The contact owns a 2005 Ford Five hundred. On March 26, 2007, the contact had the rear brakes on his vehicle checked and was told by the mechanic that the brakes were in good condition. On May 10, 2007, the brakes began to fail. While driving 35 mph under normal conditions, the contact heard the rear brakes grinding metal to metal. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer who replaced the rear rotors and brake pads. The contact has the rear rotors to show the unusual wear. The contact also has the repair orders from both repairs. The engine size was unknown. The current and failure mileages were 38,585. The dealer stated that the recall for this car was performed on the latch of the door for this vehicle. Updated 06/06/07

- Louisville, KY, USA

Continuation of suspension and brake problems after last filing with NHTSA. Braking in wet weather, descending steep grade, car pulls and fades. 2 days after longmont Ford had car for 6 days and returned it with clean bill of health. Omera Ford diagnosed brake and transmission programming problems and once again turned down rear rotors to very close to minimum specifications. Consumer report Jan 2005 reports similar issues with braking, auto-week may-16-2005 reports brake fade and stability problems in their test track report. This is a first model year car for Ford which is based off of a modified Volvo design of under-carriage. The vehicle is now parked with an affidavit of non use on it because of the number of incidents and repairs that have occurred on rear suspension and brakes. Ford at arbitration maintained that in late July there were more tsb's issued for the 2005 Ford 500, but I am unable to find same on NHTSA website. With the number of independent trade and consumer publications that site the same issues that I am having with this car, I petition NHTSA to pull some of these early model cars and subject them to suspension and braking test as stated in NHTSA 99.6583-1 consumer braking information initiative, aberdeen test center fall 1998.

- Longmont, CO, USA