By James McNair
Enquirer staff writer

When Pat Daffin puts the pedal to the metal, she says sometimes the pedal meddles.

On her 1999 Mercury Villager, that is. Less than a year after she bought the $29,000 minivan in 1999, she claims the accelerator pedal balked, and Daffin could not press it down without an unusually hard push. The problem caused her particular grief when she pulled out across street lanes or merging into fast-moving traffic.

"Sometimes when you go from a stop position or slow down and you want to accelerate, you put your foot down and get nothing," said Daffin, a retiree who lives in West Price Hill. "When you stomp on it, you lurch forward, and you can't do that if there's someone very close in front of you."

Daffin filed a class-action lawsuit against Ford Motor Co., claiming that the auto maker knowingly made defective throttle-body assemblies on Mercury Villagers made in 1999 and 2000, causing the pedals to stick in the up position. U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott ruled against a national class action in 2002, but last month she agreed that the estimated 7,000 to 8,000 Ohioans who bought or leased the vehicles can join the case.

"The jury may determine what economic loss, if any, has been suffered by the class," Dlott wrote.

Ford spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes called Daffin's claims "absurd" and said the company will challenge the class-action certification.

"We've moved for reconsideration and if the reconsideration is denied, we will appeal it to the Sixth Circuit Court (of Appeals)," Vokes said this week.

Daffin said the gas pedal on her Villager began sticking in early 2000. Attempts to replace the culprit part, however, were in vain as one dealer after another did not have it.

One was finally installed in May 2000.

But the problem resurfaced a year later - and in each successive year. Today, her Villager has more than 100,000 miles on it and is on its fifth throttle body assembly, each paid for by Ford.

"When they replaced it with another one, it worked for a while," Daffin said. "But it ultimately did the same thing in about the same time frame and number of miles."

Owners of 1999 and 2000 Villagers across the country complained of the same sticking accelerator pedals. As of this week, 58 people had reported the problem on the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's Web site.

"About 50 percent of the time, the accelerator pedal sticks, as if there is something blocking it from being depressed," states one unsigned complaint. "When it finally releases, the car shoots forward and the tires squeal."

Nissan Motor Co. made the powerplant for both the 1999 and 2000 Villager and Nissan Quest minivans. It, too, was sued by Daffin's lawyers, John Murdock and Jeff Goldenberg of Cincinnati. But unlike Ford, it settled out of court in July 2003 and agreed to reimburse all Quest buyers for the full cost of replacing the throttle assemblies, even if their warranties had expired. Settlement papers were sent to more than 130,000 Quest buyers and owners, Murdock said, and payouts are expected in September.

Ford company documents filed in the Villager case indicate that Ford knew about the sticking gas pedals.

One internal document from the company's "Critical Concerns Review Group" said the problem was caused by excessive heat from exhaust gases "causing a sludge buildup in the throttle body." But the 2001 document said there a "very low" incident rate and that the problem "does not pose an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety as condition occurs while vehicle is stopped and does not negatively affect vehicle control."

The investigation was closed, but the problem was corrected for 2001 model Villagers. The complaints to NHTSA came to a halt.

Daffin, who has driven her Villager exclusively for three years, last replaced the throttle assembly in December. She fears the recurrence of its failure.

Daffin hasn't tried to sell her Villager and she doesn't know if the balky gas pedal has devalued the vehicle. She said she would just like Ford to admit the problem and help other owners.

"I would like to see it resolved to the benefit of everyone who owns one of these," she said. "I just want Ford to make it right, however they feel it appropriate."

E-mail jmcnair@enquirer.com