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.
The contact owns a 2006 Ford Freestar. While driving 25 mph, an abnormal metallic sound emitted from the front end of the transmission. The contact stated that after taking off from a stop sign, the vehicle transmission failed. The vehicle was still running but was unable to move anywhere. The vehicle was towed to a dealer, where it was diagnosed that the torque converter output shaft needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 55,000. Updated 09/25/15 updated 12/13/2017
The contact owns a 2006 Ford Freestar. While driving approximately 70 mph, the ability to accelerate seized without warning. The contact had to maneuver to the side of the road to a complete stop. The vehicle was towed to the contact's residence. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The VIN was invalid. The approximate failure mileage was 99,133.
The contact owns a 2006 Ford Freestar. While driving for over 20 minutes at an unknown speed, the vehicle independently failed to accelerate. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 50,000.
I hade been driving the van for approximatly 125 miles, came to a stoplight close to my home. Stopped at the light, and when I tryed to go forward ehrn the light turned green, there was no power to thee transmission, the engine only reved up. I was facing downhill, and rolled into a store parking lot. Had to have it towed to my house. Doing research online, I found very similar cercumstances with many other Freestars. Ford had issued a recall on the torque converter for the 2004-05 Freestars, but not the 2006, which has the same part. All Freestars with this same part shuld have been recalled, not just 2 out of 4 years. I feel very cheated and now I am facing a very large repair bill.
We have a 2006 Ford Freestar that had a transmission failure after 85,000 miles. I have looked online and found that the 2004 & 2005 models have been recalled and there appears to be issues with the 2006 transmission but it has not been recalled. I would like Ford to be mandated to reimburse me for the transmission failure.
- Elkton, MD, USA
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The contact owns a 2006 Ford Freestar. While driving at 75 mph, the transmission failed without warning. The vehicle was towed to the contact's residence. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 144,000. The VIN was not available.
Driving on a 2 lane road started up the side of a mountain. Drove approx..5 miles up hill. Without warning the engine rev'ed. Vehicle lost all power to the wheels. Engine running fine, no abnormal noises. Vehicle slowed quickly due to uphill grade. Vehicles behind me, including several large tractor-trailers had swerve into the on-coming lane due to no shoulder. Thankfully there was no traffic coming down the mountain. There could have easily been a fatal accident because of this failure.... just happened to be no traffic coming down the mountain in the on-coming lane. Blocked one lane of traffic on a steep grade for over an hour waiting on a tow truck. Torque converter failed. Sent debris into the transmission. Vehicle needs torque converter and transmission replaced.... I have seen many people have this same complaint... please NHTSA help us...
The contact owns a 2006 Ford Freestar. While driving approximately 30 mph, the vehicle stalled without warning. The vehicle restarted and was taken to the dealer. The technician diagnosed that the transmission failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 140,000.
The Ford Freestar was exiting the highway when it lost all power without warning while coming down the off-ramp. The engine was still running. The mini van was able to coast off the road and into an auto shop parking lot that happened to be there. Appears to be another torque converter failure.
Started out of an intersection and van stalled in the middle of the road. Coasted to the side of the road. No forward or reverse gear. Transmission gone. When I had a new one put in after $4000 bill the mechanic told me that the one he replaced was not the original one. So this makes the second transmission failure for this vehicle. I have driven Ford all my life and have never had a transmission to go out. If I had been driving down the interstate at 70 mph I might have been killed. Ford should be willing to replace these transmissions or reimburse their customers for such shoddy transmissions.
While driving 60 down 2 lane road with family of four, light in distance was red so I started to brake. Quickly light turned green so I tried to accelerate but rpms shot up without speed going up. Transmission completely disabled. Will not even go into park. All this with no warning. I barely made it through the intersection. I think it's clear this is yet another 06 Ford Freestar torque converter failure.
