When stopped or moving slow to make a turn the engine accelerates on its own , this happens going forwards or in reverse and happens more with the AC turned on.
2005 Ford Freestyle engine complaints
Page 6 of 9: complaints 131 to 160 of 249, newest first, as owners wrote them.
In 2008 my ford freestyle started lunging forward at very low speeds when in gear without either the brake or accelerator pedal applied. If I applied the brakes, it stopped the car right away, but if I was sitting with the vehicle in drive or reverse and didn't have my foot on the brake pedal, the vehicle would suddenly lunge - and the only way to stop it was to slam on the brakes. I am just luckily we never hit anyone. It seemed to happen after it rained. A local (non ford) mechanic stated that he believed the ECM was getting wet and corrosion was causing this problem. After he addressed the problem (he cleaned and tightened pins, sealed with terminal sealer/corrosion inhibitor), the problem completely stopped. Now, 4 years later, it's doing it again. But that mechanic is no longer in business and I am worried that this is a chronic (and scary) problem that needs to be addressed. This morning my vehicle lunged suddenly backwards out of my driveway, right into the sidewalk where children were passing. I had stopped my car, let up the brake and it lunged. No one was hurt but I no longer feel comfortable driving it. I hope that you can investigate this problem and provide me with an update (and a solution!). We love the vehicle otherwise.
When stopped or moving slow to make a turn the engine accelerates on its own , this happens going forwards or in reverse and happens more with the AC turned on.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 ford freestyle. While driving at any speed or while stopped, the contact noticed that the vehicle would suddenly accelerate followed by stalling. The vehicle was not diagnosed and no repairs were made to the vehicle. The current and the failure mileages were 129,956.
I have a 2005 ford freestyle. I have had several lunging incidents where the car feels like it wants to lung forward or backward when backing out a parking space etc.. The first time I reported this incident was on 08/25/09. The next time was on 09/22/09. The dealer ordered a new throttle body. There were so many issues with the throttle body on this car that they were on back order. The dealer allowed me to drive for 5697 miles before the part arrived. I requested a rental under warranty and they said they could not justify a rental. On 02/08/10 my new throttle body was installed. Today is 02/22/2012 and I am having the same issue all over again. The ford freestyle is by far the worst vehicle I have ever owned. I am on my second set of (rear) brake pads and rotors. I have had the engine mounts replaced. Our air conditioner only works properly during the winter. I have found numerous pages of forums with people from all over the united states dealing with the exact same issues on the exact same cars. I recently discovered that a class action law suit has been filed against ford for the throttle body issue. I have pages of documented issues with this car.
I have a 2005 freestyle, I bought new, and have had the throttle body replaced twice for this surging issue. The dealer said it was a bad throttle position sensor. I have read on the forums about other people having the same problem. This is my wife's car and she freaks out when it surges, she has almost lost control sometimes.
I have more than one complaint. 1) shortly after buying my used 2005 freestyle I would be driving both at higher and lower speeds and I would loose all control of the vehicle. It would not respond to gas or steering. It was like it was losing power but it was still running. I had several near misses when this would happen. I was lucky that when I bought my freestyle it was "certified" and under warranty, otherwise the repairs would have cost me over $1200. My ford dealer replaced the kind of sensor/brain as they called it. Has been working sense. 2) air compressor needs to be replaced now. I thought the A/C wasn't blowing cold enough, I finally told it to a repair shop I trust and he said he couldn't understand I had any cool air at all. 3) brakes, rear most of all, have been replaced several times. Way too soon and anytime it's wet they squeal like crazy. Guess I need to have them changed again. 4) transmission issues are starting now. I roughly have 90k miles and hoped this would be my last car for several more years. I hate to trade it in and start another car payment and let this car get back out to some other unsuspecting soul.
While stationary in my 2005 ford freestyle in the left turn lane at a red light, the engine suddenly accelerated moving the car forward approximately five feet into the intersection before it could be stopped. At the time of this occurrence, my foot was already on the brake and only by stomping harder on the brakes was I able to stop the car's forward travel into cross traffic that was traveling at over 40mph. The car then died and a warning came up on the information display on the dash panel stating "engine failsafe mode". I turned off the ignition and tried to start the car again. The car started, but still displayed the "engine failsafe mode" warning and when we were attempting to return home, the vehicle would not shift out of first gear or allow us to accelerate over 30mph. This incident took place at 9:35pm on january the 20th 2012. It was raining and the AC heat was on.
This freestyle has surged several times since purchase. We replace a failed throttle body in 2010. Recently in shop in 9/11 for nonstart.
While driving the vehicle it goes into fail safe mode kinda like stalling it does this up to 4 or 5 times with only going a few miles and doesn't matter if it is in town or highway it does it everywhere. We have to pull over shut the car off and restart it.
