My family and I were on our way home from a camping trip and were about 30 minutes from home, when the RPMs started racing and the car started slowing down. We pulled over to the side of the 3 lane highway that we were on and realized that we had no drive or reverse. It was a really hot day and I had a bad case of vertigo. We had to wait for a friend to come from our home town to pick us all up, a tow truck to come and tow the car all the way to our home town. Another tow truck was needed to tow the van to the transmission shop the next day. My daughter and I had to rent a car to get to her college orientation, since we didn't have use of the van that day. My husband had to travel back to the van with his other car to empty all of our camping gear before he and our 2 young boys could eat dinner.

First off, we haven't had any major repairs on this van and that has been good, but a few weeks ago while I was driving my children to a soccer tournament in San Antonio; I saw a yellow lite transaxle lite with a exclamation mark..I looked it up and had my husband check out the transmission...oil and all seemed fine, but we realized that I only saw the light when I was in cruise control..turned it off and the light went off. This morning I was taking my sons to school and got into the car, started up just like normal; went to back out of the driveway...car wouldn't move...it went into gear as normal,,but didn't go forward or backward...I have been reading so many reviews and all the problems people or having with this same issue and it sickens me that FORD has done NOTHING....I just made my last payment....and don't have any money to put into this car when there is no fix..it just keeps happening over and over,,after thousands of dollars..

After going to the USA, and leaving customs, I drove onto I 94 and went about 1 mile, around a bend into the city, and then nothing. The transmission quit. it coasted approximately 1 city block and I pulled it to the shoulder of the road. I had to wait from 9:00 PM until 12 midnite for a wrecker to take me back to the bridge, and then till 3 AM to have a second wrecker to tow me back into Canada and then to the repair shop.. After 3 days and $2850>00, I got the van back. I am the same as others, TICKED OFF that a vehicle that was owned by are retired lady, and never driven hard, and My wife, who will never drive hard in her life, has a vehicle with out a scratch, and only approx 60,000 miles would start to disintegrate like that, and FORD WILL NOT BACK THE VEHICLE UP . I THINK Mr Ford would be rolling over in his grave to find out what kind of vehicles that they are producing now. I think, NO, I KNOW, that I will never buy another ford vehicle. As far as this van is concerned, it is hard to trust something that will let you down without warning like that.... Al

I have just read tons of complaints about this being a common problem with the Ford Freestar Vans! I have loved this van for over 5 years of ownership! I was on my way to Philadelphia to take Nancy to her Neurologist when it let us down, 37 miles from home with no warning! I just got it paid off in Dec 2010,and this is all we need now! $2500-$3300 to repair, My fiance and myself are both on social security. She is very disabled and in a wheelchair! It will be fun trying to get a loan on a fixed income when we can't even afford our meds as it is! THANKS FORD!

Ford ought to be ashamed. This problem is very well documented and is an obvious and blatent design deficiency. I called the dealer and ford's customer service and told them if they do not rectify this then the 2004 frestar will be my family's and many a freestar owners last ford purchase. A transmission should easily last the life of the vehicle, not completely self destruct with absolutely no warning at less than 80K. ITS OUTRAGEOUS. - I SEE THAT A LAWSUIT HAS BEEN FILED ON BEHALF FOR ALL OF THE VICTIMS OF FREESTAR TRANSMISSION IMPLOSIONS, so relief may be on the way soon! To all fellow victims of ford's defective transmissions- find a good transmission shop that knows about the problem because they have nothing to hide and will use the best available aftermarket parts, not the substandard fmc transmission parts. They will charge you a lot less too. ( $1500 less roughly than the ford dealers quote).

Thank you Ford for standing by your products! Anybody currently driving a 2004/2005 Freestar be warned. Your transmission if it has not already failed will. Those in the market for a used van beware! Driving home @ 35mph van lost all power....like the transmission just slammed into neutral. Real safe felling trust me. Thank god it was near a residential area so the van could coast to a stop safely. Imagine complete transmission failure on the freeway like so many others experience. Est repair for a rebuilt transmission..$2800.