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Ford Mustang (2005 & newer) Problems and Solutions
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Comments
I have heard of other ford cars doing that as well. One of the guys at the dealership said it happened to his son's ford focus, but his car was in neutral with the brake pulled tight. Another was in his driveway with his son in the car.
But the e-brake should hold on a slight downhill grade.
What's confusing me is someone heard a "pop" that witnessed this debacle. If the car did indeed pop out of gear, then the next tooth in the gear set should have "caught" it. If it was driveable, and you didn't notice any problems with the tranny, then it's more likely that you "thought" you had it in 1st when parked, but maybe not?
I would say (and really this is just idle speculation) that if, after the accident, someone could have walked up to the e-brake lever and gotten two or three more clicks out of it, then that's the driver's bitter pill to swallow. But if it was cranked up as tight as it would go, and IF the hill was not too extreme, it should have held.
I guess now that the car is damaged iit's kind of a moot point and we'll never know who was at fault. I suppose you could hire onen of those $500 an hour accident reconstruction guys, but if your car is insured, maybe the best you can do is fix it up and write it off to back luck.
Hill wasn't too bad, it was on the flat part before the descent. I am irish and know all about bad luck, but this seems ridiculous that they wouldn't replace the brake out of goodwill for someone who recently purchased their first ford.
How about a couple of you conducting a test?
Firmly apply the PARKING brake, then try to drive away.
I guess there's a fine line here between success and failure. If the brake isn't on tight or the cable is too slack then those tiny shoes just don't have quite the grip they need.
a gentle tap on the gas would do....
I need to replace my rear pads and rotors REAL soon anyway, so I'm okay with it.
Frightening thing when your car rolls away. I'm really sorry that happened and glad nobody was injured. I hope once the car is repaired that the e-brake system is given a good going over.
Digression---my friends MG broke loose, same kind of thing, no explanation. He lived on a slight hill near a classic car restoration shop, and his MG flew right past a Mercedes Gullwing into a flower bed. That could have been a $300,000 insurance claim and he's a carpenter. Can you say "Slave for Life"?
Always have your car either in park or in gear when you stop. Always put the e-brake on firmly (even to the last click). If you do that, there should be no problem.
Good luck....as other's said, that's what you carry insurance for. Just consider it a lesson learned.
1) turn wheels right for downhill or left for uphill
2) put in 1st for uphill or reverse for downhill
3) put wedges under tires
4)chain car to nearby large tree or fire hydrant
5)let air out of all tires
3-5 are optional
The Mustang wants to run.....even when parked.
In all seriousness though, I think Shifty has it right. The e-brake on any car won't hold on steeper inclines/declines. Also, it's smart to make absolutely certain that any car is in a gear or park (automatics) when parking it.
On a few occasions, I thought I had my car (not the Mustang) in gear, when in reality I didn't. Nothing bad came about, but I thought "boy, I'm lucky the car didn't roll away".
I have been parking on that slight incline for five years in a dodge stealth (boy i miss that ride) and recently an acura. Never had a problem, always drove a manual transmission. Thank god for insurance, never thought I would say that.
I found the tsb's on this website....This wasn't anything familiar at our particular dealership..or with Ford from what they said....That is why Ford requested the rearend be shipped directly back to them...
If you can't find your answer hear you might be able to find something here...I jump back and forth to find out information. Good Luck. I am getting my replacement shaker 500 this week....My dealership just ordered it when I told them off my problems...
Next time you're in you '05 GT, please try revving the engine to 3200 / 3300 rpm or there abouts and check if there is a significant vibration that shakes the whole car - it feels like you are driving over those bumps on the side of the freeway that are designed to tell you that you're drifting out of your lane. My new Mustang does this in neutral (when stationary) and when driving in any gear. It's clearly an engine vibration.
I took it to the dealer and they're telling me that it's "perfectly normal" and that thay have another '05 GT that does the same thing.
