I have had to replace wheel bearing and axle every few months because of premature wear and causing driving to be a safety concern. Once it wears thin, the car shakes and wobbles and the tire almost snapped off twice.

- Louisville , KY, USA

Assisting a friend with this. The left rear axle has broken and damaged the brakes and ABS sensor. He had driven the vehicle to work and parked it. After his shift ended, he started the vehicle, shifted into gear and found the vehicle would not move & was making noise. He had it towed to his house and asked me to diagnose the cause. After raising the rear axle, I was able to determine that the left rear axle bearing had worn through the axle and it broke. When I checked the NHTSA website, it showed it was not covered under the rear axle safety recall, although the conditions are similar to what was listed.

- Urbana, IL, USA

Follow up on initial complaint; I caught 1 before a blow out. 3 more to go. Lawyers won't handle it, because it didn't do any injury or kill me. NHTSA it a waste of taxpayers money. I have to go back to school to learn this new generation. Or is there a better country to move to.

- Weeki Wachee, FM, USA

Item = Goodyear viva tires; 2015, 1 at a time, vibrations has gotten worse, bought new 4 new rotors, problem still the same. ///// also bought a van with all viva tires, and it has the same exact problem.

- Brooksville, FL, USA

I started hearing a metal rubbing noise realized that it was coming from the L-rear wheel I replaced the wheel bearing & seal figuring it was just one of those things since this doesn't typically happen in today's later model vehicles.about two weeks later the noise returned so I researched it and discovered a recall not noticing it was just for fleet models. I called Ford and was told it didn't include my VIN # I did some further research and found out that these axles were manufactured with a defect causing the metal to become soft thereby causing the wheel bearing to wear an indentation into the metal resulting in the wheel bearing having to much play on the axle (to much movement). The end result is the bearing destroys itself and hopefully you replace it before it breaks apart causing the wheel to possibly fall off and definite destruction of the rear differential! it was suggested that you replace the bearing with whats called a repairing which is wider and heavier duty than the oem bearing thereby it covers a wider portion of the axle and does not sit in the space where the oem bearing wore down the metal.after replacing it a second time it lasted about 3 years 2011) and then the seal blew out on this wheel which is the same procedure as replacing the bearing. In 2013 the R-rear bearing had to be replaced. As of February 2015 due to the L-rear bearing making noise & leaking differential fluid ( I can hear the bearing destroying itself) and the R-rear axle leaking differential fluid I got fed up parked the car and bought another car. Ironically I bought another 2003 Town car with 65,000 miles it was manufactured in 5/2003 unlike the subject car that was manufactured in 10/2003 I have my fingers crossed.Ford been making cars for 100 years I should not be having this problem with axles.this problem is not just a fleet vehicle problem, I want my axles replaced.

- Raleigh, NC, USA

The contact owns a 2003 Lincoln Town car. While driving 40 mph, the contact attempted to accelerate and heard a roaring sound coming from the rear of the vehicle. The contact took the vehicle to a mechanic and they stated that the wheel bearings, wheels, and axle shafts needed to be replaced. The contact was given a copy of NHTSA campaign id number 04V328000 (suspension:rear), which he took to the Ford dealer, but was informed that his VIN was not included. The current mileage was 40,700 and failure mileage was 40,600.

- Weston, FL, USA