1.0

hardly worth mentioning
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
181,346 miles

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problem #5

Jul 182017

Taurus

  • 206,600 miles
The throttle cable housing does not stay in it's seat where it is mounted by the throttle body causing over acceleration when using moderate acceleration, very hard braking is necsesary to stop and putting the transmission in neutral causes major over reving of the engine.

- Menomonie, WI, USA

problem #4

Feb 132015

Taurus 6-cyl

  • 215,047 miles
I was driving and my check engine light came on. Put it on computer it said fuel pump module.

- Mize, MS, USA

problem #3

Apr 082013

Taurus

  • 184,500 miles
While driving under normal conditions at a steady speed, the car began to speed up rapidly, reaching near 55 mph within seconds. The engine stayed around 4,000 RPM and using the brakes only slowed the vehicle, but could not stop it. To avoid a crash, the only option I had was to shift the car into neutral and turn in to a parking lot. Once in neutral, the engine's RPM remained close to 4,000. After turning the ignition off, I inspected under the hood of the car to find that the flimsy plastic piece that holds the cruise control cable in the proper position was broken in several places, leaving the cable free to get caught on what is left of the plastic piece extremely easily. Since that incident, the exact same situation has happened several times. Due to the plastic piece being broken, the cable does not sit inside the plastic piece as intended, which has caused the RPM to stay higher than normal at all times when the car is in gear. While driving, removing my foot from the accelerator pedal to begin decelerating before a stop has no effect, as if the cruise control is engaged at all times. Slowing the vehicle can only be done by using the brakes. This situation came very suddenly with absolutely no prior signs or symptoms of any problem. The rapid, uncontrollable acceleration poses a severe safety threat to driver and anybody around the vehicle. Luckily there was not any traffic when this happened to me, and there was a parking lot nearby to exit the road. If this happened while in moderate to heavy traffic, a crash would be very likely. This issue is unpredictable and has happened to me at highway speeds of 70 mph and at road speeds of 35 mph. I have since decided to park my car and not operate it until I can fix this problem because it is highly unsafe to drive in its current state.

- Caldwell, TX, USA

problem #2

Nov 102012

Taurus

  • 136,484 miles
I was driving my 2001 Ford Taurus onto a freeway and got up to 45 mph and the car continued to accelerate after I lifted my foot off the gas. I attempted to press on the brake as hard as I could and the car was still accelerating. Pressing the brake would not make the car stop. I was not using cruise control. I pulled off to the side of the freeway and put the car in park, the car was still revving up, so I turned the car off. I waited a couple of minutes and started the car again and continued driving and the car exhibited the same conditions as before. I was able to exit the freeway and was about to get to an intersection that had a stop sign. I realized that even after pressing down on the brakes as hard as I could, the car was not going to stop so I proceeded to pull over to the side again and quickly put the car in park and turn the car off. I left the car there and walked to the nearest gas station and towed the car home. I did not feel safe driving anymore and it is a miracle that I did not cause an accident.

- Monterey, CA, USA

problem #1

May 262012

Taurus 6-cyl

  • 164,100 miles
I had just punched the gas pedal and then went to hit the brakes a few seconds later, but the car wasn't really slowing. Looked down and noticed the rpms were at 4000 so I moved the transmission to neutral and the car started slowing more. The car kept revving at 4K rpms though so I turned off the engine. I hadn't come to a complete stop yet so the last few feet were harder to stop, but luckily there wasn't any traffic in front of me and I wasn't in any danger of hitting anyone/anything. I tried starting the car up again and it went right up to 4000K rpms, I shut it off and then tried to hit the gas pedal thinking that maybe it was stuck or there was something under it or something, but that wasn't it so I shut the car off again. Then I popped the hood and noticed that one of the cables that went to the throttle had slid out of a grey boot and was jammed against the side of that boot holding the throttle open. I moved it back so that it popped into the center. Started it up again and it was fine. Closer examination later showed that the grey connector that holds the cable in the center had little bits broken off. If those bits there, it would prevent the cable from sliding out. As this was on a weekend, as a temporary fix, I used a zip tie and some duct tape to hold it in before I got a new cruise control cable. This was the first time this had happened to me.

- Boston, MA, USA