My van began to lose power at certain speeds, almost skipping at times. I took the van to my personal mechanic, whom investigated the issue for 4 days, and ruled out the engine, he stated that it was the transmission. A few days later, I received a recall notice from Ford informing me that the vehicle was coming under recall for the torque converter. Approximately 3 weeks ago, I took the vehicle to the Ford dealership and asked them to investigate. The dealership opened at 7 am, and when they called me at 7:29 am, they swore it was not the transmission. They claimed it was the motor and could not pin point any specific reason as to why. Then they claimed that the #6 plug was misfiring 16% of the time?? I consulted with my mechanic and he stated very clearly that if that was true, my check engine light would come on and stay on. It has not. The vehicle continues to worsen every day with the skipping or stuttering. Im now only getting 13 mpg whether in town or on the highway. I don't know whether to take it to a transmission specialist to confirm or not. Apparently, from what I have researched, Ford does not want to honor their recall, and is using the scape goat, " your vehicle is out of warranty, so you have to pay. "

- Endicott, NY, USA

Our torque converter/transmission failed on our 2005 Monterey. My wife was driving the vehicle on route 1 in Edison, NJ and it lost all gears. I called for emergency towing (it was a Saturday evening 4/21) and had it brought to a repair shop. I went to Ford's web site to see if there was a recall. I entered the VIN and no recall showed up. None. So, I proceeded to have the repair shop start to work on it on (4/23). Now I find that there is a recall (4/26) via a shady, intentionally misleading email from Ford. Ford's customer service has been evasive and not helpful. They told me that later in the year torque converters would be available for the replacement, but mine has unfortunately already failed. Furthermore, if we had known that there was a recall, we would have had it towed to a Ford dealer, not a local service shop. But their web site specifically said that no recall existed for the vehicle. We now have a vehicle 90 miles away from our home in a repair shop that is going to need major work and the van only has 68,000 miles on it. Ford has failed to help us with this. We have 5 children and this is our only family vehicle. They sold a faulty product, acknowledged it and still will not help us with it.

- Woodstown, NJ, USA

My van was towed to the local Ford garage where we bought 5 years ago this past Saturday. I was told today the problem is in the torque converter or transmission. I just found out there was a lawsuit brought upon Ford because of transmission related problems in 2005 Monterey's. just a brife review shows me there are hundreds of people experiancing the same problems as I am. I also believe NHTSA investigated this problem. What bothers me the most is that I just got done paying this car off and the low mileage at the time of failure. What are my options to get relief " should I phone the attorneys who handled the original case? can you give any other information such as others who my have also filed complaints similar to mine"

- Watertown, WI, USA

We were driving along a main highway when suddenly, without any warning at all, it was like the vehicle slipped into neutral and would no longer move - on the highway! we had our 2 young children in the car and were fortunately able to get it to the side of the road without a safety incident. We were 50 miles from home, had to have it towed to a dealer nearly 20 minutes away. Our diagnosis on the car was that the torque converter on the transmission failed. The dealer mentioned that he had seen this quite a bit on a few models with the same component, but when I questioned him on his comment he backtracked and said he shouldn't have said that. He told us it would take at least 3-4 days to repair and since we were far from home, we were stuck in another city with no transportation (as they wouldn't give us a loaner). Seeing our distress and knowing we were in a bad situation, he later offered to put 2 guys working on it to get it done by the end of the day. As we were in a strange town with a 4 and 6 year old (and we were on our way to celebrate the 6yr birthday), we were forced to rent a car if we didn't want to keep them in a Ford dealership for the next 6 hours. When we returned to pick up the car, the service dept did pick up the tab on the rental car. Our final bill was $1,786.15 and a complete distrust of our Ford product. We no longer feel particularly safe in the vehicle or w/our kids in the vehicle, especially after reading all the others that had similar problems to this and beyond. However, we are not in a position to buy a new vehicle and would like Ford to take responsibility for something that seems an obvious defective design and/or manufacturing defect with their product. Peoples lives are at risk here - we are lucky we weren't hit from behind on the hwy when it suddenly lost power! lucky!! be responsible and do right by your customers Ford!

- Pella, IA, USA

My 2005 Mercury Monterey will 66,765 miles on it will not engage the transmission. You can put it in forward, reverse, or any other gear and it does not have the normal feel that any engagement happened. And when you let off the brake it does not move and when you give it some gas it does not move. It does not matter which gear it is in either. The car made it home with out any notice of the problem but the next day when I wanted to back out of the garage the transmission is totally gone. From research I know I'm going to hear that the torque converter output shaft splines are stripped causing a sudden loss of power to the drive-train.

- Lancaster, PA, USA

We were traveling normally when suddenly all motive force was lost. The engine ran normally, but vehicle would not proceed under power. It was as if the vehicle was in neutral. The vehicle would not proceed under any power either forward or reverse. There was absolutely no warning of the power train failure.

- Elkins, WV, USA

The contact owns a 2005 Mercury Monterey. The contact stated while driving 35 mph the vehicle suddenly decelerated until it came to a halt without any warning. The contact was unable to drive the vehicle or shift gears. The vehicle was towed to the dealer who diagnosed that the torque converter was defective and needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure but did not offered any assistance. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and current mileage was 60,000.

- Itasca, IL, USA

My wife was driving home with my three year old son when our Mercury Monterey lost all power and could not accelerate. This left my wife & son stranded on the side of the road. Now after doing a little research I have learned this is a very common problem with the 2004 - 2005 Ford/Mercury minivans. I am extremely upset with Ford Motor Co. This should have been brought to our attention when we purchased the van from the Ford dealership. I went to the Ford dealership because I thought I could trust them to buy a safe vehicle for my family. I guess I was wrong & all they are concerned with is selling cars, it doesn't matter to them if they are safe or not. If there is any information of Ford covering the repairs on these vehicles please let me know. Times are tough & I really can't afford to replace the transmission in this van.

