I have been a Ford guy forever. I own a 2004 Freestar and am currently sitting in a Hampton Inn on the side of I-20 in Louisiana because the transmission has gone out. After looking at information on the web, this seems to be a major problem. There are forum postings all over describing my exact problem and that Ford is just ignoring the problem, rather than issuing a recall and taking care of their customers because of a poor design and weak part. As stated previously, I am a Ford guy. I have a 95' Aerostar, a 2000 F-250, 2004 mustang (multiple problems), a 63 F-100, and my son has a 93 Merc Cougar. I have to say if Ford continues down this road, I will be changing brands.

 

How many miles on the van? And has the fluid and filter ever been changed? Ford requires that the fluid be changed at 30,000 miles.

 

i was driving down the road yesterday, cruise set @ 65. When all at once, it was like the van went into neutral. I hit the brakes to shut the cruise off and rolled to the side of the road. The car would not go into any gear.
65000 miles on vehicle, 2005 freestar. trans fluid changed @25,000 miles, and @ 50,000 miles
Bryan 12/23/2007

 

Was the filter replaced during either of the 2 fluid changes? Or were these "TRANNY FLUSH" only changes? I know that when I dropped my tranny pan at 31,000 miles, my tranny had a ton of crud in the pan, 1/4" of magnitized particals on the pan magnetand the filter was full of crud also. Since the tranny filters are a felt type filter, they filter finer particals and will plug sooner than the old screen types. I never change any fluids without changing filters.