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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 11 of 190

#95 of 1889 Re: Freestar [mnfreestar] by tbrown61

Dec 16, 2007 (9:21 am)

Replying to: mnfreestar (Dec 14, 2007 1:34 pm)
I bought a 2005 freestar in march of 2007, I had this van 8 months. I drive it daily without any troubles, then one morning I get ready to leave for work and the motor revs and doesnt go anywhere.
 
There was no warning, no trouble codes. I have 52000 miles on my van, and its out of warrenty. I cannot afford the $3500 for a trans. Its currently sitting in my driveway, while im making payments on this piece of Ford crap.
 
I too had the braking troubles others talk about too. I had to replace the rotors twice. the wheel tire pressure system keeps going off. this van is just the biggest piece of junk I ever bought.
 
I have a engine code too, it says egr system. Im just so mad at this thing. all at 50000 miles , no wonder Ford is losing sales.
 
I did file a complaint with NHSTA.

#96 of 1889 Re: Freestar [mnfreestar] by jgenovese

Dec 17, 2007 (8:45 pm)

Replying to: mnfreestar (Dec 14, 2007 1:34 pm)
The people at Ford Corporate who told you they never heard of anything like that before are LYING. I know they are lying because they have heard it from me and from others as recently as last week. Do you know that another customer got over $3000.00 from Ford with a phone call to the same place that you called? That's right, over $3000.00!!!!!!!! They refuse to tell me why they assisted someone else but won't assist us. They say they won't discuss anyone else's complaint but that they didn't assist me because I was out of warranty. I know this is a LIE because the other customer was out of warranty also! They actually had the gall to send me a survey to fill out about how I was treated by their Customer Relationship Center! I replied via overnight mail with a 4-page response directly to the person who is ostensibly in charge of that Mickey Mouse operation. She had neither the courage nor the decency to contact me herself. She had some subordinate call me to tell me the same LIES they have been telling me throughout this ordeal. What a shame. Ford used to be a decent and reputable company. I have actually bought 9 new Fords in just over 20 years. The 9th will be my last. I even make it a point to tell every person I come in contact with about my most recent experience with Ford. It is obvious to me now why Ford is performing so badly in the marketplace. I have never dealt with such an inept, arrogant, and out and out fraudulent organization in all of my life. Whatever happened to ETHICS and MORALITY in business. These people are actually LYING to their own customers every day! I am glad you filed a complaint with NHTSA. Every single person who has this problem, wether they have had it fixed already or not needs to report it to NHTSA. Hopefully they will then do the right thing and issue a recall. If they don't, it will be on them and Ford when somebody loses their life because of this problem. In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it has already happened and it just wasn't properly investigated and attributed to the transmission failing. I intend to find out. I will be reviewing every accident I can get information about throughout the country involving these vehicles to see if the cause could have been the transmission failing. NHTSA should really be doing this but, since they are not, someone has to do it. Any assistance or information anyone out there can provide would be most appreciated. In the meanwhile, keep up the pressure on Ford and NHTSA. This is where it all starts. It is up to us to make sure that this isn't where it all ends.

#97 of 1889 Re: Freestar [tbrown61] by jgenovese

Dec 17, 2007 (8:53 pm)

Replying to: tbrown61 (Dec 16, 2007 9:21 am)
Outstanding! That is what it is going to take for Ford and NHTSA to take some action before somebody gets killed because of this transmission failure. Every single person that this happens to needs to do just what you did, complain to Ford so they can't LIE to others and say they have never heard of the problem, and file a complaint with NHTSA. This is where it all starts. Don't let it end here. People's lives are at stake.

#98 of 1889 Possible fraud on the part of Ford by jgenovese

Dec 17, 2007 (9:05 pm)

I have lodged a complaint with the Office of the Attorney General in my state and I encourage everyone who is having a problem with the transmission failing in their Freestar to do the same thing in your state. I believe that Ford is committing fraud by offering payouts to some but not others for the transmission failures they are experiencing. Ford refuses to say what criteria, if any, they use to determine who gets assistance and who doesn't. This is arbitrary and capricious at best but sounds like fraud to me. My goal is to shed some light on this practice and put an end to it. They should either issue a recall and pay for every single transmission or not pay anyone. Stand up for yourselves and put Ford on notice that they are accountable to their customers! Contact your state's Office of the Attorney General /Consumer Protection Division. They will guide you through the process. I will update this forum as my case progresses and will watch for your posts.

#99 of 1889 Tranny Slipping - AGAIN? by theboutros

Dec 20, 2007 (8:00 am)

I bought a "new" (dealer demo) Freestar in July of 2005 (less than 20,000km) and in January of 2007 I was driving along and the stupid thing just stopped moving (less than 60,000km). I had my entire family in the van coming driving over 500km (we were less than an hour in) and we had to get a rental and leave the car at a dealer where they replaced the transmission. I had to drive the rental back and drive my van home and miss a day of work. I had purchased the premium extended warranty so all it cost me was some serious hassle and some gas in the rental.
 
Fast forward to last night, when I was driving along and I felt a "tug" in the engine. It happened a few times over the same trip while driving at consistent speed. I recall it was the same sensation I felt in the minutes before the van died the last time.
 
It's at the dealer now getting looked at (we have another trip planned after Christmas and I don't want it to die on me again), but first glance the mechanic didn't think I should be worried about anything.
 
How come I feel like I'm being screwed?

