Total Complaints
271 filings
FORD FLEX · model year
271 NHTSA complaints, 18 crash reports, and 1 active recall for this specific cohort.
NHTSA overall rating
Not crash-tested
New Car Assessment Program
The 2009FORDFLEX carries 271 consumer safety complaints in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation database for this specific model-year cohort. Within that volume, owners reported 18 crashes, 3 fires, 16 injuries, and 0 fatalities. No NCAP 5-star crash-test rating is available for this model year in the federal database.
Component-level analysis is where model-year complaints become actionable: the top complaint category for the 2009 FLEX is engine with 36 filings, followed by electrical system (30) and power train (19). Concentration in one or two component groups is the classic signature of a systemic defect; a flat distribution usually reflects normal aging, warranty complaints, or isolated build-plant variability. This model year has 1 active recall campaign, which means the manufacturer is obligated to remedy the covered defect at no charge for the life of the vehicle — the full NHTSA campaign numbers are listed below.
NHTSA currently has 177 investigation files overlapping the 2009 FLEX, and 8 remain open. Owners comparing this cohort against neighboring years should pair the counters above with the complaint-by-year trend on the parent model page — a spike in a single year often tracks to a platform refresh, a new transmission supplier, or an updated ECU calibration. Use the related-complaint feed below to read raw owner narratives before deciding whether any pattern here affects your specific use case.
Total Complaints
271 filings
Crashes Reported
18 reports
Source
NHTSA ODI
Federal complaints database
Above median complaint volume — review patterns below.
| Component | Count |
|---|---|
| ENGINE | 36 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | 30 |
| POWER TRAIN | 19 |
| UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 17 |
| STEERING | 17 |
| SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC | 15 |
| FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | 15 |
| SERVICE BRAKES | 14 |
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING | 13 |
| ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL (ESC) | 10 |
| SUSPENSION | 8 |
| VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | 8 |
| AIR BAGS | 6 |
| STRUCTURE:BODY | 6 |
| SEATS | 5 |
AIR BAGS:FRONTAL
Ford Motor Company (Ford) is recalling certain model year 2009-2012 Ford Flex, 2008 and 2010-2012 Ford Taurus, 2008-2009 Ford Taurus X, 2008 Mercury Sable, 2009 and 2011 Lincoln MKS vehicles. The driver frontal air bag may improperly inflate during second-stage deployment in the event of a high spe
You can be driving down the road, and all your gauges will stop working, and all the warning lights on the dash will light up. The first time this happened my wife got stuck at a gas station all the warning lights were on and the car would not start, people tried to jump it and it would not affected at all. I looked on the internet and found were someone said to beat on the passenger side floorboard, I called my wife and told her to try that, and when she did the car would start. It doesn't do it all the time, you never know when it's going to happen. We have to just stomp on the passenger floor to get everything to start working again. If I had not found this information from somebody else on the internet my wife would have been stuck about a hundred miles from home. I've taken it to the Ford house and they say they've never heard of anything like this but I know it's happened before two other people that's how I knew to stomp on the floorboard on the passenger side.
You can be driving down the road, and all your gauges will stop working, and all the warning lights on the dash will light up. The first time this happened my wife got stuck at a gas station all the warning lights were on and the car would not start, people tried to jump it and it would not affected at all. I looked on the internet and found were someone said to beat on the passenger side floorboard, I called my wife and told her to try that, and when she did the car would start. It doesn't do it all the time, you never know when it's going to happen. We have to just stomp on the passenger floor to get everything to start working again. If I had not found this information from somebody else on the internet my wife would have been stuck about a hundred miles from home. I've taken it to the Ford house and they say they've never heard of anything like this but I know it's happened before two other people that's how I knew to stomp on the floorboard on the passenger side.
Rear subframe rusted at bolt mount. Vehicle could have experienced catastrophic failure wihle driving. Independent service center diagnosed and documented rusted area and potential for failure. Noise would happen during acceleration/deceleration but not in wet weather conditions. Until diagnosed as unsafe to drive, vehicle drove with rear passenger side sitting on rear spring, potentially causing spring to rust prematurely.
The door ajar sensor malfunctions and is crazy expensive to fix. There are numerous posts and videos online of workarounds bcz itâs so common but they donât seem safe since thatâs a safety feature and the workarounds are simply a way to trick or bypass the warning sensors since the doors are actually closed in most cases. Ford needs to take ownership of this and issue a recall. Thereâs a tire pressure sensor failure as well.
The door ajar sensor malfunctions and is crazy expensive to fix. There are numerous posts and videos online of workarounds bcz itâs so common but they donât seem safe since thatâs a safety feature and the workarounds are simply a way to trick or bypass the warning sensors since the doors are actually closed in most cases. Ford needs to take ownership of this and issue a recall. Thereâs a tire pressure sensor failure as well.
