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.
Returning home from a weekend camping trip with my family and pulling a travel trailer via I-81 in va, I depressed the accelerator approaching a long hill, and abruptly lost all engine and drive power, the engine shuddered violently, the transmission downshifted to lower gear and the check engine light flashed a few times. We had absolutely no power and I thought the engine was going to shut off. I was in the 2nd lane from the right and had to quickly move to the right lane then to the shoulder to avoid being hit from behind. This was very dangerous while pulling a 34' travel trailer. I had to pull the vehicle to the shoulder and stop completely to regain control. I had to put the truck in park and turn it off before it returned to somewhat normal drivability. While continuing to climb the uphill grade, the engine misfired and hesitated constantly. I could only apply gently pressure to the accelerator to keep the vehicle moving. Once over the hill the vehicle picked up speed and returned to normal drivability for the remainder of the trip. The same exact problem occurred again a few months later while driving South on rt-4 in md with my wife, and not pulling a trailer. This time I didn't shut the engine off, but had to pull to the shoulder to regain control and engine power. As I continued on RT4 the engine misfired and hesitated several more miles. Once at my destination I turned the vehicle off, then upon departure the vehicle operated more normal, but experienced misfire and hesitations several mile returning home. The next day the vehicle operated normally, but I took it to the Ford dealership to have it repaired. This is a very unsafe situation and makes me very leary driving this vehicle on a normal basis. If I was accelerating while crossing the highway and this problem happened, there is a great chance of getting into an accident or causing one.
My truck has shuddering problems during acceleration to pass. The weather was rainy and very wet. This is not the first time I have experienced the problem. While visiting Louisiana in the summer of 2012 I experienced the same issue and while in san antonio, I had the catalytic converter replaced.
I approaching an intersection and let off the gas, and started to slowdown several hundred yards before coming to intersection. The F-150 suddenly began to accelerate without my foot on the gas and my foot apply as hard as I could to the brake. The truck was accelerating on own. ABS kicked in and pulsed. But again truck was accelerating without my foot on the gas I complete made sure foot was removed and both feet on brakes. Attempted to pump and immediately after relating from brake as pumping to try and stop as hard stop didn't work it was like it was building up and shoot out like a bullet and hit car in front me. Once hit then quit accelerating. The front lifted up and full accelerating but feet were both on brakes. Lucky no one was hurt. Small damage to both vehicle because was as low speed intersection. If there wasn't a vehicle in front me. I would shot into intersection where only who knows what could have occurred to myself and others. This was a life threatening situation, that could have gone really bad.. end result could have been fatal. This needs to be investigated by Ford and no one else should be injured or lives taken from an issue that needs immediate attention and resolution to the vehicle owners that are scared to drive there vehicle because of this occurrence. Ford needs to make this right and make sure all vehicles this is reported on are safe or taken out of commission to make our roads safe for others and drives. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
While accelerating up a hill, the engine began to misfire and would not accelerate properly and actually slowed while the service engine light blinked. I was forced to pull off the highway, shut the engine off and restarted. The check engine light did not re-light and I continued on normally until attempting to pass a vehicle when the same malfunction occurred. This happened repeatedly over the past 3 months while attempting hard acceleration until it was returned to the dealer for repairs. The dealer installed a "deflector" to prevent moisture from entering the turbo or aftercooler and reprogrammed the computer. Upon leaving the dealer, it was evident that the repairs did not work and the problem became worse. The engine misfires constantly resulting in an unsafe vehicle.
We were merging onto the highway outside of St. Louis mo and when the accelerator was fully depressed the engine started to misfire and power was reduced. A blinking cel was displaying on the dashboard. It seemed as though the turbo system was not adding any extra charge to the ambient air. There was a pronounced vibration to the vehicle that seemed to originate from the engine/drive train. Luckily there as not a lot of traffic at the time and our poor acceleration did not result in an accident. My solution was to manually select the gears and drive at much higher RPM. This smoothed the misfire and we had an adequate amount of power to keep up with traffic. After about 10 minutes everything smoothed out and the misfire was gone. Truck behavior returned to normal. The weather that day was a pleasant 60 degrees and sunny. The previous day we drove from central Ohio to St. Louis through much rain and fog. Since we were on vacation and away from home we did not take the truck to a dealer to be serviced. The problem has not occurred since then. There was one previous occurrence at a previous date. I don't know exactly when it was. We were traveling home to vt from Ohio. We had been driving for many hours, mostly on highway/cruise control driving. We had just gotten off the interstate highway and were on state highway. I went to pass a slower vehicle in my lane and upon depressing the accelerator the engine seemed to misfire (RPM went up but power delivery fell flat). I stepped off the gas pedal and slowly pressed a second time and this time the truck responded as expected. There was no cel this time. Each of these incidents occurred with my entire family in the vehicle. We were not very happy about it and did not feel safe at the time.
