Dead 2005 Mustang.......

HerStang

New Member
Apr 13, 2005
7
0
0
First as you can tell I am new to the site. Been reading it for awhile but just registered today to vent a little.

My wife recently purchased a 2005 V6 Mustang. Well tonight on her way home the car died. It has a whopping 830 miles on the clock. It will idle but that is it. If you try to move the throttle pedal it does nothing. SO I suspect the ECM or maybe something in the fly by wire system is a miss. I hope this is not a sign of things to come. She really loves her new car but I was a bit leary on buying it being a new model and all. But hey she makes the money.

Anyway I am just curious if anyone else has had any similar issues with thier new cars?
 
  • Sponsors (?)


HerStang,

Take it to the dealer asap and get it fixed. My Father and Brother are both Mechanical Engineers and my Dad told me that most mechanical devices (especially complex ones like a car) have a "bathtub" shaped reliability curve.

What this means is that when a car is brand new there are often a myriad of tiny to major problems as the result of inaccurate assembly or defective components. As these few problem areas are addressed/fixed during the initial ownership period, this is followed by a long period of excellent reliability until the car gets old and parts start wearing out.

Thus, if you plot # of problems (Y-axis) vrs time (X-axis), you will typically generate a bathtub shaped curve. i.e. starts high ... goes down to baseline ... stays there for a long time ... then starts going up again at long life.

Once you get these annoying problems sorted out under warranty you should have a long trouble-free period.

I hope this makes you feel a little better.
 
Oh yeah it was towed to the dealer last night. This car has 830 miles on it. Has been in for an exhaust leak and vibration. Had a tire go flat due to a bad bead on the tire. The rear end howls like mad(they are also looking at that)a passenger window motor that failed and now it is not drivable. It does idle nicely however. Beginning to think we got a lemon here :(
 
HerStang said:
Oh yeah it was towed to the dealer last night. This car has 830 miles on it. Has been in for an exhaust leak and vibration. Had a tire go flat due to a bad bead on the tire. The rear end howls like mad(they are also looking at that)a passenger window motor that failed and now it is not drivable. It does idle nicely however. Beginning to think we got a lemon here :(

Sounds like you bought a Monday or Friday car :( . Take it back and demand a Tuesday through Thursday version :D
 
Herstang, you may want to contact the Better Business Bureau and ask about the “lemon law”. I believe there is a federal or state law which states that if a new car has been taken for service a certain number of times it is considered a “lemon” and the manufacturer has to replace the car if you want them to.

Make sure you document all the problems and service work you’ve had performed (in the form of shop receipts) in case this trend continues. At least then you’ll have some legal leverage for future negotiations with the dealer and Ford.
 
Well we picked the car up from the dealer today. It managed to go an additional 54 miles before it died this time. Thankfully I was just down the corner driving it as the wife said it did not seem right, guess she was correct. I am now waiting here at home for the flatbed to come get it for the third time in its short life with us, second time in four days:fuss:
 
Sounds like you got the "weekend tech" to boot! Good luck with this little problem child you've purchased. I really would simply have the car replaced. The dealer should easily take it back in replacement for another after these issues. They can fix it properly and use it as a demo while you get one built on a Wednesday!
 
HerStang said:
Well we picked the car up from the dealer today. It managed to go an additional 54 miles before it died this time. Thankfully I was just down the corner driving it as the wife said it did not seem right, guess she was correct. I am now waiting here at home for the flatbed to come get it for the third time in its short life with us, second time in four days:fuss:
Claim it as a lemon and replace the car ASAP before it gets any worse.
If the car has less than 900 miles, I'm sure they'll be able to replace it for its full value.
 
Just a little update if anyone cares. The car is still sitting at the dealer. They are having a issues trying to isolate the problem. The have replaced the throttle body, the accelorator pedal, and some various wiring items and still the car is throwing codes. They have a factory rep coming to look at it tomorrow to try and isolate the problem. Someday it will be back home maybe. Have had the car for 40 days and up to 17 and counting in the dealer for repairs :bang:
 
Well the Mustang is back home. We picked it up on Saturday. Have put 175 miles on it over the weekend and so far so good. The problem ended up being the throttle body. So we will see how it goes from here.

BTW all over the lemon law thing(as pertains to our state). Car needs to go back 4 times for same repair or spend 40 days in shop, not in consumers possesion. So we are close, dont really want to get rid of it unless it has to be done. We blame the dealership for much of the current problems. It has been brought back to them twice for the same problem. We contacted Ford about the problems, they sent a rep to look at the car. He is who diagnosed the problem, had the part next day aired in and repaiered it. Otherwise it would still be at the dealer who had it. Keeping our fingers crossed

Wife is feeling a bit better since she has her car back. Maybe now I can get back to work on the racecar :D
 
HerStang said:
The problem ended up being the throttle body. So we will see how it goes from here.

You stated earlier that the Throttle body was replaced. So was the "replacement" throttle body also bad ??

Also, how could the throttle body be bad ??

Sounds more like a defective TPS (Throttle Positioning Sensor) to me.
 
The complete throttle body was replaced for a second time. They are unsure about the first replacement going bad. However we now have put over 1000 miles on it and no issues at all. It was not the Throttle position sensor that was bad it was in the actual throttle body itself. I spent about an hour talking to the Ford guy at the dealership, seems he is a racer like me. I felt better after our conversation that the car will be ok now, time will tell. He also had expressed concerns with the first dealership that tried to fix it. Hope this helps
 
Well all seem well now with this car. The reason behind the V6 and not the GT is two fold. One we have a 16 year old son, thus insurance is insanely high on a GT. Even though he is not listed as a driver it matters not, he has access to it. The second reason was my wife is happy with the V6 car. AS for it not having the power of a GT does not matter to me. Power and speed are all relative. My toy is an 8 second 10.5" tired car so I would complain about the power of the GT too :D