#100 of 1889 Re: Tranny Slipping - AGAIN? [theboutros] by jgenovese

Dec 21, 2007 (10:58 am)

Replying to: theboutros (Dec 20, 2007 8:00 am)
If your "new" transmission is a rebuilt Ford product, you are likely experiencing or are about to experience the same failure. The main culprit seems to be the torque converter. I am no engineer but, having seen first hand how mine failed, I am guessing that the part is defective due to substandard materials used to manufacture it and poor engineering. This is a widespread, very common problem in this transmission. Just spend some time on the internet like have and this will become readily apparent. My guess is that, as more and more of these vehicles get to that magic number of miles, 44K +/-, even more of these failures will take place. Hopefully, no one will get killed as a result of it. Imagine riding along the interstate with your family on board with a tractor trailer bearing down on you and your transmission fails. I would not be at all surprised if this has already happened, causing a serious injury accident or worse, and the connection just hasn't been made yet. Ford has a serious problem on their hands and should issue a voluntary recall. I'm not holding my breath for that to happen. You need to report your failure to NHTSA, via their website, so that they have one more reason to take this safety defect seriously and force a recall. In the meantime, families like mine are having to pay out thousands of dollars, right before Christmas, to have these defective transmissions fixed and for rental vehicles while our only family transportation is in the shop. So far, I am out nearly $4000.00 and counting. We are lucky no one got hurt when ours failed in the middle of an intersection with traffic. Luckily, some kind strangers pushed the van to the side of the road but my family had walk the rest of the way home. Please contact NHTSA and report your failure(s). Some action on their part could quite literally save someone's life.

#101 of 1889 Yet another transmission failure, (torque converter), reported to NHTSA. by jgenovese

Dec 25, 2007 (10:23 pm)

There has been yet another transmission failure reported to NHTSA in the last week or so. (Refer to the NHTSA website in the complaints section.) Again, someone's family was placed in harms way on a freeway when their transmission failed without warning at only 56000 miles. This person did the right thing by reporting it. He even referred to the complaints on this website about this vehicle. We need everyone who experiences this problem to the do the same thing and report it to NHTSA. At some point, they are going to have to do something about it; hopefully before someone gets killed. This not just about families like mine who can ill afford to have to pay thousands of dollars to replace a part that should never have failed so soon. This is also about people's lives being in danger. As of now, I am awaiting the process to begin with my state's Office of the Attorney General -Consumer Protection Division. I cannot file suit until this process plays out. Hopefully, the results will be productive. If not, the suit is ready to go and will just have to be filed at the courthouse. In the meantime, we all need to keep up the pressure on Ford and NHTSA. As more and more of these vehicles get to the 44K+/- range, more and more of these transmissions, (torque converters), will fail. The message needs to get out to these owners before their lives are needlessly put in danger.

#102 of 1889 So many failures, parts aren't even available by jgenovese

Dec 25, 2007 (10:43 pm)

We finally bit the bullet and had the transmission fixed. As suspected, it was the torque converter that failed. The splines, (fins), stripped out of it. According to my mechanic, a retired Ford technician with over 20 years of experience, the failure is definitely due to a defective product and not abuse or neglect. He suspects that inferior metal was used in the production of the part. (Probably a cost cutting effort on the part of Ford). Apparently, there are so many torque converters failing recently, that he couldn't even get one to replace mine with. He had to send mine out to be rebuilt! And Ford continues to LIE TO PEOPLE and claim they know nothing about this problem. Where is NHTSA on this? As stated previously, I think Ford is committing fraud by denying knowledge of the problem to some, acknowledging it to others but not offering a penny of assistance, and offering assistance to others - OVER $3000.00! All for the same problem! I am starting with my state's Office of the Attorney General. I will continue this cause until Ford is held accountable to it's customers, not just for selling an unsafe product, all the while marketing it to families as "safe", but also for lying about it and helping some but not others. I guess the people at the "Customer Relationship Center" have never heard of the internet.

#103 of 1889 Joined the Transmission Failure Club at 49K Miles by sunburn

Dec 29, 2007 (4:52 pm)

The transmission in our 04 Freestar SEL died the week before Christmas at 49K miles. The preliminary diagnosis is a pump failure. I don't know yet if this is related to the torque converter problems since I believe the TC drives the pump. I will find out more details when we pick it up in a couple of days. The van was in park, and when put into reverse, it moved about a foot, then nothing. No reverse, no forward.
 
These problems can't be limited to just the Freestars since the AX4N transmission is used on most Ford V-6 FWD applications from 1996-2006. The scary part is this version of the transmission is the most reliable of that transmission family which originated in the early 80s.

#104 of 1889 Re: Joined the Transmission Failure Club at 49K Miles [sunburn] by jgenovese

Dec 30, 2007 (11:52 am)

Replying to: sunburn (Dec 29, 2007 4:52 pm)
You are correct about that transmission. It is/was used in vehicles other than the Freestar. Remember the Windstar and Monteray? It was also used in the Taurus. According to my transmission expert, he sees them in his shop regularly so I would be hesitant to refer to this transmission as "reliable." Based on the knowledge I have gained throughout this ordeal, both in talking to real experts who don't have either an ax to grind or to answer to Ford, and also by spending hands on time in the shop where mine was fixed, I have concluded that the issue is a combination of faulty engineering and sub-standard materials used to manufacture the parts. Both issues are, undoubtedly, a result of cost cutting at Ford. Unfortunately, it is now becoming the problem of working families like mine who are left holding the bag. Speaking of working, I have to get to work right now however; I would lioke to leave you with this request: PLEASE REPORT YOUR FAILURE TO NHTSA. It is easy to do via their website. It took me about 15 minutes. Mabey NHTSA will wake up and recognize this as the safety hazard that it truly is and force a recall.

Messages Page 11 of 190

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