10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 0 / 1
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 49,341 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
I was driving 65mph on the freeway (which was smooth) and my inertia switch went out. This shut off my power steering, my power brakes and I was almost killed by a semi truck because of this. It happened 10 times today, usually when coming to a stop. This has happened multiple times, and Ford has not yet issued a recall. About two weeks ago, the same thing happened (on the freeway), and once again almost caused an accident. They have already tried fixing this before and it continues to occur. I have read multiple instances of this occurring and believe this is an extremely dangerous defect, and almost cost me my life. I have a 2005 Ford Ranger. Thank you for reading my problem, I am very disturbed by this and hope Ford will fix this.
- Escondido, CA, USA
My Ford Ranger (2005) lost power going down the freeway. After much investigation, time, safety issues (quitting at 55 + mph) and money it turned out to be the inertia switch.
- Milner, GA, USA
I have a 2005 Ranger truck and it occasionally feels like it is running out of gas. I had my mechanic check all phases of what could be wrong and he found nothing. I never heard of the inertia switch until reading on here. I will mention this to my mechanic today. Thanks for the info. I did not write down dates and times.
- Toledo, OH, USA
Inertia switch tripped in 2008 while parked!? walked home, looked up on internet, found out how to reset. February 2010 the inertia switch tripped again while coasting down smooth road. Pulled over and reset switch. Daughter reports inertia switch tripped a couple of weeks later, fortunately I told her how to reset it. This could be very dangerous and life-threatening, especially if it happened on a crowded freeway! I feel that Ford knows this is a problem, have created a relocation kit. For a hundred bucks! I feel Ford should pay for it. I have only 7K miles on this truck, in five years!
- La Mesa, CA, USA
I have a 2005 Ford Ranger 4 wheel drive which I purchased new. On a recent trip a trailer truck changed lanes on the pa turnpike within feet of my front end. In order to avoid an accident I hit the brakes very hard. The inertia switch stopped the fuel pump and some how I was able to coast across 2 lanes to the berm. I called the Ford dealer and they said that the guarantee was 3 year or 36,00 miles and at the time I had about 37,500 miles on the truck and was obviously over the three years. I had the switch repaired at a cost of over $200. After the occurrence above the switch went off 5 times during normal driving. I have the bad switch in my possession if you are interested. This was a very serious situation which I think Ford should pay for. Loosing all power on a super highway is dangerous to say the least.
- Hudson, OH, USA
When turning left on incline/decline fuel inertia cutoff switch activates leaving no steering or braking assist/power.
- Jonesborough, TN, USA
3 times going down the road the truck died and had to be towed. All 3 times was the inertia switch. The other time they replaced part of the transmission. All this on a new truck I've had for 6 weeks. The truck isn't safe. Go out into heavy interstate traffic going 65 and shut your vehicle off. It isn't good. They want me to try it again. I can't put my family or myself in that position again.
- Winchester, IL, USA
- Los Angeles, CA, USA