I need to know if other mustangs do this to decide what my next action is. I hope that it is just my car so that the dealer will fix it somehow. Otherwise, if they all do it, I guess we're all stuck with a bad design that's going to significantly shorten the engine life - and Ford should do something about it.
So please - give this a try and post back a.s.a.p.
Thanks,
Alex
If it does it only in neutra, then I believe what you're experiencing is the rev-limiter activating and either shutting off fuel, or interrupting the ignition.
If I'm right, you should experience smooth operation as you gradually increase engine speed from ~1000 RPM. It will then abruptly get very rough as the limiter activates.
This IS normal. Try it on any car produced in the last few years.
This is a GOOD design that prevents scattering the engine at no-load, high RPM.
It does it in any gear and in neutral, whether the engine is under load or not. You only really have to keep it at those rpm to feel the vibrations for about 1/2 a second but if you're accellerating through those rpm's you could miss it. We first noticed it when driving at those RPMs on the freeway - it's the kind of rpm when you're deciding if you're going to overtake or not. Like I say - it's pretty bad and feel like you're driving with your tires on the outside of a lane.
I'll have to try taking it to another dealer I guess. I just had a very bad experience with Ford customer service. They basically agree with the dealer and are telling me it is normal for the car and every GT vibrates badly at those RPM's. This is based upon the dealer claiming to test *one* other GT they had in stock and it doing the same thing. I said - errr... so based on 2 cars doing this, you claim it's normal. She said yes. What is the deal with all these total morons that work in garages these days. What happened to the guys that cared about cars. There's clearly something wrong with it but all they do is look for excuses not to fix the problem.
Personally I think they're lying about testing another GT since they didn't have any others in stock that morning but conveniently did have that afternoon. Either way, the Ford hotline have never heard of this problem. Aparently the 'computer' doesn't report any faults, so 'it is normal'. I said - if the car had square wheels, the computer wouldn't report a fault - and which point the nice customer service lady got a bit stroppy and informed me she basically didn't want to know and I was within my rights to seek legal advice etc etc etc...
If dealers won't do anything that the Ford hotline doesn't already know about, how does the Ford hotline ever learn about these faults. It's catch 22 lunacy!
Get this... They told me I shouldn't drive it at those RPMs and should change gear sooner... They litterally said that it's acceptible because not everyone would drive it at those RPMs. I can't believe what I'm hearing here. I sold my SVT Cobra to buy this car. It never had a problem like this. No car I've EVER DRIVEN has had a problem like this. So guys - the REAL RED LINE of a Mustang GT is 3100 rpm. That's official from the Ford hotline. GREAT!
I asked her what my options were and she basically said I had none. I'm stuck with the car. :lemon: I asked if I could return the car and get my money back - aparently I can't. Does anyone know where I can get good legal advice on this. The car only has 600 miles on it. I don't want it if it drives like this. I know it will not last long before something horrible goes wrong with the engine - probably just when my warranty runs out.
If anyone from Ford is reading this - YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS!
Good luck!
I don't think you are going to have much luck with the lemon law here. But, talk to a lawyer, if that's your inclination.
If they don't honor this reasonable request, contact the dealership owner.
Check on the internet for the lemon law for your state.
Thanks for the replies. It seem like nobody else has this issue so It's just my car. In answer to other posts..
This doesn't happen for just 1/2 a second. If you stick at those rpms, it is constant. This happens while driving at constant speed in any gear in those rpms. It also happens in neutral with the car stationary at those same RPMS
We went for a test drive with the service manager. He did feel the vibration. He immediately tried to fob us off with a 'That's totally normal and within operation specifications'.
I'm going to test drive a brand new GT at 12:30 today. The fleet manager who sold me the car is really taking care of me and seems to be the *only* person from Ford that's on my side with this issue. He's coming with me to the holding area and allowing me to 'unofficially' check out the GT to see if it has the same problem.
Thanks again for checking this out. If any other GT owners would check for bad vibrations at around 3300 rpms I'd be very grateful of your feedback.
