Cruise Control problems of the 2001 Ford Taurus

I was driving my 2001 Ford Taurus onto a freeway and got up to 45 mph and the car continued to accelerate after I lifted my foot off the gas. I attempted to press on the brake as hard as I could and the car was still accelerating. Pressing the brake would not make the car stop. I was not using cruise control. I pulled off to the side of the freeway and put the car in park, the car was still revving up, so I turned the car off. I waited a couple of minutes and started the car again and continued driving and the car exhibited the same conditions as before. I was able to exit the freeway and was about to get to an intersection that had a stop sign. I realized that even after pressing down on the brakes as hard as I could, the car was not going to stop so I proceeded to pull over to the side again and quickly put the car in park and turn the car off. I left the car there and walked to the nearest gas station and towed the car home. I did not feel safe driving anymore and it is a miracle that I did not cause an accident.

The contact owns a 2001 Ford Taurus. While driving approximately 40 mph and attempting to engage the brakes, the vehicle continued to accelerate and failed to stop. As a result, the contact drove through a red light. In order to stop the vehicle, the shifter had to be switched to the park position and the engine was turned off. The contact indicated that the failure occurred on multiple occasions. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic. The technician determined that the plastic ring on the end of the cruise control was defective due to damaged prongs that snapped. The failure caused the cruise control to become stuck when pressing the throttle. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified, but no solution was offered. The failure mileage was 135,000.

The contact owns a 2001 Ford Taurus. While driving approximately 45 mph, the vehicle abnormally increased acceleration and failed to slow down until after applying the brake pedal several times. The failure occurred seven times. The malfunction would occur whenever the cruise control was activated or deactivated. The vehicle had not been diagnosed. The contact planned to notify the manufacturer of the defect. The approximate failure mileage was 120,000.

I was merging onto the freeway and I accelerated up to the speed of traffic which was 65 mph. I let up off of the gas pedal and the car kept accelerating. It felt like the cruise control was on but the cruise control was not on or set. Even when pressing on the brakes the car was not decelerating and the car kept going faster and faster to over 80mph. I kept tapping the brakes and even tried tapping the gas pedal. Nothing under the pedals was stuck but the engine was accelerating like I was flooring the gas pedal. Then after about a few miles I was able to regain control of my car by pressing on the brakes really hard.

I have been experiencing the effects described in recent new article (link below) of a sticky throttle and unexpected acceleration while at a stop. Also the cruise control doesn't always release. Please advise how an individual consumer can have these serious issues repaired at Ford's expense now to prevent an accident or worse! when will your agency announce a formal recall of these issues. . Read more...

The contact owns a 2001 Ford Taurus. While driving approximately 10 mph, the vehicle abnormally accelerated up to 50 mph. The contact applied the brakes and the vehicle came to a stop. The engine was turned off and the cruise control was disconnected. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who recommended that the cruise control remain disconnected. The manufacturer had not been notified of the defect. The approximate failure mileage was 200,000. The VIN was unavailable.

The contact owns a 2001 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that the accelerator pedal suddenly stuck while traveling 60 mph. The contact stated that the cruise control was connected to the throttle and when he depressed the accelerator pedal, it would disconnect. The contact stated that when the accelerator pedal was released, it stuck. Furthermore, the cruise control would not deactivate unless the brake pedal was depressed because the on/off switch did not function. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer (repair information was not provided). The VIN was unavailable. The failure mileage was approximately 66,000 and the current mileage was approximately 77,000. Updated 02/08/lj updated 02/14/11.

The contact owns a 2001 Ford Taurus. When driving 25 mph the vehicle speed cruise control will activate and then deactivate without intention. Also he has to turn off the engine in order to disengage the speed control. The vehicle has not been taken to the dealer nor has the manufacturer been notified. The failure mileage was 136,000. Updated 01/26/10 when the consumer attempted to set the cruise control, there were times when it didn't work and times when it did work. When it was engaged, and the consumer applied the brake to reduce speed without touching the resume button the vehicle would take off at the preset speed. Even when using the off, the cruise would resume to the preset speed. The only way to disengage the cruise control was to turn the vehicle off. Updated 01/26/10.

This vehicle has a long history of speeding up on its own. I took it to the Ford dealership when it began in late 2007, but they could not find the problem. I also have record of its history involving this issue with my personal mechanic. No mechanic has ever found a solution to this problem, and I continue to drive this car. I recorded circumstances surrounding each incident, down to the temperature outside and weather conditions to find a common cause. Each case was unique and no cause was found. Often, I would recognize the issue when trying to stop for a red light or stop sign and found myself fighting the car to stop. The brakes continued to work during these episodes, however I could not come to a complete stop unless I put the car into neutral. During one instance, the car reached 70 mph before there was a popping noise, and it slowed. Most commonly, the car would speed up to about 45 mph before I put it into neutral and turned it off, oftentimes in front of intersections. The cruise control has been disabled, the throttle body cleaned, and electrical system checked. None of these were determined to be the cause.

While driving and upon using the cruise control consumer had to continuously press the button to shut the cruise control off. However, the button became inoperable, and he had to depress the brakes very hard to stop the vehicle.

I was driving my 2001 Ford Taurus and when I accelerated after pulling onto the highway from a parking lot, the car reached a speed somewhere between 50-60 mph and held that speed. The car is equipped with a cruise control, which I rarely use. I was not using it at the time. I applied the brakes, but the car held steady at the same speed. I drove approximately six miles in moderate traffic, damaging the brakes in the process, until I found an area where I could safely drive off the road without risk to myself or others. Eventually, the car slowed to the point at which I could angle into a slight embankment and stop. I had the car towed to the Ford dealership. They repaired the damage done to the brakes but kept the car for a week and still had some difficulty in identifying what caused the acceleration problem. They finally said that it had to do with the cruise control and disconnected it. The manager of the service department there commented that this was not a problem hed encountered before. They also found that the car idled at an unacceptably high rate and had some difficulty resolving that problem. I paid for the repairs and have been driving the car for nearly two weeks. There is still a problem with acceleration in that it will hold a speed for nearly a half mile or so, although the brakes will stop it. The fact that the service people at the dealership were so perplexed by the problem and were unable to fully eliminate it leads me to wonder if it might not be the result of some kind of factory defect, although I cant find anything about a recall. The car is seven years old and has nearly 114,000 miles on it.

After vehicle is started engine idled to 1400 rpms. This occurred for about 1-3 minutes. When taking off vehicle surged forward. Dealer reprogrammed computer, which did not correct the problem.