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.
I brought my car to my local mechanic when I noticed antifreeze leaking from the car in my driveway. Due to complete corrosion of coolant system, this resulted in the replacement of freeze plugs, water pump, radiator, head gaskets, thermostat and heater core. I will have to bring it back in April for another radiator flushing. I later learned from a radio talk show that there had been a recall on the coolant system for this auto. When I contacted Ford, they told me there was an owner notification sent, but I never received it and it expired August 1999. Ford or the dealer refuse to do anything so I don't know if the recall has been fixed by my repairs or not and will this happen again. Ford has also refused to reimburse me for any of the costs. I would appreciate any assistance
I was denied the claim by Chrysler finacial. Because the rust colored coolant that the car was manufactured in came out when the freeze plugs came out and they denied the claim because they said I did not keep reciepts for the anitfreeze in which I purchased for the maintenance., no one keeps those reciepts, I had to pay for the car repair and the rental car bill which was $668.73 and $591.12 I feel that I was denied wrongfully when I have paid on this warranty for 4yrs never used it and when I need it I got denied by both chrylser finacial and bob dunn and Ford Motor Company.
Rusty coolant returned after flushing, coolant failed, coolant froze, radiator brken, engine overheated, needs head job or new engine. Ford balking at recall repair and responsibilty for subsequent damage.
I was stopped at a bridge when my car began to overheat. A mud colored anti-freeze began to spill out of my engine. The car never overheated before or never had a problem with the cooling system. At this point I took the car to a local mechanic to look at the car. My mechanic advised me that all 1995 & 1996 Taurus's have a recall for the engine cooling system. I then proceeded to take my Taurus to a Ford dealer (haldeman Ford on 11/27). Haldeman indicated that the recall expired in Sept 1999 and advised me that they could probobly repair my vehicle for a charge of 200-300 dollars. Next I received a called from haldeman stating that I could have the engine flushed out which would cost about $1,000, and would have no guarantees that this would fix the problem. Or I could purchas a new engine from haldeman for about $3,000 and would have a 2 year 24,000 mile warrenty on the engine. When I purchased the car in 11/99 the recall was already expired, but Ford has no confirmation the the original owner received the recall notice. I find the two options that Ford has given me to fix my vehicle are not satisfatory, and that Ford should back it's products and find a more feasible way to fix my vehicle (with some sort of warranty) or should incur most of the costs associated with the repair. I have called Ford's customer complaint line over the last couple days. I am very unsatisfied with the results so far. I reported the trouble on 11/29. I now have tried to escalate the problem to a supervisor. The center advised me that a supervisor is not avaliable immediately and would take 24-48 hours for me to receive a call back. I have called a total of 3 times and been told the same thing every time. I am out a vehicle and need Ford's help to work with me to find a viable solution to my problem. I wish they would just work with me so we could come to a solution. I think Ford should have some kind of responsiblity for their products especially since a recall was on the vehicle.
- Robbinsville, NJ, USA
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I was stopped at a bridge when my car began to overheat. A mud colored anti-freeze began to spill out of my engine. The car never overheated before or never had a problem with the cooling system. At this point I took the car to a local mechanic to look at the car. My mechanic advised me that all 1995 & 1996 Taurus's have a recall for the engine cooling system. I then proceeded to take my Taurus to a Ford dealer (haldeman Ford on 11/27). Haldeman indicated that the recall expired in Sept 1999 and advised me that they could probobly repair my vehicle for a charge of 200-300 dollars. Next I received a called from haldeman stating that I could have the engine flushed out which would cost about $1,000, and would have no guarantees that this would fix the problem. Or I could purchas a new engine from haldeman for about $3,000 and would have a 2 year 24,000 mile warrenty on the engine. When I purchased the car in 11/99 the recall was already expired, but Ford has no confirmation the the original owner received the recall notice. I find the two options that Ford has given me to fix my vehicle are not satisfatory, and that Ford should back it's products and find a more feasible way to fix my vehicle (with some sort of warranty) or should incur most of the costs associated with the repair. I have called Ford's customer complaint line over the last couple days. I am very unsatisfied with the results so far. I reported the trouble on 11/29. I now have tried to escalate the problem to a supervisor. The center advised me that a supervisor is not avaliable immediately and would take 24-48 hours for me to receive a call back. I have called a total of 3 times and been told the same thing every time. I am out a vehicle and need Ford's help to work with me to find a viable solution to my problem. I wish they would just work with me so we could come to a solution. I think Ford should have some kind of responsiblity for their products especially since a recall was on the vehicle.
