2009 Ford Flex
This year drew an ordinary 181 complaints for a Ford Flex — the model's median is 139. What they were about is the unusual part: 17.7% of them mention fan, against 6.9% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 181 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 139 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| EPA combined | 18.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- fan — 17.7% of this year's complaints, against 6.9% across the model's other years (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: fan, cooling, hot, moving.
- making — 13.8% of this year's complaints, against 5.2% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: making, grinding noise, unable duplicate, traction.
- fans — 7.7% of this year's complaints, against 1.1% across the model's other years (7.1×). Owners wrote it as: fans, temp, some research, get out.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
2009 FORD FLEX LIMITED OVERHEATS WHILE IDLING FOR THE PAST 3 YEARS. RAN MULTIPLE VACUUM TESTS AND THERE IS NO LEAK OR SHORTAGE OF COOLANT. A/C BLOWS HOT WHILE IDLING. REPLACED RELAYS, THERMOSTAT, AND FUSES TO NO AVAIL. REPLACED COOLING FANS RECENTLY WITH OEM P…
WHILE DRIVING AT 5 MPH, THE COOLER FAN FAILED TO OPERATE. AS A RESULT, THE VEHICLE OVERHEATED AS THE RADIATOR WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATED. THE FAILURE RECURRED TWICE. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO DEALER. THE TECHNICIAN DIAGNOSED THAT THE COOLING FAN NEEDED TO BE REP…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V247000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Flex was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2009 Ford Flex? What happened to yours?
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