2018 Ford Flex owner complaints

APIM or SYNC 3 malfunction. Navigation failure and not working properly alerts, clock in car not set correctly and won’t allow owner to fix it, no audio at all, no panel touch tones, popping/cracking intermittent throughout car, Bluetooth connection drops, slow glitching screen, reverse camera displayed distortion or black/blue screen with alerts saying “camera unavailable” which already caused a collision on 10/11/2025. Vehicle was taken to ford dealership an owner was advised to wait for recall remedy unless “I have an endless wallet” to pay to fix issue. Ford dealership is aware of all issues and owner opened a case with ford company. There were no warning signs of issue until reverse camera began to malfunction in September 2025 then issues all happened after.

APIM is failing due to current recall with reverse camera. The glitching has cause many safety issues including •Navigation Fault •Cracking/popping audio •Missing touchscreen sounds •Intermittent system issues •Slow loading •Camera freezing or blacking out This has already caused a collision with my vehicle. Took it to manufacturer (Ford dealership) and they told me nothing they can do until recall has parts ready. Prior to all this, my car system was working just fine up until August 2025. No issues AT ALL.

Hands-free connection to phone-Bluetooth. This happened a year ago. I believe around Sept 14th 2020. 6 days after warranty expiration the Sync3 hands-free system died on my Flex. I only had 32000 miles at that time. It was touted as a great safety feature when I purchased the car brand new. I live in Branson Mo where every road is curvy and drops off into ravines. The system is totally inoperable. Called Ford 800 number, they checked and told me they would not do anything with it. Talked to the local dealer and they said they only get so much goodwill money from Ford each year and since I didn't buy it from them they were not going to do anything. I used to live 8 hours north. Say it needs an APIM module. Well a couple months after that went out my backup camera fails to work a

Audio throughout the entire vehicle are malfunctioning as well as the reverse camera malfunction. This has caused a collision the 11th of October. The ACM is severely malfunctioning and causing a huge safety hazard. No audio like radio, etc and alerts make sound not touch panel tones. Camera unavailable alert showed up as well as media unavailable showed on screen.

Media player unavailable alert comes on display. Touch panel tone doesn’t have sound, audio in car has no sound. Sync 3 has been updated. Problem continues as well as the rear camera issue

Rear camera malfunctioned screen showed “camera not available” didn’t alert any noise or warnings and a tree hovered slightly into parking spot and smashed in my rear window. Audio inside car malfunctioned as well (no musics, etc) and the touch pad tones stopped making sound when touched.

The cars rear toe link broke while driving. It cause the vehicle to go out of control and wreck I to the guard rail. Another motorist hit the car as it was wrecking. The local Ford dealership confirmed that the rear toe link failed and replaced them with redesigned ones that are safer. I had to pay for this repair, the tow charges and my insurance is fixing the other car that hit me.

TOE LINK SNAPPED. Driver rear.. Then passenger rear a few weeks later. The driver almost lost control of vehicle.

There is a recall 20s04. I was told my car is outside the building date. However, the toe bar snapped. What do I do to get my car entered into the recall, as this is the exact problem it was recalled for

The Left driver side rear suspension toe link broke on expressway, resulting in loss of control had to aggressively steer out of a spin. Car was undrivable and had to have towed and repaired, had passenger side rear suspension toe link go bad in December of 2024. Repair documentation available upon request.

The contact owns a 2018 Ford Flex. The contact stated while driving approximately 60 MPH, the suspension suddenly failed causing the rear end of the vehicle to become unstable and the vehicle fishtailed. The driver was able to drive to the side of the roadway and stopped the vehicle. The vehicle was towed to the residence and upon inspection it was discovered that the rear passenger’s side toe link had fractured. The local dealer was contacted and confirmed that the vehicle was not included in NHTSA Campaign Number: 20V072000 (Suspension). The contact indicated that the vehicle had experienced the same failure listed in the recall. The failure mileage was 57,000.

Backup camera goes from working to blue screen when backing up. I've reset the settings but continue to have the same issue. Very dangerous. It's the same issue/problem that you just fined Ford $165 million dollars. The models covered by the Ford recall included the 2020 Ford Edge, Escape, Expedition, Explorer, F-150, Mustang, Ranger and Transit, as well as the Lincoln Corsair and Nautilus. Why isn't this 2018 model included in the recall by Ford? How do I get it covered? Seems arbitrary that the recall ends with 2020 models.

While driving on the Gerald R Ford Fwy in Michigan my driver side pillar with my key pad flew off and detached from my vehicle. Part flew off, hit the back window of my vehicle and almost hit another vehicle that was driving behind me. Other vehicle behind needed to swerve so my pillar from my vehicle wouldn't hit their windshield. Now my vehicle is missing the pillar piece and I need to go online and find that part and purchase the piece myself out of pocket. Current piece that we bought doesn't stay on and gets loose from time to time. In the mean time while waiting for the shipment of the part to come in my door part was open and covered in the elements. It did rain during this wait. not too sure if there was any other damage that happened inside of my vehicle door. No warnings

Rear view camera displays upside down or distorted

My backup camera is experiencing the same issues as the rest of the recalled Ford vehicles. None of the recalls cover my year. The camera displays as upside down, and no longer has any of the digital guides it had before it flipped. When I asked the dealership they said most likely hardware and that we would need to replace the camera. I don't see why I have to pay to replace the camera when this is part of a recall for the same vehicle, just a different year. It makes me nervous in parking lots and coming out of my driveway.

The contact owns a 2018 Ford Flex. The contact received notifications of NHTSA Campaign Numbers: 25V695000 (Back Over Prevention) and 25V732000 (Structure); however, the parts to do the recall repairs were not yet available. The contact stated that the passenger's side door B-pillar trim had become loosened. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repairs. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The failure mileage was approximately 100,000.

Flex is a super long vehicle with large rear latch door that accesses back half of car. Today, taking dog to vet, put him in crate in back, behind another crate, through rear door. However, battery was dead. Now needed to get dog out to go in another vehicle -- but rear door locked and there was/is no way to open the back up to get him out with dead battery. Only with electricity. So I had to take out both crates and get him out through the front -- long process. If there had been emergency, he'd be dead. Danger -- no mechanical way to open back access door of vehicle! Not even emergency lever or key. I checked with Ford.

Hankook optimo tires chunking at 24100 miles severe enough to be unsafe to drive.. Noticed at around 12000. Normal street and highway driving.

While driving the vehicle (it was in motion), on hwy 290 (near manor, tx), the steering on our 2018 Ford flex seized up and the car was impossible to turn. Due to complete lack of steering, the car was an immediate danger to drive and it was extremely difficult to get safely off the road, but my husband was able to do so. He was lucky to avoid a major collision. The next day we called for the car to be towed to the dealer. The tow truck driver was able to start the car without any issue. With extreme manual force applied, the tow truck driver was barely able to turn the car enough in order to get it onto the tow truck. Once the car was received by the dealer, the service associate confirmed this 'steering failure' was a problem they had seen come up a few times in the prior weeks with

Vehicle is not getting recommended mileage and is hard shifting