Investigations
| NHTSA ID | Manufacturer | Date open | Date close | Subject | Recall campaign | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING | ||||||
| DP05005 | FORD MOTOR COMPANY | 09/22/2005 | 01/04/2006 | SPARK PLUG EJECTION FROM CYLINDER HEAD | ||
| On september 6, 2005, odi received a petition requesting that the agency investigate allegations of engine spark plug ejection in certain model year 1997 through 2004 ford vehicles with triton v-8 and v-10 engines.odi received a total of 474 non-duplicative complaints on the subject vehicles where the complainant, or the dealer repairing the vehicle, reported that a spark plug detached from the cylinder and/or ejected from the engine.as of december 8, 2005, odi is not aware of any allegations where the alleged defect resulted in a loss of vehicle control, a crash, an injury, or a fatality in any of the 10,319,810 subject vehicles.in addition, odi is aware of only two incidents where the vehicle stalled without restart.information contained in the odi consumer complaints and obtained from 72 telephone interviews with complainants showed the following:(1) 99% of the complaints were on my 1997 to 2002 subject vehicles.(2) most the complainants reported hearing a loud pop while driving or upon starting up the vehicle followed by a loud, repetitive clicking or popping sound.(3) many of the complainants reported that the popping sound was accompanied by some loss of vehicle power; however, in 99% of the incidents reported, the vehicle did not stall.in the very few incidents where the vehicle did stall, most vehicles could be restarted.(4) only a small percentage of the complainants cited that they smelled gas or a slight burning smell when the incident occurred.(5) in all but a very few incidents, vehicle damage was limited to the engine.in one incident, the complaint reported that the fuel rail was damaged and replaced after one of the spark plugs ejected from the engine; however, the complainant reported that the damage did not result in any type of fuel leak or fire.in another incident, the only incident where a fire was alleged, the complainant reported that no fluid leak was observed, but that a fire resulted after the spark plug had ejected from the engine and he had restarted the vehicle and driven to another location.none of the complainants reported any damage to the vehicle hood.(6) only two complainants reported that they observed what appeared to be some drops of fuel coming from the cylinder where the spark plug had failed or on the spark plug itself; however, each of these complainants reported that there was no smoke or flames as a result of his incident.as the petitioner noted, and odi | ||||||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - ENGINE | ||||||
| DP05005 | FORD MOTOR COMPANY | 09/22/2005 | 01/04/2006 | SPARK PLUG EJECTION FROM CYLINDER HEAD | ||
| On september 6, 2005, odi received a petition requesting that the agency investigate allegations of engine spark plug ejection in certain model year 1997 through 2004 ford vehicles with triton v-8 and v-10 engines.odi received a total of 474 non-duplicative complaints on the subject vehicles where the complainant, or the dealer repairing the vehicle, reported that a spark plug detached from the cylinder and/or ejected from the engine.as of december 8, 2005, odi is not aware of any allegations where the alleged defect resulted in a loss of vehicle control, a crash, an injury, or a fatality in any of the 10,319,810 subject vehicles.in addition, odi is aware of only two incidents where the vehicle stalled without restart.information contained in the odi consumer complaints and obtained from 72 telephone interviews with complainants showed the following:(1) 99% of the complaints were on my 1997 to 2002 subject vehicles.(2) most the complainants reported hearing a loud pop while driving or upon starting up the vehicle followed by a loud, repetitive clicking or popping sound.(3) many of the complainants reported that the popping sound was accompanied by some loss of vehicle power; however, in 99% of the incidents reported, the vehicle did not stall.in the very few incidents where the vehicle did stall, most vehicles could be restarted.(4) only a small percentage of the complainants cited that they smelled gas or a slight burning smell when the incident occurred.(5) in all but a very few incidents, vehicle damage was limited to the engine.in one incident, the complaint reported that the fuel rail was damaged and replaced after one of the spark plugs ejected from the engine; however, the complainant reported that the damage did not result in any type of fuel leak or fire.in another incident, the only incident where a fire was alleged, the complainant reported that no fluid leak was observed, but that a fire resulted after the spark plug had ejected from the engine and he had restarted the vehicle and driven to another location.none of the complainants reported any damage to the vehicle hood.(6) only two complainants reported that they observed what appeared to be some drops of fuel coming from the cylinder where the spark plug had failed or on the spark plug itself; however, each of these complainants reported that there was no smoke or flames as a result of his incident.as the petitioner noted, and odi | ||||||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - ENGINE - GASOLINE | ||||||
