While driving 75 MPH in the left lane on the freeway our 2016 MKX had a sudden deceleration event on 2/4/17. We were able to cross traffic and pull over on the side of the road. The engine continued running, although it was now rough and uneven. An amber wrench light came on the dash along with a warning light that encouraged us to check the manual. We restarted the car several times, but were unable to regain any forward acceleration. The vehicle has 7600 miles on it. It was towed and dropped off at the dealer.

While 600 miles from home, my wife was enroute to pick me up at the Raleigh NC airport when our new MKX

suddenly ceased to accelerate and lost all propulsion. After a brief wait, she was able to restart and proceed 15 miles before it did the same thing. Thank goodness she was able to roll to a stop on the side of the busy interstate both times. She was frantic when she called me at the airport. We made multiple phone calls to Lincoln Roadside Assistance (could call a wrecker), local NC dealers (Saturday afternoon!) and our KY dealer. We agreed to try again twice and the auto rolled to a stop after 8.2 miles. After 12 more miles, we arrived at Capital Ford's Service Center in Raleigh and they were GREAT! Service Advisor Michael Young recognized the problem as a "recalled" (?) Throttle Body and Motor Assembly. It was late on a Saturday afternoon, but they replaced the Throttle Body and Motor Asy and the 2016 Police Interceptor (?) and had me back on the road in 1 hour!! We drove 600 miles to our KY home without incident, but my wife was terrified by the potential danger she endured and now refuses to drive our new "jinxed"crossover!! ($55,000, SpecOrder Nov'15, arrived April'16, was damaged & repaired in transit). If she had been in the wrong lane or had been turning in front of a semi, the accident could have been fatal. The same issue has received 39 complaints on Ford Explorers on this site. Capital Ford said it was a recall, but I can't find the recall on the Internet nor have we received a recall notice.

Two weeks after I got the car the check engine light and the hill assist light both came on and the car stopped responding to the accelerator even though the motor was still running. I was exiting a parking lot at the time and I coasted out of the lot to the side of the road. After 10 mins I tried again and everything seemed fine...for about 3 mins. I was able to pull over again but this time the rear of the car was sticking out into the road significantly.

I was frantic because I was on my way to an appointment. I called the dealership and they sent somebody with a loaner car, which by the way was filthy and smelled from cigarettes, and I went to my appointment while the dealer's driver waited for the tow truck.

Later in the day someone from the service department called to tell me that the throttle body had a crack in it and it was replaced.

Unfortunately, that's not the end of the story. You'll have to read my next post to see what happened next.

In my last post I explained that two weeks after I got my car I lost acceleration and the throttle body had to be replaced because it was cracked. I was a happy camper until... Three months later I was entering a busy parking garage at lunch time when I lost all acceleration but the motor was still running and there were no warning lights. Being on an uphill ramp I couldn't coast over to the side so I was stuck in the middle of the lane. I tried turning the engine on and off several times but I had to get out of the car because, despite my efforts to turn other drivers around, they were squeezing around my car. I got out of the car because I didn't feel safe and to see if I could find someone to help, which I couldn't. I tried to cone off the lane but I was told by a garage employee I couldn't because it was the main entrance to the garage. I tried waving people off but, this is Long Island, and they kept going. One of those cars scraped the side of my car and kept going, making this a hit and run, a felony in NY that has to be reported to the state and my insurance company. Eventually 2 good Samaritans came forward and pushed my car to relative safety. The dealership sent someone with a loaner car and when he got into the car an hour later, it started right up and he was able to drive it back to the dealership about 25 miles away. I called the service department and was told that they were unable to reproduce the problem, which isn't surprising since the last time it happened was 3 months ago. The car was kept overnight and in the morning the service representative who called told me that they were still unable to reproduce the problem. I asked if he checked the throttle body since it was the culprit last time and he said he knew all about that. It was all over the internet and the part was on recall. Here's where it gets really good. The service rep told me that the recall was only valid if the car "throws an error," which mine did not. He told me that if a car came in with loss of acceleration without engine shut off, which is the key symptom of the defective throttle body, and there were no error messages, they were to reboot the computer to fix the problem. Now, in my admittedly biased opinion, Ford (not the dealership) should pay for the damage to my car. If the software corruption was responsible for the throttle body malfunction and they had to reboot the computer to fix it how is it that Ford is not responsible for the damage to the car? Isn't the malfunctioning computer and its software as much of a part in the car as the throttle body is? If the software hadn't been corrupt the throttle body wouldn't have stopped working and, if the throttle body was working I wouldn't have lost acceleration and, if I hadn't lost acceleration I wouldn't have been stuck in the middle of the lane in a busy parking garage and, if I hadn’t been stuck in the middle of the lane in a busy parking garage, the car wouldn't have been hit. Just saying…. Thanks for giving me a place to rant!

Update from Oct 4, 2016: When I asked the service person I was dealing with, if they were going to fix the damage he told me I had to report the damage to my insurance and have it fixed that way because, "an accident is an accident is an accident."

My next call was to the sales manager who had the same thing happen on his demo car. After talking about it for a bit he agreed that Ford was responsible for the damage but rather than me dealing with Ford he would take care of it and he was as good as his word. I was able to use the loaner car while my car was fixed. The damage to the car was fixed perfectly and, my dealership prides itself on going above and beyond and that they did, delivering my car to my house.

In researching the problem with the throttle body it looks as if I am the first to have had an accident and while my dealer did the right thing, by fixing the car, however, if you sustain damage because you're stuck somewhere unsafe, push Ford to pay the repair bill. Ask your dealership to help you deal with them. One of the criteria for reimbursement after making a lemon law claim (at least in NY) is that the problem substantially impairs the value of the car to the consumer, and this problem certainly meets that criteria.

Just keeping my fingers crossed that the computer reset did the trick.