I went through an automatic car wash around 315pm. The van was driving fine up to this point. Immediately after I left the carwash, the van started acting like it was going to stall out and the engine light was blinking. I've had one other situation like this with this van when we went away for a weekend and it rained a lot where we were staying. The van acted like it was going to stall but we had no idea why. I went online to see if anyone else had problems with their van that was attributed to water. I was shocked to see how many others have had the same thing happen. I also found an investigation that stated there is a defect and it's a safety concern but that they weren't going to issue any recalls at this time because there haven't been enough complaints. The diagnosis from the Ford dealership is as follows-water has leaked into the PCM. They would need to clean that out and seal it so water can't leak into it anymore. Water has also leaked into my spark plugs and corroded them. They would need to replace the spark plugs and wiring. Water has also leaked into my fuel lines so they want to clean out my fuel line. All of this for over $700. When I contacted Ford motors because this happened due to a manufacturing defect, they told me that they can't help me because there aren't any recalls. I can't say I'm surprised by that since they haven't taken responsibility for this defect with others and don't sound like they ever will. I'm not paying Ford to fix it because this isn't normal wear and tear and it's not caused by anything that I have done. I'm going to take my chances with the vehicle while I try to pursue this another way. I no longer feel safe in my van and will not be transporting my children in it until something is done about this issue.
The vehicle, without warning, shut down while in mid-drive (50+ mph). We were fortunate to be able to safely coast out of harms way. It started back up but continued to do this many more times until we finally got the van home. The Ford dealership confirmed it was a bad transmission. More specifically, the torque converter. This issue has been well documented and a recall has been issued for the 04 and 05 models. Unfortunately not for the 2006.
Sudden loss of power to wheels @ 114,000 miles; Ford dealer: "you need to purchase a rebuilt transmission" this is the torque converter as known to NHTSA; demanded Ford refund, refused. Second Ford remanufactured transmission warranty not being honored with failure @ 93,000. Ford dealer: "replaced fuse, torque converter shudder; your van has over 200,000 miles on it!!" significant transmission vibration with steering shudder, re-diagnosed January 10, 2014; continuation of 93,000 failure and claimed repair. PCM failed at aprox. 85,000 miles; power steering leaks year after purchase @ 53,000 original miles. Ford dealer refuses repair/refund. All documents in possession.
The contact owns a 2006 Ford Freestar. The contact stated that while driving 20 mph, there was a sudden loss of acceleration and the vehicle failed to move forward without warning. The vehicle was towed to the contact's resident. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.
Going down a small hill and was picking up speed, let off the gas pedal to slow down. Starting up the next hill and when the gas pedal was pushed I ended up going backward and there were 4 vehicles right behind me. They all were stopping and each turned in a different direction not to hit the other person in front of them. It could have been worse if I had taken the interstate. This happened at about 6 a.M. so there was not a lot of traffic like there is at 7 a.M. in the morning. But if I had not forgotten my billfold, this would happened at a very high traffic time of day when I would have been going home.
Power train just went out while driving on a major roadway. No warning lights on the dash, no indication of slipping, hard shifts, or skipping of gears. I just left a traffic light and it started to go in a forward motion, I came off the gas for a second or two pressed on the gas and the RPM's shot up and no power to the power train. I had to cross over three lanes of traffic to safety.
I was driving down a country road and had just dropped my kids off thank goodness. Nothing seemed to be wrong when all of a sudden the engine revved high. I was try'N to look to see what was go'N on when I wrecked into the ditch about 60mph. Out of nowhere the transmission failed and was stuck N a ditch and no one to help.
Engine running and vehicle moving. All of a sudden rpms go up to 3000+ and vehicle is coasting. No power to drive wheels. Coasted to a safe place. Luckily, we weren't on the interstate yet. Vehicle acted as in neutral. No movement in reverse or drive. Had it towed to mechanic and he is 99% sure that the torque converter is the problem. 2004 and 2005 have been recalled for this same problem. Maybe Ford should include the 2006's? bought this vehicle new and have never had a problem. Have had only Ford since 1987, and no problems with any of them. Might be rethinking my next purchase.
Accelerating from stop light, acceleration stopped while engine continued at same RPM. No prior indication of potential problem. Car rolled to a stop in center lane of road. Put on flashers, put car in park (car started to roll) and engaged parking brake. Police and tow truck called. Pushed car out of traffic lane. Very fortunate this occurred during a light traffic time or a rear end collision to my car could have resulted. Car towed to dealer for evaluation and repair. Dealer diagnosed torque converter or transmission failure. Torque converter replaced.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Plainville, CT, USA