general problems of the 2003 Ford Taurus

At times the vehicle accelerates by itself albeit I am not touching the gas pedal. While driving the vehicle at 45 mph, I take my foot off of the accelerator and the vehicle maintains the 45 mph speed or increases speed if I am driving down a hill or any downward gradient regardless of the angle of decent. When I try to stop the vehicle using the foot brake it continues to maintain speed and if I put the shift lever in neutral, while trying to stop, the rpm's increase from approximately 1500 rpm's to 3200 rpm's until the vehicle comes to a complete stop, and then, only after approximately five seconds do the rpm's begin to drop to 1000 rpm's. If I am driving the vehicle with cruise control and cancel the cruise control, the vehicle maintains the cruise control speed indefinitely, literally for miles thereafter. I wanted to give this vehicle to my daughter who has multiple sclerosis but it's too dangerous for her to drive with this acceleration problem. Do you have any recommendations for me???.

Throttle stuck while driving up a hill going into a turn nearly causing an accident. I released the throttle and the engine continued to rev, forcing the use of breaks to gain control. Placed transmission in neutral and engine revved before turning ignition switch to off position. Inspection revealed that the cruise control cable retaining clip broke and prevented the throttle from returning to neutral position.

Fuel filter retaining clips (white plastic/nylon) are not available. Maintenance schedule requires replacement of fuel filter and instructions require replacement of r-clips/hairpin clips. Ford does not sell proper retaining clip. This can/will result in a dangerous massive fuel leak when the parts separate.

I was departing from parking lot and the car suddenly had some noise in the hood then lost all the power. After starting engine again, I can shift the gear into d or r, engine works ok but the car won't move at all. Before it happened, the transmission works fine, no delayed engagement, no slips, no jolts, smooth gear-changing. . . The transmission just stopped with no warning signs at all. The car is regularly and well maintained. No check engine light on when it happened. Later it turned out to be the stripped torque converter splines. It is a very common problem among Ford early 2000's vehicles, the splines are only 0. 16" thick by Ford's defect designs, which can be easily stripped.

My 2003 Ford Taurus accelerates by itself to 35-45 mph without having to touch the accelerator (note: the car will also accelerate uphill without having to press the accelerator. Also, the cruise control light works, but the cruise control itself is not engaging.

Driving down long road, got up to 40 mph, car stayed on that speed as if it was in cruise control mode. I had the cruise control off. I even slowed down to 30, car stayed on thirty. Had foot off the gas pedal. It surges forward. I read horror stories of other year Taurus' doing same thing, causing crashes. My 16 yr old daughter drives this car. Every other car around this years date was recalled, but not the 2003. I changed my hoses, so it's not that. The car is literally staying in cruise control mode even when it's off. When I turn my steering wheel slightly to the right, I can hear a ticking sound once or twice, not sure what that is, it's scary though. Before something bad happens I want a recall for this year of Taurus regarding the cruise control being engaged.

The 2003 Ford Taurus while stopped at a light or applying brakes will surge and lunge forward. Very dangerous, because it surges with people walking in front of it and cars in front of the car. The car then feels like it is hit from the rear end and smells like it is about to catch on fire. Very scary situation, my children are very scared and we already have an evacuation plan if the car catches on fire. It is defintely not safe. A similar problem has been addressed with the 2006 Ford freestyle. It also goes dead while backing up. Even when brakes are applied to the floor, it surges and moves forward. The enginge jerking is a very hard jolt. We hope this will be addressed.

I was on my way home on 08/05/2008 and the car would not throttle down. When I came to a stoplight the car was jerking forward and trying to accelerate. Had I not slammed on the brakes and set the emergency brake the car would have rear-ended a car in front of me. I was able to get the car to the side of the road and put it in neutral at which time the engine began to "redline" in rpms until I shut it down. Upon inspection of the engine, it appeared that the accelerator cable simply "fell off".

Dealership is unable to give the consumer an appointment to perform air filter paper/fire recall 04v105000 repairs because they don't know when the parts will be available.