I was stopped at a bridge when my car began to overheat. A mud colored anti-freeze began to spill out of my engine. The car never overheated before or never had a problem with the cooling system. At this point I took the car to a local mechanic to look at the car. My mechanic advised me that all 1995 & 1996 Taurus's have a recall for the engine cooling system. I then proceeded to take my Taurus to a Ford dealer (haldeman Ford on 11/27). Haldeman indicated that the recall expired in Sept 1999 and advised me that they could probobly repair my vehicle for a charge of 200-300 dollars. Next I received a called from haldeman stating that I could have the engine flushed out which would cost about $1,000, and would have no guarantees that this would fix the problem. Or I could purchas a new engine from haldeman for about $3,000 and would have a 2 year 24,000 mile warrenty on the engine. When I purchased the car in 11/99 the recall was already expired, but Ford has no confirmation the the original owner received the recall notice. I find the two options that Ford has given me to fix my vehicle are not satisfatory, and that Ford should back it's products and find a more feasible way to fix my vehicle (with some sort of warranty) or should incur most of the costs associated with the repair. I have called Ford's customer complaint line over the last couple days. I am very unsatisfied with the results so far. I reported the trouble on 11/29. I now have tried to escalate the problem to a supervisor. The center advised me that a supervisor is not avaliable immediately and would take 24-48 hours for me to receive a call back. I have called a total of 3 times and been told the same thing every time. I am out a vehicle and need Ford's help to work with me to find a viable solution to my problem. I wish they would just work with me so we could come to a solution. I think Ford should have some kind of responsiblity for their products especially since a recall was on the vehicle.
While driving about 55 mph engine without prior warning stalled/ just stopped working.consumer steered off the road, and dealer did not know what could have cause the problem. The day before this failure, the heating system stopped working. The following day, the vehicle stall. The dealer says the coolant system was the cause, and that the engine need to be replaced.
In may of 2000 iwas driving my vehicle on md 695 when engine light came on I then lost power my car shut off and I was forced to pull over my car was stalled out I then had it towed to towson Ford in towson md they told me it was my cooling system after telling a few friends of my ordeal one told me of a recall for the cooling system on the 96 Taurus I then contacted the Ford Motor Co in mich. Where I was treated very rudly over the phone I called several times to speak to a supervisor iwas told several diffrent times that one would contact me it wasnt until I refused to hang up the phone until I spoke to a supervisor that I talked to someone after all the trouble I went through they told me Ford was not going to honor my request for financial help with my repairs after having repairs done myself my car continued to have problems it started to leak cooling fluid and overheat I imediatly had it taken back to towson Ford they then told me I needed new head cylinders which my extended warranty would not cover after having these things done my car still loses power my engine light stays on and sometimes does not crank over I took it back to towson Ford they put it on the anylizing machine they found other problems but could not tell me why engine light stays on why it wont crankover or why im losing power when im driving please help me find a solution I
Coolant system corroded out freeze plugs. Coolant ran out and engine stalled with no warning. Engine is having to be replaced, but Ford says this was not the cause. Reviewing the board here I see more than just me with the same problem. Just as with the Firestone issue and Ford its always the other guys fault, not them. For once I would like see Ford take thier share of blame. Ford reps will not even respond to complaint.
The heating and cooling problems we have had with this vehicle have progressed from being inconvenient to a permanent problem. Finally, at the beginning of April 2000 I thought that possibly if I had the radiator flushed that it would take care of the heating and A/C problems. The 19th of April 2000 I took it to the dealer for a oil change and to have them check the cooling system. In there notes under "correction" it said "check over cooling system;belts;hoses;coolant;ect... then in the "comment" area it said -30 or better unless advised* it was picked up and I felt compelled to check to see if they had topped off the fluids. (being a widow and a single mother I don't know who to trust any more so I do more checking then maybe others) the coolant resvoir was near empty. I called the dealership about it and they told me to bring it back out. We complied and every thing was fine for approximately a week or so. On the 29th of April we drove it approximately 40 miles roundtrip and on the way home it started to overheat. By the time we got home all the coolant was out of it. I called the dealership and took it back in May 2nd. This was under the section "correction comment": contacted Ford regarding concern; advised customer engine would have to be replaced; dealer and co. To assist; cust. Portion $700. Well I guess they thought I should have been relieved that I did not have to stand the whole cost, but I found out the root of the problem. The service manager at the dealership told me that the car came from the factory with the wrong coolant in it. The coolant was too acidic and had overtime corroded the intake valves, etc.,resulting in the necessity to replace the engine. Now mind you Ford had installed a by-pass kit and chemical flush cooling system per program 07/29/99. And yet when I talked to a whistle blower wannabe, he told me they were first notified of the problem in July of 1998. Two other tauruses at this dealership had the same problem.