Throttle body is giving me trouble. When I am at a light or stopped my car accelerates by itself. Is a safety issue as sometimes I am at a pedestrian crosswalk or just at a light. Very concerned about this issue.
Purchased used ford freestyle december 2010. Ran fine until warm weather and use of air conditioner. With A/C on, the electronic throttle control seems to often greatly overshoot the correct setting when shifting from neutral to drive or reverse, which causes a significant engine RPM increase and a momentary "lunge" if the brake is not applied very firmly. Many vehicles do this to a minor extent but the freestyle is far and away the worst I've ever seen. This does cause unanticipated vehicle movement and could injure a child, passerby etc or cause a vehicle to enter an intersection. My wife is certainly unnerved by it. Effect is in fact sometimes there in cool weather but to a much lesser extent. Reading forums and thinking about this (I'm an engineer and sae member) it may very well be something like a worn throttle position sensor interacting with an ecu software glitch, may very well be fixable in software. Annoyingly the tps on this vehicle is integrated into the throttle body or I'd just replace the tps.
Lunging, surging, and jumping while A/C is on.
We have experienced numerous problems with our freestyle, and at this point are faced with a failed throttle body, which will cost $900 to replace (dealer quote). Searching the internet reveals that this is a very common, known problem with the freestyle, and its sister cars (the 500 & sable) all build by ford with the same engine. The problem causes the vehicle to lurch while at idle, to perhaps 5-10 MPH, endangering anyone in the vehicle's path (ie, pedestrians, cars ahead in a drive-thru lane, etc.) ford has produced several successive variants of the throttle body, indicating the newer ones do not have the fatal design flaw that plagues the original. Why am I forced to purchase a replacement for an obviously (at this point) badly designed product? These cars should be recalled, and we should be reimbursed for the expense.
Throttle body problem, car doesn't start. When it does start black, smelly spoke comes out of the tail pipe. Issue started around march brought to garage said it was in need of a tune up. Had that done $400 car still did they same thing not starting. Worked fine for awhile. Again the cold weather hit. Not starting again. Brought car in again. Took 5 days to figure out the issue. $600 part plus labor $500 plus rental for 5 days $400. After reading several complaint on the same issue I am very surprised this hasn't been taken care of already. This part should be recalled and ford should refund all costs associated with it.
After starting the vehicle and putting it in gear, the car lungs (accelerates). This happens in reverse or forward motion.
I purchase my 2005 ford freestyle in june 2005. July 2005 traveling to georgia between 55/60 MPH, the check engine light and transmission icon appeared. Upon trying to accelerate, I could not move no more than 30-40 MPH with the RPM's racing. I had to pull over and let the car rest approximately 15-20 minutes. Upon starting the car and putting into drive gear it was very hard and lunged. The car sounds like you're racing the engine with the vehicle in park. The frequency of the engine/transmission light with trying to accelerate and can not is a persistent issue. It also lunges when the air conditioner is turned on. Once the car is shut off and started again, while your foot is on the brake which has to be with more pressure than usual to control the lunge. Sitting in traffic with the air on with cars ahead of you is frightening since it will lunge then also. This has been an ongoing issue since the purchase of this vehicle. I've also had the brakes repaired more than normal. Since acquiring this car. Recently, I've gotten the brakes done in february, may and currently need another repair with all the squealing.
At slow speeds, at various times, there are unintended surges in speed. They are usually more common when the air conditioning is in use. The may occur when in forward or reverse. My local dealer advised that ford was looking into the problem, but I have nothing definite about what the problem is and whether or not ford will pay for any repairs. I have since learned that the problem is quite common and is being investigated. I do not recall filing a formal complaint before.
First incident resulted in the car stalling multiple times, when started it would stutter, rpms couldn't get into normal range and when trying to put in gear it would stall out. The wrench light came on and I was finally able to start while keeping my foot on the gas pedal. Once driving could only reach 40mph. Since the first incident the frequency of problems has increased. Shortly after that first incident it started surging (RPM's rev way up when putting it in to gear) to the point that it happens now practically every time I start the car. At times, the surge is so strong that even with my foot firmly pressed on the brake, the car still moves. A huge concern of ours is in parking areas, it is very scary to have the car surge with people moving in front or in back of the vehicle. I recently had a collision with a tree while backing up. I firmly believe the car surged after I had started backing up resulting in the collision. I have called the dealership multiple times and understand that the throttle body linkage is thought to be the issue. My sister has a lincoln ls that was recalled for this exact issue - she had the part replaced as a result of the recall even though she had never experienced the surging/stalling described. After doing some research, I found that this problem is much more prevalent than I thought and hope that a recall will be issued to get this corrected before someone gets hurt.
