re: Wow this sucks [nyyfan132023] by anabel

Aug 02, 2009 (2:25 pm)

Replying to: nyyfan132023 (Aug 02, 2009 1:14 pm)
Unfortunately, this is going to happen to many more owners of these vans. I want to suggest that if you plan on keeping the vehicle, that you get some type of extended warranty that will cover the transmission. We broke down twice 5 months apart and now we are finding out that they are replacing the part that broke with refurbished parts and not only that, apparently Ford states a part number they can only replace that part with. So...It will happen again and again and again until that part is replaced with a part that is not defective. Just my suggestion, get a type of insurance that will cover your vehicle bumper to bumper and also can help cover towing and hotel stay and maybe even rental. There is insurance like this out there. At the time, we are looking into it.

#708 of 1889 wow this sucks by shocked1

Aug 02, 2009 (7:43 pm)

Tere is NOOOOOOO way im buying more insurance to cover FORD'S butt!!!!! mine blew up (tranny) in nov. 08 im going to fight along with others on here, such as the person that's notifying the TODAY SHOW. im notifying our news here in OHIO. FORD sucks on their concern for their trash they made , THE FREESTARS!!!!!!!!! BUYING MORE INSURANCE isn't going to save innocent lives in their trash!!!!!!!

#709 of 1889 by zzyxxrd

Aug 02, 2009 (10:42 pm)

Reading all these posts--from the very first some years back--which is no quick task on a Blackberry, I can only come up with one response.
  WHY was it again that we ever thought anything could replace the horse-and-buggy or the good ol' bicycle????!!!!!
Do you think the Amish are sitting in Ford dealer-ships,or broke down on the sides of roads !!!!

#710 of 1889 IS THIS THE AMERICA WAY? by shocked1

Aug 03, 2009 (10:31 am)

DETROIT — The government’s so-called “cash for clunkers” program gave automakers a desperately needed sales boost in July, though their relief could be short-lived if the Senate does not vote to extend the trade-in program after it unexpectedly ran out of money.
 
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The Ford Motor Company said Monday that its United States sales rose 2.3 percent last month, marking the first year-over-year increase for any of the six largest carmakers since last August. Ford had not posted a monthly sales increase in nearly two years.
 
Ford, which heavily promoted the government-sponsored rebate program at its dealerships, in television ads and on its Web site, sold 18 percent more cars and crossover vehicles than it did in July 2008, though sales of its trucks and sport-utility vehicles fell 18 percent. The company did not say how many of its sales were made to people who turned in a vehicle to be scrapped under the program.
 
“We had another strong month in progress before the ‘cash for clunkers’ program started,” Ken Czubay, Ford’s vice president for marketing, sales and service in the United States, said in a statement. “Our products, our dealers and our advance preparation enabled us to leverage the program and drive traffic and sales to another level. In addition, we achieved a sales increase even though we decreased incentive spending in an increasingly competitive environment.”
 
Other carmakers, including General Motors, Chrysler and Toyota, are scheduled to report their July sales later Monday.
 
The government trade-in program, which began July 24, lets consumers give up an older, inefficient vehicle and receive a credit of up to $4,500 toward the purchase of a new vehicle with a higher fuel economy rating. Its unexpected popularity caused the program, formally known as the Car Allowance Rebate System, to quickly exhaust its initial budget of $1 billion, which was enough for about 200,000 people to take part.
 
The House of Representatives voted Friday to provide $2 billion more, and approval from the Senate is needed to extend the program. Many dealers are now unsure whether to continue taking trade-ins under the program, not knowing if the government will reimburse them.
 
Automakers welcomed the program at a time when high unemployment and low consumer confidence levels have pushed new-vehicle sales to their lowest level since the recession of the early 1980’s. Through the first half of this year, sales were down 35 percent compared to the first half of 2008.
 
 WHAT BOUT THE "POOR" PEOPLE STUCK WITH THE 2000 FREESTARS? THAT WE CAN'T EVEN TURN IN AS CLUNKERS!!!!!! BECAUSE OF THE GUILT OF KIDS & FAMILY GETTING KILLED IN THEM>>>>>> UNFAIR FORD.
 
  
Ford

#711 of 1889 Ford Freestar tourqe convertor by jetaway

Aug 04, 2009 (12:55 am)

I have been in the transmission business for 23 years.I have rebuilt more Freestar,Windstar and Taurus transmissions than i could possibly count.These 3 cars basically all have slightly different versions of the same transmission.Starting in the mid to late 80's they had a problem with planetary gears self destructing due to lack of lubrication.{im pretty sure there was a law suit over that} Over the years various updates were tried by Ford as well as aftermarket parts manufacturers with limited success.That problem occurred regularly until approximately 2000-2001.After that it was not as common.The tourqe convertor slines stripping was always an occasional occurrence but started getting more frequent in the late 90's and got really bad in 2004's In the early 90's they started making the input shafts thicker with more splines but as the engines got stronger the problem worsened.Over the years this by far was the most common trans in the shop.What really kills me is this would not be a difficult problem to prevent in the future.All that really needs to be done is make the splines out of a stronger hardened steel or make the shaft thicker with more teeth.The latter would require much design and retooling.A recall for this problem would be so costly that i doubt you will ever see one.

#712 of 1889 Re: Ford Freestar tourqe convertor [jetaway] by nadineb

Aug 04, 2009 (6:23 am)

Replying to: jetaway (Aug 04, 2009 12:55 am)
Not having a mechanical background, I really appreciate the explanation about these transmissions, but Ford should extend the warranties on all of these transmissions. The PCM issue should be examined, recalled and resolved. Our government has a duty to remove vehicles with this much potential of being lethal and force Ford to either issue the recall on vehicles or get them off the roadways.
 
Why should we have to bear the cost of having our families at such a high risk of serious injury and the financial expense of repairs when Ford should be held responsible as required by the law?
 
Anyone know why the same vehicle sold in Canada has a larger transmission and longer warranty?

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