2012 Ford Fusion- 2 year review

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I always try to keep a 30mpg car for a daily driver and commuter. After owning a Honda Fit for 2 years i just couldnt deal with all the shortcomings and sacrifices it took to maintain 32mpg. Small/noisy/lack of power/strange tire size/small brakes etc etc.

I liked the 2012 Ford Fusion because it was non-DI and non CVT. Oil changes are fairly easy and transmission fluid changes are just as easy. The 2.5 Duratec seemed to have a good reptutation as well.

I bought the car with 30K miles and i just hit 70K.. so here is how its been so far.

Car came with Uniroyal Tiger Paws that had zero miles- they are wearing like iron. I dont like them but want to get every penny out of them. No issues with them except they are a little noisy and wet traction isnt very good. I will get new tires in the spring i think.

Car came with OEM brake pads.. i inspected and the back plates fell apart in my hands. I installed Raybestos E3 pads and rotors front and back happy with brakes for around 30K miles.. I had a brake hose that was causing caliper to stick so i think i probably ruined one side in the front. Its starting to pulsate more and more on hard braking.. so i think i will have to get new pads for the front soon.

At around 50K miles i heard loud chirping on startup. Found a idler pully was going out. After reading it is a common issue, some kind of plastic thing can go bad, explode and throw belt, take out other stuff with it.. there was some kind of OEM updated part that is metal...its been a little while so i forgot but i installed it.. its a bracket and metal pulley that solves the issue.

At around 60K miles the car started losing power and de-rated. Threw a code. Throttle body failure. Ordered part..took about 20 mins to swap out. Turns out this is a known issue.

Last month all kinds of chimes and dongs alerted me that AdvanceTrac needs servicing. I went down a rabbit hole on youtube..seems that all kinds of stuff can cause this. My OBD reader cannot read ABS codes so i had them read and a rear speed sensor was the culprit. All good now.

During inspection of the speed sensors i found a broken spring in the front. Seems this is also pretty common on these cars. I assume its been broken awhile i just didnt notice it.

Front struts installed, had an issue with noise but turned out it was a sway bar link that was a tad loose. All good but front sits up higher than rear..

Rear shocks looked impossible to do at home. Took them to one shop they said no. Took to another shop and it took them 3 hrs..but only charged me 2hrs. Said it wouldve been impossible to do at home unless i had special tools and two jacks to lower the suspension. Shocks were dead... all the way dead.

Ride height good now. KYB front and back. Very happy with the ride now.. front and rear was worn out.

Complaints- Radio reception is poor. Seems this is a known issue. I dont think there is anything i can do about it. You cannot open the window if its slightly wet or raining at all. all water goes right in your face and lap.


Final thoughts- I am averaging 32 mpg and more than that on long trips. I wanna complain about the wrenching that it has needed but in all fairness i think its somewhat acceptable for a 10 year old vehicle that has driven alot of rural country roads.

My gut says that everything that was weak or gonna go wrong has went wrong. I think it should be good for awhile.. with gas prices unknown im keeping it for a good while.
 
Must have had a hard life before you purchased. I have a 12 Mazda 6 (fusion twin) purchased new with 109k and have only replaced a motor mount (warranty), brake pads, battery and trunk struts. Other than that car drives near new.
 
Sounds similar to my experience with my 2010 Milan

Once you get ahead of common wear items and failure points, they seem to last the course

There's the revised idler with the extra bolt to prevent timing cover breakage that you probably got

There's another smooth idler that's a PITA to change, but it's only $20, and the tensioner assembly itself that's reasonable

If your blower motor is chirpy, there's a revised part number

If you haven't had to replace the purge valve yet, consider yourself lucky, it's only $40 and 5 minutes to change though

Consider FORScan for more in depth diagnostics, and it's free

Did you get your driver's side airbag inflator recall done yet?
 
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Sounds similar to my experience with my 2010 Milan

Once you get ahead of common wear items and failure points, they seem to last the course

There's the revised idler with the extra bolt to prevent timing cover breakage that you probably got

There's another smooth idler that's a PITA to change, but it's only $20, and the tensioner assembly itself that's reasonable

If your blower motor is chirpy, there's a revised part number

If you haven't had to replace the purge valve yet, consider yourself lucky, it's only $40 and 5 minutes to change though

Consider FORScan for more in depth diagnostics, and it's free

Did you get your driver's side airbag inflator recall done yet?

Thats it the revised idler. I went ahead and replaced all idlers and the tensioner and the belt while i was at it.

blower isnt chirpy yet.

no on the purge valve.

I have had probably 100 pieces of mail and they have really gotten creative with the drivers side airbag thing. I have had certified mail, UPS and FedEX... they have tried every way in the book to get my attention. I do need to get that done for sure.
 
Must have had a hard life before you purchased. I have a 12 Mazda 6 (fusion twin) purchased new with 109k and have only replaced a motor mount (warranty), brake pads, battery and trunk struts. Other than that car drives near new.

I think it was me on the struts and shocks... i live about 30 mins from the city on rural roads, alot of whoops and dips and there were potholes in places for a time. If you have a Fusion twin...then i wonder if your Mazda has a Ford throttle body like mine? Maybe yours has a mazda one? Mine came with a brand new battery.


Oh i forgot about a big thing. - The Factory Lugnuts. When i got it i could not get a 19MM socket on any of the lug nuts..they had all swollen... and it looked like when they put the tires on that a socket was beat onto them. I found out that this was an issue...that water and dirt gets under the acorn and swells them. I had the dealership where i bought it cover them under warranty..they didnt like that. I bought another set on ebay for fairly cheap. I wondered why i saw so many of my era cars with no hubcaps.. it takes that special lugnut to keep them in place and they arent cheap. 2 piece lugnuts were not a great idea.
 
Fusions are good cars. Not quite Camry's but top third for sure. You should get many more years of service out of it. I checked rockauto.com, and it shows my Mazda having a different throttle body and purge valve solenoid than what Ford uses on Fusions. My car was also built in Flint, MI, not Mexico. Good Luck! I always thought most parts were identical since they both have Mazda 2.5's.
 
2.5L engine is bulletproof. Had a 2010 Fusion Hybrid with it and took it to 205,000 miles at the CarMax trade in. It showed no signs of fatigue at trade in.

The only issues I had that you mentioned were throttle body related.
 
I purchased a 2010 fusion last year with 125k for $1500 off my mom's friend and she was the original owner. I got it to replace my 01 Corolla S as it had almost 260k on it as it had some undercarriage rust and the clutch was on it way out. It's my daily driver and it's been reliable. All it needed was valve cover gasket . I did that and plugs. Only repair I did which was last week was the radiator started leaking so while I was going to do the replacement I decided to do All the coolant hoses and thermostat and the trans cooler lines under the radiator that are known to rust as mine are rusted . Figure I would do The trans fluid change too. Not a hard car to wrench on. All in all it's a good car . I drive more than my 15 f150 since gas prices are not coming down anytime soon. My mom has a 2012 fusion since new and it's been reliable.
 
I've owned one (Lincoln version) and we have 3 more in the family. They have all been great cars. My oldest son is now looking for one for his wife to drive around town.
 
Rear shocks looked impossible to do at home. Took them to one shop they said no. Took to another shop and it took them 3 hrs..but only charged me 2hrs. Said it wouldve been impossible to do at home unless i had special tools and two jacks to lower the suspension.

Can you find a YouTube video demonstrating this, because I can't.
 
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