Was driving and the steering wheel became stiff. I received no warnings indications or lights on the dash. I had to give it a hard turn to get it to a parking lot and have it towed to a dealership.
About 5 miles from home with no warning.The car went from regular temp to hot then stopped.Water mixed with the oil.The tech said the water pump just failed.I did not have any problems with it running hot or anything.
While driving around February 20th, 2022 we started swerving uncontrollably and almost ran into the curb and flipped while going about 40 MPH. My husband put on breaks but it felt like we were sliding on ice....without any ice on the road. We almost flipped and were very shaken, and lucky. We got vehicle to Firestone and they said our left rear toe link had broke. Supposedly our vehicle year is not part of the recall, I think it should be. Thank you
The contact owns a 2009 Ford Flex. The contact stated that after refueling the vehicle, the odor of fuel was present coming from the vehicle. After parking inside the garage, there was fuel leaking from the seam of the fuel tank on the passengerâs side. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. Also, while attempting to stop the vehicle, the brake pedal would extend to the floor and the vehicle would not immediately stop. The contact determined that the brake booster was faulty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not yet repaired. The manufacturer and an unknown dealer were notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 160,000.
Mileage: 160,000
My Flex has repeatedly lost power while driving. I can feel the car lose power, and the yellow wrench light comes on. After reading up on it, I learned that you have to turn the vehicle off, wherever you are, and restart it after a few minutes. The wrench light turns off, and the car runs as normal, with no records of codes. This is talked about over and over in online forums. The safety issue is that it has happened on the freeway several times while traveling at a high rate of speed. The car loses power, and you cannot accelerate. You have to find a way to stop immediately, put the car in park (and listen to the transmission clunk) and turn it off. This last instance put me in harms way on the freeway. The car lost power while traveling 70mph. I immediately lost speed and had to cross 3 lanes of traffic to pull over to turn the car off. All of the forums talk about the throttle body, but everyone says thatâs not the issue. The OSS and TSS sensors are also discussed. The dealers
My Flex has repeatedly lost power while driving. I can feel the car lose power, and the yellow wrench light comes on. After reading up on it, I learned that you have to turn the vehicle off, wherever you are, and restart it after a few minutes. The wrench light turns off, and the car runs as normal, with no records of codes. This is talked about over and over in online forums. The safety issue is that it has happened on the freeway several times while traveling at a high rate of speed. The car loses power, and you cannot accelerate. You have to find a way to stop immediately, put the car in park (and listen to the transmission clunk) and turn it off. This last instance put me in harms way on the freeway. The car lost power while traveling 70mph. I immediately lost speed and had to cross 3 lanes of traffic to pull over to turn the car off. All of the forums talk about the throttle body, but everyone says thatâs not the issue. The OSS and TSS sensors are also discussed. The dealers
My Flex has repeatedly lost power while driving. I can feel the car lose power, and the yellow wrench light comes on. After reading up on it, I learned that you have to turn the vehicle off, wherever you are, and restart it after a few minutes. The wrench light turns off, and the car runs as normal, with no records of codes. This is talked about over and over in online forums. The safety issue is that it has happened on the freeway several times while traveling at a high rate of speed. The car loses power, and you cannot accelerate. You have to find a way to stop immediately, put the car in park (and listen to the transmission clunk) and turn it off. This last instance put me in harms way on the freeway. The car lost power while traveling 70mph. I immediately lost speed and had to cross 3 lanes of traffic to pull over to turn the car off. All of the forums talk about the throttle body, but everyone says thatâs not the issue. The OSS and TSS sensors are also discussed. The dealers