Some questions, I was not sure about such as the drivetrain, etc. In most cases I said I did not notify the manufacturer, but, did notify the dealer. Most of the complaints regard manuf. Defects & may not be safety-related except for the 1 about the park pawl recall #96S51; in this case, I had done search of recalls on my car make & model thru certain internet web pages & found there were 5-6 recalls on my vehicle. I called Ford cust. Svc. & gave my VIN # to find out which ones applied to my car. I found 2 of them applied to my VIN #. I suspect that Ford is not notifying me of these recalls. One recall--not safety related, #98B23, I found out about from a svc. Mgr. @ a dealership. When I called Ford cst. Svc. & told them I hadn't been notified, rep said they had sent the letter 2 weeks prior. When I asked for a copy of the recall ltr, I got a big run-around about how fmc could not send me a dupe letter since there was still 1 floating around in the U.S.P.S.(even though the ltr was specific to my VIN #). I finally raised enough "cain" to get them to send me the ltr, but, it was 2 late, my car was already effected by the "heating & cooling" recall. The next recall, #96S51, which is safety-related;I was not notified of; Ford cst. Svc. Said this recall svc. Had been performed at boomershine Ford in duluth, ga on 3/15/97. When I told them this was not possible since I was not notified of the recall, cs said possibly I had taken the car in for another svc. & it was discovered by the service tech that there was an "open recall" & they performed the svc. @ that time. I do not have record of this nor does the dealer. In order for me to find out if the svc was performed, it would be @ my expense. Ford cs told me to have the dealer to contact the regional rep for them and have the work authorized, however, neither of them are willing to give me the name of the reg. Rep. I contacted both Ford cs and the svc. Mgr. @ the dealer. Each leaves it up to the other
The Ford Taurus is 1996 and 1997 was used as a guinea pig for an expirimental coolant that rusted out the freeze plugs, water pump, thermostat and more. Mine was found to have this coolant. I have already lost one freeze plug and could loose others. Ford Motor Company wants me to pay for half of fixing their error. They now want to pay nothing because I did not meet their deadline. My car could be potentially dangerous, leaving me stranded in the middle of nowhere. Please help
The tempature gauge has been rising high the last two months, and the sevice engine soon light comes on for a few days, goes off ror a short time only to come back on.the only other time the gauge went this high and higher is when the water resavior cracked and busted. Our car was still under warranty at the time, but Ford claimed this part was not covered.Ford company also had a recall August 1997 to install a bypass cooling kit. Which we did have installed, two months after my water system had been flushed because of googed and corroded coolant. They did not tell us at that time, that because the system was so bad that we would always have problems with this vehical. Every year we are having problems with the cooling sysyem that seem to add up more and more in price. And we do keep up with the general maintainance on our vehical
The vehicle had a continuing problem with overheating. I replaced the thermostat, radiator and the cooling system pressure cap to no avail. I then replaced the water pump. When I removed the original water pump I noticed that the impellor blades were badly deteriorated from corrosion. The blades were completely corroded away and unable to move water; this resulted in the engine continuing to overheat. I believe that the blades were unable to stand up to the coolant solution
Transmisson trouble: Buzzing coming from transmission. Vechicle has been in the dealers 7 times for repeated same problem. Solenoid in the transmission has been replaced twice. Problem still exists. Dealers is going back to Ford. Dealer feels I need a new transmission. How can this be with a car under 21,000 miles??I have also had repeated problem with discolored fluids due to a cooling system problem which a recall was issured and a cooling kit was installed. My main concern is the possibility of damage to motor please advise. I have been working with the dealers service manager on the transmission issue.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Hillsdale, NJ, USA