Cvt transmission failed for the second time while driving. Vehicle lurched and the wrench light came on, front end shuddered. Restarted the vehicle and it would drive, but would only achieve 20 MPH with very high rpms. Dealer says transmission will have to be replaced. As I understand reading the numerous complaints, they don't make this unit anymore. I am faced with a vehicle that I can't drive. Please do something.
On tuesday, our car lost engine power in traffic. The check engine light came on and "engine in failsafe mode" appeared on the dash. She turned the car off and on, and it worked fine. She checked online and found identical problems, and solutions in turning the car off and on. I checked online, found identical failures, a longstanding shortage of throttle parts, presumed a defect in the throttle control, found no fhtsa recalls, but discovered surging documented in pe11-018 (opened may 11, 2011). Our car has also had high RPM surges, occurring infrequently, but usually when the engine is cold. Our au pair experienced surging 2 weeks earlier when she backed out of a garage parking lot and bumped another car. Below are representative websites that document 21 instances of sudden power loss and engine warning "failsafe mode" in the ford freestyle described as sudden stalling, car going to idle, engine dying, running limp, and going into "neutral." my wife's experience is consistent with these descriptions. Also, many complaints report surges (pe11-018) and loss of power in the same vehicle complaint, also consistent with our experience: http://www.myfordfreestyle.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2197&sid=78cbeb4f4aaa7dd9c571f0cf9c804d74&start=0 15 complaints: fraggle, tmad, mrdinmn, lmarqueling, fordman351, sanlen, fuxxy, gavin, stock mach, scoutman97, lmtech, metalages, indiefilmguy, boston_freestyle, mkramer http://answers.edmunds.com/question-ford-freestyle-throttle-control-transmission-light-came-on-also-engine-failsafe-mode-activated-what-s-wrong-40589.aspx 1 complaint: boots7714 http://www.carcomplaints.com/ford/freestyle/2005/engine/throttle_body_malfunction.shtml 4 complaints: michelle o, dennal, sally w, oldschool77 http://www.fixya.com/cars/t1531392-enigine_fail_safe_mode 1 complaint: handyt.
Car wont accelerate from a stop and will surge from a stop and when backing up. Took it to mccarthy ford in chicago where they informed me it was the mass flow sensor, six days later I'm having same problem and now being told it's the throttle body.
The car started showing hesitation when accelerating and making a strange noise early in 2010. This condition got progressively worse until one day, while driving on the freeway, the engine would not respond to the gas pedal being depressed, the wrench light came on, and I was forced to coast to the side of the road. I turned the car off for a few minutes and when I attempted to restart it, the gas pedal seemed to be working again. Took the car to jones ford the next day and they told me the throttle body was bad and replaced it to the tune of $638.97. Date of service was april 1, 2020. Mileage at time of failure was 61,540 everything seemed fine for a few months but I started noticing the hesitation on acceleration again. Took it to summerville ford on july 21, 2010. I didn't wait for a complete failure since it was extremely dangerous to lose power on the freeway with a whole car load of kids! Jones ford said the throttle body was bad again and replaced it under warranty this time. Checked for codes and got code #u0141. Mileage at time of replacement was 65,207. Within the last couple of weeks I have noticed similar conditions to the last two times the throttle body failed. Yesterday I was parking and the car surged forward as I let my foot of the brake, almost causing me to hit the car in the spot in front of me. I have no choice but to keep driving it until something is done by ford about this dangerous condition. I was also told that the motor mount needs to be replaced. I also have replaced the 2/3 row seat pivot once during warranty but it failed again in 2010 and I haven't been able to afford to replace it. The A/C compressor stopped working this summer. Still not fixed. I have replaced my tires twice in seven years. I have replaced both sets of brakes. Ford needs to address these common failures. Before someone gets hurt!
The vehicle started surging without foot on the gas pedal. This occurs at low speeds or when stopping. Have had to rapidly press the brake pedal and hold it to avoid accidents. When the surging occurs, many times the vehicle goes into fail-safe engine mode which does not allow one to shift into higher gears. Check engine light stays on after occurrence and failsafe engine mode was solved by pulling over, killing the motor, waiting, and then restarting.
