Master cylinder or brake booster failure on the 2009 Ford Fusion
3 crashes 3 of the 39 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When master cylinder or brake booster failure gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Ford Fusion report master cylinder or brake booster failure at a median of 97,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 85,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles, from 31 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 62,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 175,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 112,500 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
3% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 62,500 miles | 85,500 miles | 98,000 miles | 135,000 miles | 175,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 3 a crash is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $450–$2,200 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2012, at a median of 95,000 miles, and latest on the 2016 at 200,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 66; the 2009 has 39. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I have a pending case with ford . The number is cas-7605243-r8k8v5. Brake problem is intermittent. On several occasions the brakes have gone spongy and require a lot of pressure to stop the vehicle. The brake pedal has to be pressed all the way to the floor and even then the car "slips" several feet before it stops. On two separate occasions I've almost hit a pedestrian who has stepped out into the street at a cross walk. I've taken the car to a dealership and they have replaced the master cylinder and booster. Second time was told the brakes were "normal" even though the service manager was able to replicate the issue. Ford fixed this issue for hybrids and I've asked multiple time for them to look into this for the conventional fusions. See this site for break fix for hybrid: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2010/02/ford-issues-prompt-fix-for-fusion-hybrid-brakes/index.htm I've written to ford under this case number with the ford hybrid link and this link http://www.carcomplaints.com/ford/fusion/2008/brakes/service_brakes.shtml documenting that this issue is widespread. Response from ford customer care manager is as…
2009 ford fusion sel v6 I am having issues with the ABS system. The brakes are soft and really only activate when pushed almost to the floor. The issue started at about 75000 miles. I have replaced the brakes, bleed and replaced brake fluid, no leaks, checked calipers and master cylinder. The problem is the ABS hydraulic control system. When replacement of the fluid and brakes the problem resolved until I made a sharp turn to the right and had wheel slip. Abs activated and from that point on it lost most braking ability. After much research I have found this is a common problem among many small ford manufactured vehicles. This is a very dangerous problem as it has caused countless near misses in my car. Ford knows of the issue and that it disables the ABS system but will not fix the problem. It does however offer to replace the part for over $1000.
I was driving at 40 MPH on the highway in rain, ABS kicked in because the car started sliding, brake pedal vibrated and after it stopped the brake pedal feels loose. I have to push the pedal almost all the way to the floor for brakes to engage. I've tried pumping my brakes but it's been a week since it occurred and I've experienced no change. I took it to a ford dealership and was told the master cylinder needs to be replaced but they seemed so clueless I feel like it was just their best guess. I've researched the problem and I've found out that hundreds of people are wasting money on their cars trying to fix the same issue I'm having. I've recently received the airbag recall notification on my car and now a problem with my brakes has occurred. I don't feel safe in my car anymore and I hope ford will take notice to the hundreds of complaints about the brake system.
Also reported on the 2009 Ford Fusion
Other brake problem
Airbag inflator rupture
ABS module or sensor failure
Loss of braking
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 39 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does master cylinder or brake booster failure happen on the 2009 Ford Fusion?
Across 31 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 97,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 85,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is master cylinder or brake booster failure on the 2009 Ford Fusion?
39 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed