My wife was driving her 2004 Ford Freestar on a rainy morning. It happened to be during rush hour. While waiting for traffic to start flowing, the van failed to move, leaving her and my daughters in the middle of the highway. After being pushed off the highway by a sapd officer, and waiting for a tow truck, we found out the transmission was bad. There was no prior indication of transmission problems or trouble. The transmission had to be rebuilt along with replacement of torque converter and other internal parts.

- San Antonio, TX, USA

I was traveling 50mph on a highway, and without warning, lost total acceleration, luckily there was nobody close behind me. I was able to pull off a side road, placed the car in park and then engaged it to the drive gear, but I was not going anywhere, I was able to put it into the reverser gear, but no movement.,I only have 63,000 miles on my vehicle. My mechanic tells me it is my transmission, and will cost approximately $2400 I don;T have that kind of money to fix my vehicle. If I had been in heavy traffic, these might have resulted in an accident and someone could have been seriously hurt.

- Crystal Lake, IL, USA

Going about 55 mph on highway, van revved up and then slowed down while going up a hill, similar to taking it out of gear and coasting. No lights came on the dash or warning signals of any kind. No noise, oil or smoke of any kind, just complete loss of power but the engine continued to run. Van had never been serviced anywhere but dealership where it was purchased so they had full service history. No warning of van failure, it had been running without any problems up to he time it suffered the loss of power. Had already been driven approximately 70 miles prior to failure on that day. Was stuck on side of road and had to have van towed to dealer as it would not move at all. Found it was the torque converter and was replaced at a cost to us of $1,250. Had approximately 79,000 miles and no prior history of transmission problems.

- Calvert City, KY, USA

My wife was driving to work when the vehicle lost power to the transmission. She rolled to a stop in the middle of the road and luckily some people pushed her van to the side of the road. This could have been serious if it had happened on the highway. The van runs but will not engage into any gear.

- Mason, OH, USA

I was driving with my two small children in the car and was doing 60km and my car seemed to have lost it's acceleration, so lucky enough I got to the side of the road and put the vehicle in park and then back into drive, but the vehicle would not move, then I tried reverse but no movement, car was still running but would not go anywhere, so got road side assistance and they took the car to a garage, have been told that it is my torque converter and needs a new one, so just before christmas got a big pay out, great just what I need. But I am so upset as my car is only 4 years old and I have only had it a year and a half and this has happened, Ford will not cover me through the warranty which I am so mad about, as you are only covered to 100,000km on the power train and I have done 117,000. I have read so many complaints regarding this problem with these vehicles and am so upset, I think Ford's should do a recall on this problem as it is so dangerous, driving and then the car just stops in the middle of the road, if they do not do anything then there will be an accident one day and I hope that no one gets hurt out there. So Ford I really think you should stand up and recall the cars with this problem and help people before it is too late.

- Aylmer, 00, USA

The front of the vehicle has made an intermittent high-pitched whistling sound since it was purchased at 13,000 miles. As it was so intermittent, I thought it was some unusual wind noise. I recently learned (now vehicle has 60,000 miles) that there is a technical service bulletin (17892) that addresses the problem exactly, specifying defective wheel bearings. I contacted the dealer, and was told that the "wheel bearings could eventually lock up" because of this problem, but that Ford would not repair it as it is outside of the warranty period (36,000 miles). Is this a safety issue that should be addressed by a recall?

- Wisconsin Rapids, WI, USA

I bought my 2004 Ford Freestar used in February of 2006 from eastern motors and had nothing but problems with it. First it needed a tune-up then the coil pack went bad and now needs brakes and tires. But my main concern is my trans-axle light coming on. I am a mechanic so I scanned it on obd-II scanner, it told me that my torque-converter was stuck in the open position. So it needed to be replaced. I called Ford because I cant get it aftermarket and they said it would cost me $300 for it. But the problem is I can't afford it and its on back order for who knows how long.Ford cant get until they get some in. Its 2007 and the problem is still there it bucks around while driving and it doesn't go into gear right away. Also when you turn the wheel while driving it makes a squeaking noise at the front wheels and the whole front end shakes wile driving 45 + mph. According to my VIN there is nothing wrong (yeah right bs) if I didn't owe so much on this van I would get rid of it or better yet( set it on fire my self) so I wouldn't have to deal with it any more. I have seen the other complaints that people wrote and I agree this is (bs )and Ford sucks because they don't want to take care of their customer.

- Thurmont, MD, USA