On the date noted, I was stopped at a traffic light with my foot on the brake when the car suddenly lurched forward (maybe 6-9 inches). I turned the corner to enter a parking garage and while stopped with my foot on the brake, the car lurched forward again, this time the car stalled. I restarted it pulled forward to the garage gate and stopped. It lurched a third time, stalling again and then the service engine light came on. I can best describe it as though I released the clutch (on a manual shift car) with my foot on the brake and not the accelerator. In such a situation, the car will lurch and stall. However this is an automatic and the reason the clutch would engage is from acceleration. I recall the motor revving up prior to the lurch which would explain the event. The ford dealership finally narrowed the problem to the throttle body and the electronics attached to it and required replacement ($700+). I would say this event occurred at least 6 times in the past year, always while the car was stopped but never 3 times in succession. It stalled maybe two of those times, entered 'engine failsafe mode' but was fine after re-starting the engine. I researched this occurrence on the internet finding it to be an issue on many occasions with this model vehicle. There are several reports on your website as well. I see the investigation is still open. I noted one report referencing a design flaw as to the release of gases in the throttle body and how they are re-routed back throughout the body. The service rep at the dealer noted to me that the new body installed on my car was a new design where the gases are released away from the body. I take this as acknowledgement that the original design was flawed, leading to its unsafe behavior. Note that this last event occurred in 90+ degree weather with the AC on and after highway driving for 3 hours.
My ford freestyle 2005 has been lunging for months. I purchased this vehicle used from a private party. Of course if the previous owner had any issues he did not share them with me.the vehicle did have some minor dings which he claimed occurred when he backed into a fence.he had been having some severe medical problems so I am wondering did he just think it was his fault, not realizing the car had lunged. I see a lot of other people on the internet are having the same problems. When are you going to recall this vehicle? It is very scary and does it in forward and reverse. I have been afraid to park in any tight spaces where it may lung and cause a accident or injure someone.I have a handicap parking tag but have been leary of parking in those spaces should this happen. Also the air conditioning only operates when the vehicle is accelerating, I saw others have that issue also. Please take action soon before these vehicles suddenly lunge on a interstate and cause serious injuries or death. Thank you.
The vehicle started surging without foot on the gas pedal. This occurs at low speeds or when stopping. Have had to rapidly press the brake pedal and hold it to avoid accidents. When the surging occurs, many times the vehicle goes into fail-safe engine mode which does not allow one to shift into higher gears. This caused a problem on the interstate when caught in stop and go traffic. Could not accelerate after surge-engine dying-failsafe engine mode. Check engine light stays on after occurrence and failsafe engine mode was solved by pulling over, killing the motor, waiting, and then restarting. Surging is causing a stress on the transmission which now appears to have slack in it.
Engine / speed surging especially noticeable when parking. Whether in drive or reverse engine moderates only slightly but car lurches. This has happened to three different drivers of the same car, same day, similar experiences. Extra pressure was needed on brake to prevent car from hitting other cars in parking lot. . . . Circumstances: hot day ( 90+ f), air conditioning on, engine at idle speed while maneuvering into / out from parking, turning wheel or holding wheel turned during maneuver.
My 2005 ford freestyle sel has experiences issues with surging, stalling and inability to accelerate. The problems started at least 2 years ago (2009) at which time I called my local dealership to inquire on recalls (warranty was out) and was told there were no recalls to fix this issue. Since the surge has increased in frequency, most any time I start the vehicle and put it in gear, it will surge (RPM's rev up on their own). Having my foot on the brake at times still does not hold the car completely still and has concerned me on more occasions than not when in parking lots at stores with people moving around my vehicle. The stall & inability to accelerate happens less frequently but has happened a handful of times and always results in the check engine light (wrench) coming on. The vehicle will not perform as it should until the check engine has been cleared. I recently backed into a tree at my work and firmly believe it happened due to a surge after I put the car in gear and started backing up. I did not have enough time to react (stopping the vehicle) before it hit the tree. I've owned my car since 2007 - my sister has a lincoln ls that was recalled just before my car started these episodes. Her car was recalled for everything I've stated above (even though it had never done it) - the throttle body linkage was replaced. I've called the dealership on numerous occasions, even stating that her lincoln received the recall that my car needs, with absolutely no help or suggestions.
We just bought a used 2005 ford freestyle and the dealer we bought it from told us the awd malfunction alert would come on, but it would not stay on long enough for a mechanic to check what was wrong with it. We did notice the alert coming on, but on our 4th day of driving the vehicle, we were pulling away from a drive thru window and preparing to maneuver around two vehicles stopped in front of us and I had just taken my foot off the brake and not even touched the gas pedal when the car lunged forward. I applied the brake and then slowly took my foot away again and the car lunged and the engine died. The car still had enough momentum after the engine died to allow me to coast away from the two vehicles in front of me. I tried to start the car again and it lunged and died again. On the third try, it started and I was able to get out of the parking lot, but I was very frightened. I did make it home alright, but the awd malfunction alert stayed on and at times the alert would also read "failsafe engine mode". Also, the traction control alert icon lit up and a wrench was lit up under it in the instrument panel. We hope ford will help freestyle owners soon before someone has a terrible accident.
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used 2005 Ford Freestyle?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history