LAST NIGHT, I WENT TO BACK THE CAR OUT OF THE GARAGE AND WHILE IN REVERSE, THE ENGINE STARTED REVVING UP UNCONTROLLABLY AND EVEN THOUGH I HAD MY FOOT ON THE BRAKES, IT KEPT MOVING IN REVERSE. I QUICKLY PUT IT IN NEUTRAL AND THE REVVING CAME DOWN. SHUT DOWN THE CAR, RESTARTED IT AND THIS TIME, I PUT IT IN DRIVE AND THE SAME THING HAPPEN AGAIN ONLY TO START LUNGING FORWARD EVEN WHILE BRAKING. IF I WERE IN TRAFFIC OR AT A STOP LIGHT OR SIGN, I WOULD HAVE SURELY HIT THE PERSON(S) IN FRONT OR BEHIND ME. LATER MY WIFE EXPLAINED TO ME THIS HAPPENED WHILE DRIVING ON THE INTERSTATE AND SHE HAD A HARD TIME CONTROLLING THE SPEED, DUE TO REVVING, EVEN WHILE USING THE BRAKE. SHE MANAGED TO TAKE AN EXIT RAMP INTO A LARGE PARKING LOT USING EXTREME BRAKING (FORCEFUL) AND SHUT THE CAR OFF. SHE WAS ABLE TO MAKE IT HOME SHORTLY THEREAFTER. I WAITED UNTIL AFTER 8PM TO DRIVE WHEN THERE WAS LITTLE OR NO TRAFFIC TO DRIVE TO THE CLOSEST CAR REPAIR SHOP TO DROP IT OFF AND THERE HAPPENED TO
Mileage: 138,000
ELECTRIC SYSTEM
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2009 FORD FLEX. THE CONTACT STATED WHILE HIS WIFE WAS DRIVING 55 MPH, THE VEHICLE SHIFTED INDEPENDENTLY INTO NEUTRAL. THE CONTACT STATED NO WARNING LIGHT WAS ILLUMINATED. THE DRIVER PULLED OVER ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. THE VEHICLE WAS RESTARTED AND DRIVEN TO HER DESTINATION. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE LOCAL DEALER SAFFORD FORD LINCOLN OF SALISBURY LOCATED AT 1902 N SALISBURY BLVD, SALISBURY, MD 21801, (443) 210-4835, AND WAS DIAGNOSED. THE CONTACT WAS INFORMED THAT AN UNKNOWN PART NEEDED TO BE REPLACED ALONG WITH A SOFTWARE UPDATE. THE VEHICLE WAS REPAIRED. THE MANUFACTURER HAD BEEN INFORMED OF FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS UNKNOWN.
WHILE BRAKING AND PARKING MY VEHICLE, MY VEHICLE HAD UNWANTED ACCELERATION. GOING AS HIGH AS 120MPH AND HOLDING THE BRAKE THE VEHICLE WAS STILL MOVING. I HAD TO HURRY AND SHIFT INTO PARK AND TURN OFF MY VEHICLE. OTHER TIMES THIS HAS HAPPENED WHILE COMING STOP AND IT WOULD GO UP TO ABOUT 40MPH AND I WOULD DESPERATELY HOLD THE BRAKE SCARED I WOULD HIT SOMEONE
Mileage: 132,000
MY CRADLE IS RUSTED THROUGH ALL THE WAY TO THE LOWER CONTROL ARM AND HAS A VISIBLE CRACK. I'M TOLD THIS IS A SAFETY ISSUE AND CONCERN AS WELL AS A SAFETY HAZARD WHEN ONE CAN BE INJURED DUE TO THE ENGINE FALLING OUT TO NAME ONE. I'M TOLD BY A MECHANIC THIS IS A FACTORY DEFAULT.I AM VERY CONCERNED AND WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE SOME ASSISTANCE WITH THIS MATTER. SINCERELY, [XXX] 09/05/2020 INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6). *TR
THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THE POWER STEERING HAS FAILED IN THIS VEHICLE. I WAS DRIVING 60 MPH AND WITHOUT WARNING THE STEERING SEIZED. LUCKILY I WAS DRIVING IN RIGHT LANE AND WAS ABLE TO GET VEHICLE SAFELY TO A LOT. THERE WAS NO WARNING, NO NOISES, NO DASHBOARD LIGHTS CAME ON. THE STEERING BECAME VERY TIGHT AND WAS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO TURN THE WHEEL. *TR
Mileage: 170,000
I WAS DRIVING ABOUT 45 MILE PER HR. THEN MY FORD FLEX STARTED TO STALL SO I HAD IT TOWED TO A NEAR BY REPAIR SHOP , THEY LOOKED OVER MY VEHICLE AND THEY CAME TO THE CONCLUSION, THAT THE WATER PIMP HAD FAILED AND COOLANT ENTERED THE BLOCK, SO THERE FOR THE ENGINE NEEDED TO BE REPLACE. WE ARE NOW IN THE PROCESS OF THE REPAIR INVOICE 369486 02/28/2020
Mileage: 133,615
WHEN DRIVING AND THE CAR BEGINS TO ACCELERATE PAST 40MPH THE CAR SHUDDERS AND JERKS. THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR OVER A YEAR. THE FORD DEALER TEST DROVE IT AND COULDN'T DUPLICATE WHAT I EXPERIENCE OFTEN.
Unintended Transmission Downshift and Rear Wheel Lock-up
Timing Belt Failure
Underbody shields detachment
B-Pillar Trim Detachment
Unintended Transmission Downshift and Rear Wheel Lock-up
Data as of 2025. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, NHTSA recall campaign API, NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings, and NHTSA FARS for fatality cross-reference.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.