| DP05005 | FORD MOTOR COMPANY | 09/22/2005 | 01/04/2006 | SPARK PLUG EJECTION FROM CYLINDER HEAD | ||
| On september 6, 2005, odi received a petition requesting that the agency investigate allegations of engine spark plug ejection in certain model year 1997 through 2004 ford vehicles with triton v-8 and v-10 engines.odi received a total of 474 non-duplicative complaints on the subject vehicles where the complainant, or the dealer repairing the vehicle, reported that a spark plug detached from the cylinder and/or ejected from the engine.as of december 8, 2005, odi is not aware of any allegations where the alleged defect resulted in a loss of vehicle control, a crash, an injury, or a fatality in any of the 10,319,810 subject vehicles.in addition, odi is aware of only two incidents where the vehicle stalled without restart.information contained in the odi consumer complaints and obtained from 72 telephone interviews with complainants showed the following:(1) 99% of the complaints were on my 1997 to 2002 subject vehicles.(2) most the complainants reported hearing a loud pop while driving or upon starting up the vehicle followed by a loud, repetitive clicking or popping sound.(3) many of the complainants reported that the popping sound was accompanied by some loss of vehicle power; however, in 99% of the incidents reported, the vehicle did not stall.in the very few incidents where the vehicle did stall, most vehicles could be restarted.(4) only a small percentage of the complainants cited that they smelled gas or a slight burning smell when the incident occurred.(5) in all but a very few incidents, vehicle damage was limited to the engine.in one incident, the complaint reported that the fuel rail was damaged and replaced after one of the spark plugs ejected from the engine; however, the complainant reported that the damage did not result in any type of fuel leak or fire.in another incident, the only incident where a fire was alleged, the complainant reported that no fluid leak was observed, but that a fire resulted after the spark plug had ejected from the engine and he had restarted the vehicle and driven to another location.none of the complainants reported any damage to the vehicle hood.(6) only two complainants reported that they observed what appeared to be some drops of fuel coming from the cylinder where the spark plug had failed or on the spark plug itself; however, each of these complainants reported that there was no smoke or flames as a result of his incident.as the petitioner noted, and odi | ||||||
Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING | |||
| 09/13/2005 | 5000 | 5 | 01/20/2004 |
| I purchased a brand new 2003 ford mustang cobra convertible in placentia, ca and was very excited to have my first mustang. i am 32 and married with two children ages 13 and 5 so our other car is a minivan. in the end, as you will see in this description, this was the worst purchase i have ever made in regards to a vehicle. after around 7,000-9,000 miles ( i would have to pull the paperwork as i am at work now) the car over-heated on the freeway and during the overheating the car shut down forcing me to lose power steering and the car began to drift left in to the other lane. i pumped the clutch several times and successfully was able to get the car running just far enough to pull over to the shoulder and call a tow truck. it could have been a lot worse since traffic was moving around 65-70 mph. the car was sent to fritts ford in riverside, ca and i found out that not only was the radiator cap cracked as well as the radiator but the catalytic converter (i know my spelling is wrong here) needed to be replaced for some reason. i believe they said it had a hole in it which i can't believe after only 7k-9k miles. i also believe they replaced the thermostat. it was too long after i received the car back (about 3k-5k miles) that the overheating happened again, the engine shut down, etc and i was forced to the side of the road and again luckily was not hit by another car. the car was back at the dealer and the radiator and thermostat were replaced i believe. since then i have moved to texas and the same thing has occurred three times in the last 3 months. each time (well the first two since the last one just happened last night) i was told the thermostat was bad and needed to be replaced. i guarantee now that the car is at bob tomes ford in mckinney texas for the 3rd time with only 22,000 total miles that the thermostat was bad again and needed to be replaced. *nm | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - ENGINE | |||
