2006 Ford Freestar Limited from North America - Comments

The car is brand new, so I cannot address the question of 'What has gone wrong with the car?'...yet.

I was skeptical in getting a Ford at first, so I hope I made a good choice - time will tell.

I love this van so far and will keep updating this review as time passes, 15k, 30k, 60k etc.

For the money, there was nothing on the market that could touch the Freestar. With a $4k incentive and $200 below invoice, I think I got a great deal.

The van is loaded and feels/drives very nice. Very solid feeling on the road, seats are comfortable and there is tons of room for everyone and everything.

Follow-up 1: Have had the van about 2 months/4000 miles now and still love it. I did have 2 problems.

1) Rear vent window motor burned out and needed to be replaced.

2) One day, upon start, the AdvanceTrac light was flashing and the car would not go over about 25mph, bucking and kicking the whole time. I turned the AdvanceTrac off and it was fine. After sitting for a few hours, the car was back to normal. Took it to the dealer and they found some 'strange' codes, but were not able to 'fix' anything - just reset the computer. Has not done anything bad since.

3) I have this strange whistling noise, like Morse code. I can't pinpoint where or what it is. At first I thought it was from the rear and a sign the fuel pump was going, then I thought it was in the front and could be the water pump. Not sure and the dealer says it's normal belt noise - not. We'll see on this one.

Over all I still love the van and hope it will last a while. I realize the Windstar/Freestar gets bad reviews, I am just hopeful I got a good one.

Let's hope the Freestars are built better than the Windstar.

Interesting comments regarding the poor reviews of Windstars. The 2006 Freestar I just purchased is the third I have owned. 2000 Windstar, 2003 Windstar, and now the 2006. The first two were leases, the third, I have purchased. I have been very satisfied with the first two and don't find any truth to the reviews by some experts. Yes, the Sienna and Odyssey are great, but also very expensive. Everything is relative. The 2003 did present a problem with the rear air conditioning; it just didn't work and Ford's attempts to fix it failed, although I did not go back for the third attempt. I should also mention that I put on 103,000 kms in 4 years on the 2003. The alterantor went at 102,000 kms. That's about it. The lease just expired and I purchased the 2006 Freestar Sport and I did buy the extended warranty which takes me to 120,000 kms... just in case. Frankly, reading all these reviews is confusing.

I to have run into problems with the AdvanceTrac. Its happened several times where it engages due to wet road, gravel...etc. But then will not disengage. The van simply coasts, if you punch the gas it stutters like mad and goes nowhere. Turning off the AdvanceTrac fixes it temporarily, But its the same issue, until you actually shut the whole thing down and restart it. Dealership had no clue, and found nothing wrong. It's happened several times now. I'm essentially waiting till it snows, and I can reproduce it at will.

Other than that, the van's OK. Honestly its not what I wanted, but needed the space and it was in my price range. I'll never be totally happy with it. Mine is a very biased opinion.

16,000 mile review - I am the original poster of this message.

I have had only one issue since the initial review. The front rotor warped and I had them turned under warranty at 12k. This is a very common problem with these vans, from what I have read. This is not a big deal in my mind - when it comes time for new brakes, I will buy higher-end after-market rotors to avoid this issue.

The only complaint I have is that there is a whistling noise that is heard at idle. It occurs only when the outside temp is between approximately 45 - 75 degrees. It sounds like a pulley or bearing noise and is intermittent. The dealer claims they did not hear anything, which was annoying. I will take it in again for diagnosis, as I don't need a water pump or alternator failing. It's strange because I am unable to zero in on this noise when I walk around the outside of the van...

Anyway, to date maintenance includes:

Trans fluid change at 10k

Regular oil changes at 3-5k with full synthetic

Rotating tires every 8k

Air Filter at 16k.

We love the van and it's a great family vehicle.

I have a 2006 Ford Freestar SEL. It is fully loaded with leather, DVD, power sliding doors/liftgate, etc.

My wife and I really like the Freestar for the features and room. But our biggest complaint is that Ford decided to add a little bit "American muscle" to this minivan with a 4.2L V6. Meaning that this van is anything from being fuel efficient. I haven't calculated the MPG, but with a digital readout telling you how many kilometers left to fuel in the tank, it is obvious that we aren't getting the correct ratio.

For example, if we start off with 120 kms (as per the digital readout), and we drive 20 kms on the odometer, we will have about 80 kms left on the digital readout. I apologize if that is confusing, but this van has very poor fuel mileage, thus, it can't compete with the other minivan manufacturers.

With that being said, we will invest in a K&N air filter and hope our fuel mileage gets better. We have switched over to full synthetic oil, and we had the front rotors replaced due to them being warped.