- White Lake, MI, USA

The contact owns a 2005 Mercury Monterey. While driving 55 mph, the contact stated that vehicle lost complete power and stalled. The dealer diagnosed that the torque converter failed. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer denied any assistance with repairs to the vehicle. The failure mileage was 23,000 and the current mileage was 88,000.

- Hibbing, MN, USA

I was driving off of an exit ramp onto a secondary road, had just made the turn and was beginning to accelerate when the van completely lost its "pull" and would not go into gear. The electrical system still functioned fine, and the engine would rev, but the vehicle would not go. There were no warning signs whatsoever prior to the complete loss of pull. This situation was very concerning because had I been performing another action like crossing a 4 lane highway, I could have easily been hit. Additionally, with only 65,000 miles on the vehicle, I feel that this failure must be a defect in the transmission as there has not been a sufficient amount of wear and tear on the vehicle to justify this level of repair. (my in-laws purchased the vehicle new and were both conservative drivers and I am a mother of two small children and also tend to be a very conservative driver so the vehicle has not been exposed to any rough driving conditions.) I had the vehicle towed to a transmission shop where they indicated that there was an internal problem with the transmission and it would have to be rebuilt at a cost of approximately $1,800. I am reporting this because I am concerned that the sudden loss of power could cause an accident and I want other Mercury Monterey owners to be aware of this possibility.

- Greenwood, SC, USA

Vehicle exhibited no transmission issues and was driving completely fine with no warning lights. I was entering the on ramp to I-95 when the car stopped accelerating when it should have shifted to second gear. When I pulled the vehicle over it acted like it was in neutral no matter what gear it was actually in. This could have been a horrible accident if it happened while I was on the interstate.

- Ft. Stewart, GA, USA

While leaving a parking lot the vehicle came to a stop without any warning. The engine was running but the vehicle would not move in any gear. The local dealer towed in the van and had to replace the torque convertor. Ford Motor Company did not contact me and warn me that they were aware of this problem. This is a dangerous defect and all owners of this vehicle need to be warned before someone is killed.

- Ruleville, MS, USA

I have a 2005 Mercury Monterey with over 100K miles. Last year I had to have the transmission replaced. Bought new in 2005 from greensboro nc gate city Lincoln Mercury dealership which is now closed. Now I have problems with van surging forward and cutting off. Will not change gears right. It jerks when the problem happens. Loud noise comes from the engine compartment after van is started up as well van will cutoff while on the road but will restart. No codes are showing. Not sure what is happening. So far no problem has been found. Is it the torque converter, the transmission? I need help!

- Haw River, NC, USA

I was driving vehicle (van) on a busy road and the RPM gage suddenly surged but the vehicle lost all power. I had to coast the van to the side of the road. I turned off the van and restarted it. The van would not engage in drive or reverse. I could not move the van and called for a tow truck. The van had been working perfectly. No loud noises or any difficulty shifting during or prior to the transmission failure. The transmission had to be replaced with a power train, and new torque converter by aamco for $3,008.52 I understand a complaint is already under investigation action #EA09019 there was not any fluid leaking all the damage was internal.

- Hampshire, IL, USA

My wife and I had driven over to melbourne, fl on Oct. 15 to attend grandson's wedding Oct. 16. due to my parkinson's disease my wife was driving us around the area on Sunday to see things since we used to live in melbourne. Right in front of our old church the van just stopped its forward motion and we were barely able to get to the side of the 3-lane road. A policeman directing church traffic pushed us off the busy road where we awaited tow truck. Since it was Sunday no repair shop was open so tow truck dropped off van in repair shop parking lot and then took us back to our motel where we tried to get a rental car but rental car places also closed and we had to wait until Monday to get one. Had to order in pizza for dinner. We had to add two more nights to our motel stay, had cost of rental car for that time and the transmission cost us $2238.11. If this problem had occurred the day of the wedding we would have been in danger because we had to travel from cocoa beach back to melbourne motel at 11:00 at night on I-95. Sudden loss of power in that scenerio could have ended up being tragic.

- Dade City, FL, USA

The torque converter goes bad on my van every 35,000 miles. There is no warning sign that the part will fail. The van has stranded me twice now in freezing temperatures with my children in the vehicle because all of a sudden it will just not go anywhere. There is never any noise or any indication of a problem until the vehicle just stops moving. Ford just keeps replacing the torque converter. The vehicle I have now is working on it's third torque converter in 71,000 miles of use.

- Ashland, OH, USA

We had no previous problems or incidents. We were traveling a major highway I-86 going towards jamestown. Our van geared up real quick and we lost all acceleration. No warning we are thankful there was no car behind us or beside so we could safely get to the side of the road! it was a very scary feeling. We were told by the Ford garage that we had to be towed that is was the torque converter. I see there has been alot of these going bad. We had no warranty left so we are stuck with a hefty bill for something that should have been recalled!!!!!!

- Port Allegany, PA, USA

2005 Mercury Monterey, transmission sudden failure while wife was driving the vehicle. The vehicle has 34,000 miles on it. Ford refused any repairs citing it was 8 months out of warranty. It would appear this is a very common problem for Ford and they have chosen to not address it for their customers. This does seem to be a significant safety risk although we were fortunate to be able to steer the vehicle into a safe place and then have it towed.

- West Des Moines , IA, USA