Our 2007 Ford Fusion suddenly lost most of it's power and went into a "limp mode" in the passing lane of Rte 95 North, almost causing a rear end accident. An Orange "Wrench" warning light illuminated.

We finally got to the breakdown lane and shut the car down. I checked all the gauges and fluids, for level and leaks. All fine. When I started the car again, the wrench was off and the car ran fine. While heading straight home it happened again, 45 miles later. Made it home and shut it down.

I researched the issues and found an enormous number of complaints about the same issue. Enough that Ford has been made aware of the Customer Safety and Satisfaction Issues through an investigation by the NHTSA. Ford agreed to extend the warranties on the electronic throttle body system on about 1.6 million cars. Unfortunately, when I contacted Ford, as the report suggested, while they acknowledged they knew about the problem, they said our car was not covered. The reason was "every car is evaluated based upon the model, year, where it was built and when". And because of how our VIN identified our car to Ford, we were not included. They said I should bring the car to a Ford dealer to have it fixed. Ya Right!! We are not about to depend upon Ford for our safety, based upon their response. In fact, it was so disappointing, though we have bought many Fords in the past, that's it for us. Evidently, when it comes to Customer Safety and Satisfaction, Ford puts the dollar first. For those of you with this issue, best of luck and be careful. This causes a very unexpected performance response, especially in the eyes of the driver behind you.

wrench light - loss of power after cancelling cruise

I was driving uphill on a highway with my cruise control set at 120km/h (75mph). The vehicle downshifted to keep speed. I then needed to cancel the cruise control to slow for traffic ahead. I tapped the brakes to cancel the cruise, and gently put my foot on the gas as I began to decelerate. The car violently shuddered and the throttle became very unresponsive. Even with my foot to the floor, I could barely keep highway speed (RPMs are now in the 3-4K range). The wrench light came on, and I pulled over and shut off the car. After waiting a couple minutes, I turned the car back on, the wrench light disappeared, and the car seemed to drive normally again. I took it to my dealer who couldn’t replicate the problem or get a diagnostic code. They cleaned the throttle body and couldn’t guarantee that this was the fix. As I was having other issues with the car (rough shifting, replaced bad air intake manifold), I eventually sold the car to avoid further problems.