As for the lack of competition from Ford (with their minivans), well, Ford and GM are shutting down their production line for minivans after 2008. We will be left with Dodge, Honda, and Toyota. Honestly, my wife and I will be keeping our Freestar for another 2 years (at least), and then we will get into a Mazda CX-9. We will still need a vehicle that seats 6 (we have 4 children together "extended family"), and by that time, hopefully Mazda will have the bugs worked out in the CX-9.

I am the original poster of this review.

Updates - 25,000 miles.

The following issues were addressed hassle-free from the dealer:

New front rotors installed (again) at 24,500. The rotors were turned once at 10k due to pulsing. They warped again, and this time Ford replaced them.

Strange squealing noise turned out to be the fuel pump. Though not faulty, dealer still replaced to eliminate the annoying noise.

Passenger side of windshield - weather-stripping was falling off and it needed to be re-glued.

Comments:

I still like this van a lot, but was hoping for better quality - rotors fixed twice before 25k!!! Come on Ford.

I just hope these bugs will slowly go away / end.

To 12:33

You can switch the readout to average mpg or the metric equivalent. That will make it easier for you to know how it's doing.

I did put a K&N filter into my Windstar and did not notice any change in fuel mileage. It seems to get a little more air, but the electronics seems to add more gas as well. Driving style will make the biggest difference.

We have a 2006 Ford Freestar with 63,000 Km on it. All warranty's except "power train"? expired last October.

For about 4 months, the anti traction light has remained on, we've been unable to turn it off, but the van has driven fine. However, cruise control cannot be used when the anti traction is on.

So yesterday, I finally had some extra cash and felt it was time to get that checked out and fixed since we'll be driving from Ontario Canada down to Florida this Fall.

The Ford dealership told me the problem was a brake pressure sensor switch, or something like that like that. I told him to go ahead and fix it after he told me the total to do so would be $258.00 with tax.

Hours later, I picked it up and drove it a few blocks from the dealership to the grocery store to get some groceries. It drove fine, the anti traction light OFF, but I could turn it on by pressing the button for it and turn it off again, as it should be. So everything seemed fine, FIXED!

Left the grocery store to drive home, and all of the sudden the van just doesn't want to go beyond a crawl, but jerks a bit like it's trying to stall. Gas pedal could touch the floor and the van still would just crawl. I turned the anti traction ON, and the van drove normally. HMMMMMM what the heck did they do to my van? I drove straight back over to the dealership, but by this time, all the mechanics had gone for the day. They gave me a loaner car (2010 Ford Fusion,,, what a nice drive!) and said it would be checked over in the morning.

Well it is now this morning, and the mechanic called and said "You have a Gremlin in your van". He went on to say they checked it all over, they took it for a test drive and could find NO PROBLEMS! Hugghhh! They will take it for a longer test drive and see if something happens. I hope to heck it has NOTHING to do with the transmission! I noticed that all the vehicles here with transmission problems seem to be 2004's. Is it likely a specific problem to that years make?

My wife's Monterrey had a problem that sounds similar to yours. I would describe it as "uncommanded braking on dry pavement." You try to accelerate but the car will barely move because the anti-lock braking system is applying the brakes. Our dealer solved it by cleaning all the connectors on the wheel sensors. Others have solved it by replacing the ABS module. You can make it stop happening by turning off traction control.

You can read about this on a Ford Forum at:

http://www.fordforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1918&page=3

You can also get there by searching on "Ford Freestar Advancetrac Problem" in Google.

Despite the nuisance that was, my wife loves her Monterrey. Generally the Advancetrac works great. We got caught unexpectedly in a snow storm and drove 60 miles on icy/snowy roads with good control (factory tires.) The year we bought our Monterrey, it was the only minivan available with ESC (electronic stability control) and I am so glad we had it when we needed it.

Hello again, I am the original poster of this chain. The van how has 60k on it. Nothing has broken/no issues...

Hope I didn't jinx it.

I recently flushed the cooling system, and plan to do plugs and wires very soon.

I just purchased a 2006 Ford Freestar with 50,000 km. I love the van, the back up beeps, the side mirror flashers, the solid feel. It is a heavy van but gas isn't an issue as work is only 1 mile away. I like the van for long distance trips which leads to my issue... after highway driving for about 20 minutes I hear a whistle, like a kettle whistle, from the front end. If you hit the brakes it stops. The dealer could not hear it on their short test drive. They took it in and checked the bearing, said all was OK but the noise is still there after 20 minutes on the highway. Help! Anyone know?

I have a 2004 Mercury Monterey that also had the dreaded "whistle" while cruising. Another way for it to go away in addition to braking is to turn. That's right, every time we'd go around a gradual curve, it would disappear, and when we straightened up, it would whistle again. After some dealership trial and error, they finally got it by replacing both front wheel bearings.