Car trouble..

[DizNee143]

does anyone else happen to own a Ford Explorer?

i bought mine used at the end of july..it only have 10500 miles..and got it for a awesome price..

but the darn thing just keeps dieing on me...just about every other trip the truck makes it dies at least twice...and then it also did this really funky thing once and it was bucking..and the gas pedal wouldnt work..

my hubby..is a car fanatic..not a mechanic..but works on cars ALOT!! and he just cant figure out what is up with the truck...

we have checked the radiator..cuz that was a problem i had with my last explorer..but that one only died on me twice then had the radiator fixed and we were all good...

so just wondering..if anyone else ever had this much trouble with an Explorer??

ive read up on it a bit..and seems explorers have problems with always shutting off...and transmisson problems..

we just dont know what to do...its been my dream car (truck..lol) since i started driving..finally get THEE truck and all this has to happen!!! we are extremely tight for money..but i think we are gonna go see about getting me an equonix...dealership near me is selling a new one for 17 grand..

[DizneyRox]

Personally, I stay very far away from Domestics. I'm sure people will come in and give me all sorts of statistics that domestics are just as good, man y "foreign" cars/trucks are actually made in the US, yada yada yada... In my experience, there ARE problems with domestics and even "foreign" cars made in the US and Mexico. My Honda was actually made in Japan, was a great car. My Nissan, made in Tennesse and it's a piece of junk. I buy foreign only, I don't even look at my local Ford/Chevy/Chrysler to see what they have.

[RenDuran]

We had problems with our Mercury Mountaineer, which is the same as the Ford Explorer, about 5 years ago. At first the garage thought we were using a higher grade of gas than we should have. But it ended up being something wrong with the air intake. Once that was resolved it's run perfectly ever since. I'm knocking on wood now...

[jrpersinger]

We have an 04 Explorer. Its the biggest PoJ. We have had the rear end replaced twice, the entire heating/cooling system, just for starters. The most random things go wrong with it and its never anything cheap.

As soon as I paid it off over the summer, I went straight to Toyota and bought me a new car. I got a Sienna. We ended up keeping the Explorer, because we couldn't get a good enough trade to make it worth getting rid of. They only offered me $3000 for it because of the CarFax showing everything that had gone wrong with it! DH said he would keep it for that and just use it as a work car.

My friends have a Escape and they have nothing but trouble with it too. I refuse to ever buy a Ford again.

[disneydeb]

Take it to a Ford Certified Mechanic. They can scan it on a computer and tell what the problem is.
I have had very few problems with my American made vehicles.

[DisneyFreak23]

Our family used to have an Explorer..nothing but trouble. Always somthing wrong..ended up trading it for a Honda Pilot that has had very few if any problems

[hoop de do]

I have a 2003 Explorer and have never had a problem. I agree with disneydeb and think you should have it put on a computer. Sounds like an oxygen sensor to me. Hope you get your problem resolved. Good Luck

[Magic Smiles]

I feel for you and your auto problems, but there is a reason why the American car companies are in trouble. Hope you solve your problems inexpensively.

[Stitchahula]

Whatever you do DON'T buy a Kia. I have the misfortune of owning a Kia Sedona. They letter things that need to be worked on in the service department instead of numbering them. Mine went in last week with A-P that needed to be fixed. Well after it spent the day in the shop I went to pick it up and started it. It started chugging then stalled before I could even put it in gear. So I went back into the service dept. to tell them. Well we waited for a little while when the girl from the service department came out to the waiting area to tell me that it was undrivable. They've had it for a week and it is supposed to ready now so I'll be going to pick it up in a little while. This time though before we switch car seats into the van again we are going to see if it really is fixed. If we could afford it I would get rid of the piece of junk as soon as I could. Oh I forgot I haven't even owned it for 2 years yet and I bought it brand new. It only had something like 17 miles on it.

[brad192]

I used to work for a company that developed hardware & wrote software for the TCU's on Ford vehicles, including the Explorer. I know of one possible trouble spot.

On the Explorer, there is a multi-contact connector/cable underneath the vehicle, in the center about halfway back. This cable assembly connects the TCU (transmission control unit) to the transmission of the vehicle. (We used to tap in at this connector to read diagnostics, upload code, etc.) If this connector becomes unplugged, your vehicle will not move, as the transmission effectively has lost its "brain". This connector, even though touted as weatherproof, is exposed to the elements & sits very near the exhaust shield, so is repeatedly exposed to heat cycling, road grime, salt, water, motor oil, etc. If any of that stuff were to work its way into the contacts of the connector, symptoms like you're describing could happen due to intermittant opening & closing of those contacts.

As posted before, I'd take it to a certified Ford repair facility & have them run some diagnostics on it. I can speak from experience when I say that any faults will be logged & will show up on the report. Now, whether the service people are smart enough to find the CAUSE of the fault is another matter...

[pink]

We have a Ford I think we bought it about 9 years ago and it has always had problems that even my dad (a great mechanic, handy-man) can't figure out sometimes.

[DizNee143]

first..
i could careless about who makes the car or where it was put together...i have so far in my life had fords..2 focus's and two explorers...
anyways..

thank you to the people who actually tried helping with my problem...
i was gonna bring it in to ford to have them look at it but the warranty had expired so it was gonna cost me an arm and a leg...
so i just bit the bullet and went out and got me a brand new truck...i got a chevy equonix...and im only paying 20 bucls more a month!!
i hope i have better luck with this truck!! and i think i will..its brand new so i feel better with that..
i have to say though its nothing like the explorer and i miss my explorer soooo much already and its only been a few hours since i got my new truck...maybe one day ill give the explorer another chance..its always been my favorite suv..just stinks i had to get a cruddy one...

but thanx again for all the help and advice..

[Patty]

i had a car years and years ago that was giving me the same problem. I was all alone making a trip from Florida to New York and of course once I got to far away from home to turn around, it started giving me problems. The first garage said it was my fuel filter so they replaced that and I drove about 50 miles and it started happening again. The next garage said my fuel injectors were clogged so they put gas cleaner in my fuel tank, That was fun, I had to drive in the brake down lane because the car would speed up and slow down all by itself. A couple of more stops all told me the same thing, and that it would eventually work its way out once the injectors became unclogged.

Finally I crossed into GA and stopped at the first gas station with a service dept that I could find. Now people from GA please don't take this the wrong way. I LOVE GA I lived in Roswell for a year and I do love the state. However when I stopped at this gas station, first they told me they would have to go and get the mechanic, you see I caught him during his fishing break. They eventually come back with this man that was as tall and big as anyone I had ever seen. He mumbled when he talked and couldn't look you in the eye. He said with all confidence that it was a computer chip. Now mind you this was 20 years ago and I had doubts as to weather this man had ever seen a computer (I also was stupid enough to not think that my car had a computer). I said thank you and paid him for his time and left more frustrated than when I got there. Well I finally made it to Atlanta and brought the car to a dealership. Guess what, the back woods fisher was right. They replaced the computer chip and off I went.

Long story short. Have them check out your computer. It's worth a shot.