- Essex Junction, VT, USA
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I was driving my 2011 Ford F-150 4X4 with the 3.5 liter ecoboost engine on hwy 12 in buxton, N.C. and I went to pass a driver, accelerating from approximately 40 mph to 55 mph and the engine bogged and lost all power. I continued to hit the gas for about another second and the wheels then locked up and the truck had several violent jerking motions before coming to a complete stop. The engine would not turn back on for an hour. I had it towed to the Ford dealership (under warranty) and they reset the computer. The truck seemed to run ok in the time since then, with the exception of the occasional shuddering during hard acceleration. Now (December 2013) the truck will not accelerate at higher than 2,000 RPM when in 4th, 5th or 6th gear without shuddering and cutting power to the engine. The check engine light begins to flash during this and then turns off. Ford is not willing to cover the repair costs and despite speaking to several customer service representatives, no one at Ford has acknowledged this issue happening with any other vehicles.
2011 Ford F150 equipped with 3.5L turbo charged engine traveling at 65 mph began misfiring and suddenly experienced a near total loss of power, causing the vehicle to slow to 25 mph quickly. The vehicle was traveling on a two lane highway with no shoulder and no place to pull off the road. This incident did not pose an immediate threat to car or driver, but under other conditions such as overtaking (passing) slower traffic, the sudden and near total loss of power could be disastrous. After quick research and consultation with the Ford service center where I purchased the truck, I have learned the vehicle entered into "limp" mode to protect itself from mechanical damage. I have also found that this problem has long been acknowledged by Ford Motor Company and has been the subject of a few technical service bulletins. Also to the best of my knowledge, Ford, through this series of technical service bulletin's has failed to provide a permanent solution to this problem. I am filing this complaint in hopes that the NHTSA in cooperation with Ford Motor Company can provide a quick and permanent solution to this problem before someone is seriously injured or worse due to an engineering flaw on a motor vehicle.
Upon trying to pass a truck, when I stepped on the gas for added power, the engine convulsed and shook the entire truck, lost power, engine light flickered... I pulled over immediately, called the Ford dealership, they did a check through on star (type system). Said they saw nothing?! started back up, seemed to be fine once again. This has happened now multiple times. Always when stepping on the gas for added power, same scenario. This is the eco boost engine. While I love the power, it has failed me 5 times to date. Same problem as the PE 13-018 report.
I was driving 70 mph up a hill when my truck started hesitating and my speed started to rapidly drop. I was in the fast lane and was forced to make my way to the right shoulder under a major power loss. The problem has since happened multiple time when I accelerate rapidly or under a load.
Sometimes when I try to pass the engine during full acceleration stumbles and looses acceleration. It does not happen all the time and does not give an error code in the computer. Very dangerous on two lane road passing.
The contact owns a 2011 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 55 mph, the accelerator failed to respond to acceleration attempts. Additionally, an error code (P0036) and the check engine warning light illuminated. The contact also mentioned that the vehicle failed to operate normally when driving in rainy weather. The vehicle was taken to a dealer but was not able to be diagnosed. The technician was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified. The failure mileage was 3,500.
While merging into traffic the engine began to loose power and misfire. The vehicle entered "limp home" mode, noted by a flashing check engine light. The vehicle was taken to the Ford dealership and simply had the error codes cleared. Similar incident occurred few months later and the vehicle underwent recommended repair/upgrade per Ford tsb including intercooler cover and reflash of computer. For past week vehicle has had persistent power loss and "shuttering" during acceleration. This not only limits the drivability of the vehicle, it also endangers the occupants when attempting to merge with traffic and crossing intersections. The dealership is aware of the problem, however there seems to be no effort to find a "complete and lasting" solution.
The contact owns a 2011 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving approximately 80 mph, the vehicle became hesitant upon acceleration. The vehicle also surged and lunged without warning. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnosis where the technician was unable to diagnose the failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 32,000.