| 01/21/2008 | 7 | 09/15/2007 | |
| July 2007 through current date. car stalls when pushing in clutch to stop or make turns. there is a tsb (17542)on this issue but no recall. this is a dangerous condition which could be fatal to a novice driver; especially when car stalls during a left hand turn. *tr | |||
| 07/03/2003 | 04/20/2003 | ||
| 2003 svt ford mustang cobra convertible keeps stalling at stop with clutch fully depressed, does it most while running air conditioning during hot weather, the car has less than 1000 miles on it and has stalled 7 times, once nearly rear-ending the car in front of me due to no power steering or brakes. our local dealer has had several complaints (same) and has me scheduled to go in late july to reflash the computor though it hasn't made much difference on other friends cobras. please help !!!!!! | |||
| 03/30/2003 | 2000 | 5 | 03/17/2003 |
| 2003 ford mustang cobra convertible stall when depressing the clutch on occasion. i have contacted the dealer, but they insist that their is not much than can do about it. they have tried to re-flash my computer, but the problem came back. *nlm | |||
| 04/03/2003 | 10000 | 4 | 06/14/2002 |
| The most recent being just a few days ago, my vehicle will sometimes have a problem in which it stalls while moving at a slow speed while a gear is not engaged. the car is a 2003 svt ford mustang cobra convertible. a call to ford's svt division had no solutions. many people that i know with the same car are experiencing the exact same problem. it has occurred to me 4 times. thank you so much! *nlm | |||
| 12/27/2002 | 800 | 10 | 12/19/2002 |
| Svt cobra is intermittently stalling while the clutch is fully depressed and decelerating to a stop. this intermittent stalling occurs most frequently at idle. the vehicle has stalled at least ten times in the first 1174 miles of ownership. occurs with greater frequency in warm weather while the engine is hot. two service departments checked the engine and one reset the idle controller. they could not reproduce the condition, however, the stalling persists with no change in symptoms. although the vehicle restarts immediately, the condition significantly increases the chances of a collision while trying to regain control and restart in traffic. | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - EXHAUST SYSTEM | |||
| 04/12/2008 | 1 | 10/23/2007 | |
| I parked the car along the curb at ucla and spent the night at the dorms. the car was running perfectly fine, i didn't notice anything different and there were no problems. when i awoke the following morning a friend and i were hungry so we decided to go to mcdonald's. it was approx. 1.5 - 2 miles away. while we were sitting in the drive through, i started to hear a loud noise, kind of like a belt squeaking inside the hood. i couldn't tell if it was from my car or the car to the side of me, so i turned the car off. the noise stopped. when i turned the car back on however, the noise got unbearably loud and sounded like metal on metal, and we noticed the aroma of something burning. i exited the drive through and stopped at the red light. i looked at the gauges, and the oil, battery and temperature gauges were all where they normally should be, bout in the middle to slightly above the halfway mark...well...the car suddenly stalled and i assumed then that it had something to do with the transmission. i knew there was a gas station up ahead, so i tried to start the car again, it had some problems starting up, but then finally started and i was going to drive the block remaining to the gas station. all of a sudden, there was a loud pop under the hood, and all the gauges dropped and i turned the car off and let it coast to the sidewalk, when i exited the car, there was oil all over the ground, leaking from somewhere and i noticed that under the hood, the plastic cap that was covering the pistons (i assume) was cracked...there was smoke everywhere. when the tow truck driver came, he said that somehow something came unloose from the engine and shot up through the pistons and that's what broke the plastic cap. he said he's never seen anything like this before in his 30 yrs of service. *tr | |||