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.
Driving at about 35 mph going straight, I stepped on the brakes so that I could turn, snow/ice covered roads, ABS engaged. I continued on driving after that at about 45 mph, went to stop to turn into my driveway and the pedal went to the floor with no brake action at all. No fluid leaks, no warning lights on the dash, pads had maybe 25K miles on them, everything was working fine until the ABS engaged on my first turn. A few months back, after the ABS was activated the brakes got soft/spongy. After the car was shut off and sat for a while, the brakes reset. Today, my car felt like it had no brakes. This appears to be a common problem from some of the research I have done online.
TL the contact's grandchild, austin lucas, owns a 2009 Ford Fusion. While driving 35 mph, the driver slammed on the brake pedal and it traveled to the floorboard. As a result, the driver crashed into an unknown animal. The air bags did not deploy. There were no injuries and a police report was not filed. The vehicle was not damaged and was driven back to the contact's residence. An independent mechanic test drove the vehicle and determined that the anti-lock braking system failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired and the failure recurred. The manufacturer and dealer were not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 153,000.
Hit a medium sized bump on a city street while proceeding through said street, brakes then proceeded to not work properly with pedal pressing all the way to the floor. Proceeded to pump brakes until enough braking force required to stop at intended point. Brakes returned after a couple miles. Avoiding bumps when possible now because last time I checked. Need brakes to stop and not get into an accident ultimately resulting in the possible death or harm to other people.
While I was driving I braked on a city street to slow down to turn right. While braking and beginning to turn, I ran over small potholes. Brakes became mushy and I had to push brake all the way down just to stop. This has happened many times. In the past, after parking the car for awhile, the brakes went back to normal. However, this most recent incident happened 4 days ago and they brakes haven't gone back to normal.
- Linden, MI, USA
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My ABS engaged while driving on the interstate and I had to slam on my brakes in a heavy downpour. Immediately after that, for the last 9 days and counting, my brakes have been soft/squishy. I can feel them start to engage at their old point but there isn't much pressure until I get much closer to bottoming out the brake pedal. From what I've read online, this was something being looked into a few years back as a common failure.
On several occasions, after ABS has engaged during braking, the brake pedal has gone soft, nearly to the floor. Required braking distance is greatly increased, as is the amount of foot pressure needed to bring the vehicle to a stop. This has happened while braking in snowy conditions, and also when hitting a pothole while braking. All instances occurred under 30 mph. This problem has not occurred during heavy braking under normal operating conditions, only when the ABS system is activated. No brake warning lights have turned on. For reference, the latest incident happened six months after replacing all pads, all rotors and both front calipers.
Anti lock brakes activated then almost no brake action. The pedal went almost to the floor causing the braking distance to almost double. Came very close to hitting cars with the green light.
After engagement of ABS system, brakes become soft and weak. This requires greater pedal pressure and travel, and thus reaction time to engage, resulting in unsafe condition.
Hard stop on freeway resulting in ABS activating. Afterwards, brakes were spongy and required exceptionally more distance to brake and pedal needed to be depressed to the interior floor in order to stop. This is the third time this has happened with the vehicle.
I was moving about 40mph going straight and when I hit the brakes to turn they went to the floor applying no braking action at all. I was lucky that I was going straight on a country road with no traffic or this could have been catastrophic. There are no brake fluid leaks, pads have maybe 15,000 miles on them and are good. There were no warning lights illuminated in the car. Several months back after the ABS was activated the brakes got soft and reset after the car was shut off and sat for a while. There were literally no brakes whatsoever today. After letting the car sit for a while turned off the brakes are back, but the pedal is still soft and I don't want to test drive the car as it is too dangerous. This appears to be a common problem from looking at various web pages that should be addressed asap.
While traveling on a slightly rough highway, I went around a curve and a bicyclist was in the middle of my lane, I braked suddenly and my brake peddle went to the floor, I had to swerve to keep from hitting him. I pumped my brakes and they came back up, but were mushy and it took several more miles before they worked effectively although still not as they should. The next day the brakes worked fine and for several weeks afterwards, then there was another incident. I was trying to stop at a stop sign, before turning on to a busy major highway and my brakes again went to the floor. The side road I was stopping on was rough (it had been scrapped to prepare for blacktopping).this happened twice within a few weeks.the results could have been deadly. This has happened three times! I had new brake pads, rotors, and calipers put on after the first incident and it did not help.
Was slowly pulling fwd to park in parking space and when put foot on brake to stop, it kept going. Car went over the cement parking block onto sidewalk and hit heavy duty cement pillar. Only damage was my license plate and hopefully little else on my car.
The contact owns a 2009 Ford Fusion. The contact stated that the vehicle lost braking ability. When the contact depressed the brake pedal, it traveled to the floorboard and could not stop the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to sheehy Ford Lincoln gaithersburg (901 N frederick ave, gaithersburg, md 20879, (301) 358-4443) where the mechanics diagnosed the vehicle and blew air through the valves; however, the failure continued. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 110,182.
Brake failure, while driving my wife's 09 Fusion the brake pedal went to the floor when stopping and hitting a pot hole. The brake pedal went all the way to floor before being able to slow the veh. The brake pedal did not return to normal until a couple days later. My wife uses hand controls which did not affect the driving in any way but has me concerned as my wife is in a wheelchair and can't put excessive force on the brakes if they were to fail like that. I tried pumping the brakes but it didn't resolve the issue, nor did pumping the brakes while the veh was turned off.
I pulled into the median to turn left into a business. As my car traveled over some gravel in the median my brakes went "soft" and I had to mash down on them in order to come to a complete stop. Once parked, I let the car "sit" or "rest" for 4 hours. The brakes were still soft when I started the car, and when I would press the brakes, I had to mash down on them to come to a complete stop.
Low brake engagement following anti-lock brake system event. Vehicle was in motion. After this event, I would need to push the brake pedal down more than it should need to be pushed in order to get the brakes to engage. Tom holzer Ford in farmington hills, mi replaced a hydraulic control valve unit as well as a front right lower side caliper pin that was frozen.
Tamara recall for the 3rd time in 2 years. I've had problems with spongy brakes. I braked over a pothole and my brakes locked up and hit the floor! I now have to pump the brakes to get them to work. I got my brakes flushed and they went back to normal. About a month later the same thing happened when I had to brake hard due to abrupt stop on the interstate. It took about a week to get them back to normal. This is not safe and should not happen with new brakes and rotors.
When I hit the brakes I have to go all the way to the floor before they start working. This happen once during winter when I went over a speed bump and after a week or so it fixed itself. But several weeks ago as I was braking at a light I hit a pothole and it has done it again and has not repaired itself. I read online this is a common problem this type of car faces with the ABS system.
On Aug 8, 2019 my right front wheel crossed over a dip in the road while making a right turn. I pressed my brake and almost immediately I had an 'empty' feeling in my brake pedal. I could press the brake paddle completely down without much resistance. Had my rotors and brake pads checked next day but all 100%. learned that the hydrolic control unit (hcu) unit was affected. A known Ford Fusion failure and costly to replace!!! recall Ford!!!
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Symsonia, KY, USA