Thanks,
Alex
In case anyone is interested.. I did go check out a brand new 05 GT mustang yesterday and it does have the same problem between 3100-3300 rpms. There is noticable vibration from the engine - but it was not as severe as in my car. I took the fleet manager over to try my car and he agreed it is much worse. I picked up my car anyway and drove it home. It bug me that it vibrates every time I coast and the revs pass back through those rpms.
The good news is that they finally contacted somebody at Ford and their engineers are not investigating the issue and may issue a TSB. Stay tuned...
I was just screwing around on the net and found this forum and honestly I almost wish I didn't....lol I just got my V6 Auto two days ago and it only has 170 miles on it and I notice the thunk in changing between R and D, seems not to be so bad going from P to D. It did not come off as being a serious problem to me but maybe others have had some issue's with this. I looked at my build date (driver side door sticker) and it's 11/04 and I have the shaker 500 A as well. I did notice that it skipped once on a burned cd I put it but it did this only on one track for about 1-2 seconds. Has not done it with any other CD's I have put in. With any of you who have had this skipping problem does it do it all the time, what are the symptoms? Have not had any problems with popping sounds from front end or noise from the rear end but maybe cause the thing has such low miles. I don't have the gas tank issue either but most likely that is because of the build date. Another question is where do you guys get the TSB's from? Are they posted on the net somewhere or maybe there are some ford tech's who are sharing with us? I have a good friend who is a very qualified mechanic at the dealership where I purchased my car and I am wondering if I should show him these TSB's and maybe do preventive maintance? I don't know if that is even possible but I am hoping I did not make a mistake in buying this car, I need something reliable and I do hope it will be. Appreciate any help or advice you guys might share.
Daniel
I've experienced many of the problems stated on this board BUT in spite of that I love the Mustang and you will, too. Just remember the car hasn't had years of production to work out all of the bugs. Just be patient, make your dealer service department fix the problems and you'll love your Mustang as much as I do.
Everywhere I go people say my 05 Mustang GT is the coolest car on the road today. I hear that from everyone from little kids to grandparents, from BMW guys to EVEN a Corvette guy or two.
You didn't make a mistake, you're just ahead of the curve. Or is that, throwing your muscle car into the curve.
I recently chatted with the people who make the Xcalibrator, a well know tuning device for the 05 GT and he told me he is currently working on a tune for the V6. I think this is great news. I have already found shorty headers and a few other basic mods for the V6 but there seems to be a whole lot less then the GT, but this is not to surprising. If anyone comes across an intake system for the 05 V6 not just the stock K&N filter please post it and let me know. I think if more people are interested and let the manufactures know that the V6 crowd wants these parts as well we will get them.
I don't think you can fault either the Jag nor the LS with the way they drive/handle. Good platform to start with.
5twenty....you should know more about the new Mustang than any of us with as much experience as you've had.
I got my 05 GT Mustang - Auto transmission last Friday. Since I have gotten it I have noticed a few things:
1.) Hesitation is bad in low speed shifting - really notice it when stepping off the gas and then reapplying or from rolling stop to a start. Almost feels like it is misfiring or that the engine starts to rev a little and then the car goes.
2.) Today I put it in reverse and the engine reved but I did not go in reverse, tried a second time - same thing - third time then it reversed.
3.) After driving for a while - when I get out of the car I smell sort of a burning smell - thinking this may be the rear brakes or possibly the exhaust - since it seems to be coming from the rear.
I am bringing it in for service, but I am very concerned because when I talked to the service manager - he said that this is the first he has heard of those things happening on the mustang. I love the car, but have a bittersweet time driving it right now with the problems. Call me a pessimist, but I just hear the "we could not produce the problem" coming at me tomorrow.
Let me know what you guys think and any suggestions on what to do?
Thanks
New cars will have some of that "smell" since parts and their coatings burn off. Nothing to be alarmed about. It should go away as you put more miles on it.