Ford FreestyleThe Ford Freestyle's roofline stands at 68 inches off the ground, and Ford has declined to put a label on it, either SUV or sedan. Keeping the Freestyle tall and offering all-wheel-drive seems to be attactive to non-SUV and non-Sedan car owners, and the Freestyle comes with low ground clearance, unibody construction, independent suspension and a overhead cam engine.
Wanted to know if anyone is having electrical probs. with thier Freestyle ?
I have noticed late at night when very dark the head lights will flicker.
It is completely random ie. no time sequence to it.
I have brought this up with the dealer but they do not have any ideas.
My wife's Freestyle ('05 SEL) is in the shop now for the 3rd time with electrical problems. See "Charge System Trouble" post. The main complaint is the "Check Charge System" message that comes on intermitently but not long enough to store a code. What is probably a side effect of this is that the headlights, along with the dash and interior lights, gradually dim and then suddenly brighten to their normal intensity. My service manager seems to be committed to resolving this problem (after a little persuading after my second visit). I will try to let you know the final diagnosis.
We lost our alternator at 8,000 miles. Could yours be getting in on your problems. We were stranded out in the middle of no where on a Sunday night. When it started everything started flashing on and off. And of course we were in the dark on the side of the road when the battery drained. We have had many more problems than that since then, and we are going to meet Ford and the BBB in arbitration.
Hi saw your post and have some ?'s. I noticed 3 days ago after just starting the car that the gauges were flickering and the lights were also going dim and bright for the first 2 minutes of driving, then settled down. Today I noticed the gauges dropping from normal position to a dead position even though I was driving at 35 mph. It settled out again after driving another 1/2 mile, but quivered again about 5 miles down the road. I immediately called the dealer's service dept. Intermittent problem, "could you please make a log of what is happening and until then we really can't diagnose it.
Well, after work I pressed the unlock feature on the key fob, the lights came on, but the dash gauges were dark. The radio lights and music functioned, the lights for the steering wheel functions worked as well as the buttons on the doors and the headlight control. What also DID NOT work was the directional lights and the locks to the doors. The dash gauges stayed off for 1 1/2 miles and then everything was lit up all at once, doors locked and then the gauges where jumping all over the place. about 200 yards later they settled down, but farther down the road the gauges went dead again.
Got home to pick up my husband for going out to dinner, no problems until we had left the car parked for an hour while dining. Started normal , but within 1/2 mile the gauges dropped to dead position again several times in the 1.5 mile drive home.
Any of this sound familiar to anyone? Haven't had any check charge system messages yet, in fact ran that a couple of time to see what was going on.
Bought the vehicle as a demo with 6115 miles on it in mid november and have 11,200 on it now. No previous problems and have been really happy up to now.
When our 2005 Freestyle gauges started bottoming out and flickering while driving and the dash lights started flickering on and off, I took it to our Ford dealer Citrus Motors in Ontario, California they immediately found the problem to be a faulty instrument cluster and they ordered and replaced it for us and no problems since. Hope this helps.
The samething happened with my Freestyle- gauges dropped to zero - some lights flickering - brought it in and although the service dept. could not duplicate the problem - the computer had stored a code that said the instrument cluster needed to be replaced. that was about 2,000 miles ago and I think it is now occurring again with the new replaced cluster - as I pulled into my driveway the gauges together went up and then quickly dropped to zero - so I will be watchign it closely - but from the looks of these postings - there is definitely something going on with these cars.
Just this week (I have had the car 1 year and it has 13,000 miles) my gauges started dropping out. This has been a few days, today the brakes, check engine lit up and the gauges dropped along with resetting my odomoter, average mpg. I am so glad others are having this problem. I will call the dealer to see about a new instrument cluster. I am leaving for 17 hours car drive in 2 days in this car in a week. I doubt they fix it before then but if not it seems like it is more of a nusance than leaving me stranded.
Well it seems that quality control is definitely a problem with these vehicles, not just in specific areas, but QC seems to be very lax all through it, we really liked the seats they are so much more comfortable than the Ranger's are, but I just don't trust ours after having a burnt out headlight the first night, and now the check engine light came on just after cancelling a 200 mile trip, since we forgot a package, needless to say, we didn't get to grandmas house this trip.
I can't place my finger on it, but I just don't trust this car like I have my other ones.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chapgman
The samething happened with my Freestyle- gauges dropped to zero - some lights flickering - brought it in and although the service dept. could not duplicate the problem - the computer had stored a code that said the instrument cluster needed to be replaced. that was about 2,000 miles ago and I think it is now occurring again with the new replaced cluster - as I pulled into my driveway the gauges together went up and then quickly dropped to zero - so I will be watchign it closely - but from the looks of these postings - there is definitely something going on with these cars.
the instrument cluster needed to be replaced. that was about 2,000 miles ago and I think it is now occurring again with the new replaced cluster - as I pulled into my driveway the gauges together went up and then quickly dropped to zero
Us too! While driving the instrument panel would go dark and the guages would drop, and the engine would feel like it was stalling. Then the panel would come back to life and the engine would rev back to where it was. We had the instrument panel replaced a few months ago and all seemed well - until last week, when my wife experienced the same problem while driving in the rain. It hasn't happened since, though, and we need to convince the dealership that the problem has re-occurred.
This all come after trading in a Windstar for the Freestyle last summer due to continued electrical problems with the van that the dealer could never solve. The warranty was expiring and we took a hit on the trade-in (van wasn't paid off yet) just to avoid possible future out-of-pocket costs on the "lemon" van. After a good experience with a 2000 Ford Taurus, these last two cars have cemented my "No more Fords!" stance.
So did the replacement of the instrument cluster fix your problem. My 2005 Freestyle started acting up the same way! I need to know what was your fix. Thanks
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