I have been having problems with engine noise ranging from a deep howling to a sound like a steel chain being drug over an aluminum ladder. I have had problems with the sync, memory seats and steering wheel, auto start, and an ongoing problem with hesitation or miss firing in the engine that cause the truck to loose power on acceleration and go into limp mode. I have had some really close calls getting onto the highway where I was almost hit from behind when the truck lost power. I have had the truck in the shop 13 times and getting ready to go back for the 14th time. I have tried the BBB and the lemon law program which I was denied by a third party arbitrator. I was expecting that because a BBB employee said 93% of all people that file a lemon law claim in Missouri get denied. I have an extended warranty with 50,000 miles left on it and the Ford engineer in charge of repairs says he refuses to do anything about the engine noise anymore because of the past failed repairs. This is an V6 ecoboost. I don't know what to do next.
Event occurred 3 times over a period from 27 Oct 13 to 21 Nov 13, decelerating while towing a trailer. Speed varied all three times from a high of about 60mph, to a low of 45mph. Message center would turn orange and display a wrench symbol, while the engine discontinues producing power. After pulling over, simply turning the vehicle off, then restarting, everything appears normal again. Two Ford dealers "found no codes", and were unable to further diagnose the issue. The second dealer attempted to collect data via an onboard computer as well, but the event wouldn't repeat while the device was installed, nor was I towing during that time. One of these events occurred on a two lane road with no shoulder available. Traffic had to stop until I restarted. Dangerous at best. The third even occurred going up a one lane freeway flyover. I was able to coast past the bridge structures and onto the shoulder, however, this occurred during rain, and multiple other vehicles had to make accident avoiding maneuvers, including tractor trailer rigs. Very dangerous. I have replaced the vehicle.
Following two heavily laden 18 wheelers during a light rain storm for two or more miles on a paved, two lane county road, it came clear for me to pass, I accelerated and all went well for just long enough for me to get even with the first one in front of me. My momentum carried me far enough to pull back in front of the first truck. By that time I was in serious trouble. My truck would barely run, it was vibrating violently and there was no acceleration to get me out of the way of the truck I had just passed. Had he not braked hard for me there could have been a serious wreck. I've have had 5 other incidents with this vehicle. I've taken it up with fomoco, over a period the first year. Working through the Oklahoma BBB I was assured Ford would correct the problem. Fomoco sent a Texas rep to my work location to put the most recent fix on the vehicle. Following this fix, we continued into a dry spell, but as fate would would have it, I was in a heavy rain within the next 2 weeks and the problem reappeared. This time my wife was in the vehicle with me. She thought I had run over something because the action of the pickup was so violent. I've occasionally seen letters to the editor of motor trend's "truck trend". other people describing the exact thing I've experienced driving this same type vehicle (early model ecoboost V-6, those built prior to April 2011, I believe). I have a huge file from the time when I was trying very hard to get this corrected, dealerships, dates, times, correspondence, Ford tech bulletins, but I refuse to waste my time with you unless you contact me acting as if something might seriously be done. ([xxx], or E-mail, [xxx]). I have enough to prove my vehicle has serious problems and fomoco admitted it. A transcript of my meeting with them through the Oklahoma BBB. It's interesting what they had to say. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
2011 F-150 with 3.5 liter ecoboost engine. Truck had been driven approximately 20 miles in the rain. Stopped at a traffic light and then proceeded to turn left. Accelerated up a hill on a 2 line highway and truck began to shake violently and lost all power in a moving lane of traffic. A check engine light came on. Pulled to the side of road and after a minute truck cleared up and drove normal. Currently the truck surges under moderate acceleration and in 3rd gear will go into limp mode and lose all power. Only occurs under moderate acceleration.
The contact owns a 2011 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving 10 mph, the vehicle stalled as the check engine warning lamp illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer however, the technician was unable to diagnose the failure. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 15,000 and the current mileage was 40,000.
While in wet conditions truck will stall, loose power, and shutter. While driving up a hill on busy interstate the truck stalled. Had to take foot off accelerator to get the truck to go. We were almost rear ended because of this. This has happened many times!
While driving, rear wheels lock up for a few seconds, then truck shakes and has no acceleration power. This is happening at least once weekly now with loss of power lasting from 10 to 45 seconds. Not safe when in traffic. Local dealer says they can't find anything wrong and that they have no tsb on it.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Huntingtown, MD, USA