Ford Explorer Problems

***tsikot*** · January 18th, 2007 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by rsc6288

My Ford Explorer 2005 has brought nothing but problems for me since I took it out of the showroom IN 2005. The frustration never seems to end!!!!! I got myself the top of the line Eddie Bauer 4x4 Ford Explorer for P2.2 million in July of 2005....

Lesson learned: DON'T EVER BUY FORD.

Want to warn others, or help others decide?

Rate the Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer here in our sister site tsikot.ph.

**IMm29** · January 18th, 2007 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by mazdamazda

Heck, I can jot down a longer list of minor faults on my Rav4 since the day we got it. Frikkin Toyota bulletproof quality my arse. Defective front disc brakes that ate away the brake pads in less than a year, defective shock absorbers, rattling in the tailgate, squeaking sound from the tranny, oops - almost got carried away. :furious:

Hehehe! To each his own Toyota experience, I suppose ;)

Originally Posted by rsc6288

Maybe I am more particular about vehicles then some people but from my experience, problems with cars usually come out on the 3rd or 4th year of ownership not the first 1000 kms.

Not in this case, they came out early. In my case, it took quite some time to pile up the kms but some rattling and the like did come out, together with some A/C problems, within the first year or two.

Originally Posted by rsc6288

As with the appointment thing, I don't recall having to make an appointment there during my numerous visits to Ford Global in the past. They would normally get a mechanic test drive the vehicle with me and I would always end up leaving the vehicle there for them to fix. I live quite far from Global and I would have been fine had they just take in the car and explain to the driver that they can't start on the car right away since they are fully booked instead of having the driver go back there again. The driver even insisted that they just keep the car there but they wouldn't even hear of it.

Hmmm... suplado na. Or they may be busy with other units that have the same, not-so-easily-diagnosed-but-perhaps-simply-fixed problems like your unit's. Do try another dealer, they may be more competent and accommodating.

Originally Posted by rsc6288

This will be my first and last Ford........

Same thing I said about mine. I'm happy for other owners who've gotten good service from their Fords, but I won't take the same risk anymore.

**deedee** · January 18th, 2007 12:45 PM

sorry to hear about your experience with ford.to hear rattling sounds on a brand new car/SUV/truck would irritate anyone but i cant agree that ford as a whole is just one big piece of garbage when it comes to their automobiles.
ived own/driven 6 ford cars(mustang,ranger,VAN,explorer and my current expedition) and never had any serious problems with any of them.
my mustang was heavily modified for racing and was a daily driver.
the ranger and the van were both company cars and i dogged the crap out of em and never let me down.
my explorer was traded and it had 160,000 miles and in perfect working condition
my expedition right now is 7 years old with 80,000+ miles and its cabin is very quiet and no rattles.engine is very healthy too considering i race the trcuk(supercharger,nitrous,heads,cams,bassani headers and full exhaust,chip) and its a daily driver too.(well..it is pretty loud loud cause of the 3 1/2 inch exhaust when you nail the gas

)

lastly...the f150 still outsold every model of pickup from any brand this year. too.

20-30 years best selling pick up

**niky** · January 18th, 2007 01:32 PM

Hi, Ford Club member here... you might want to visit http://forum.fordclubph.com and relate your experiences there.

RE: Rattles

Yes, American Fords such as the Explorer and the Expedition tend to have rattly trim and poorer construction compared to locally (ASEAN and Philippine) made Fords such as the Everest and the Focus. Heck, yung plastic sa bagong Everest mas maganda pa rin kaysa sa Explorer!

Even my uncle, who owns a couple (Expedition, E150, Lincoln Navigator), was incensed by the rattling in his Navigator (even more irritating, considering it cost 3 million, secondhand). What he did was have a shop strip all the trim pieces and line them with foam insulation.

Yes, it sucks, but, unfortunately, it's normal.

But there's variability. My other uncle has an 06 Explorer with a whole lot of miles on the clock with no problem, and the E150s don't seem so bad. Just chalk it up to American workmanship... and take it to a detailer like Ziebart's and have them stick insulation foam everywhere... that should cure some of those problems.

RE: Air Recirculation:

Are you sure it's closed? AFAIK, you don't get full recirc unless you have the AC thermostat set to full. A stupid decision on the part of Ford.

RE: Brakes:

This is common with big, heavy American SUVs with AT. The Explorer already has soft brakes, and it's heavy and powerful, with an automatic tranny. If you use it in traffic a lot, the brakes will go. Had a friend with an Exped who had to totally replace his brake discs because of the wear.

I suggest you look outside for better brake pads (Ford uses MotoCraft... Bendix gives more bite, more dust, but dust means you're eating pads, not discs, so that's good) and teach your driver to shift into neutral at stoplights to preserve both those brakes and transmission fluid.

RE: Service:

Common consensus amongst those who got to Ford Global City is that the service isn't as good as other casas in the Ford group. Even if you know them, you might want to start shopping around.

RE: Resale Value:

Of course you're going to lose a ton in resale. Ford resale values are already kind of low, and to make things worse, your model is already two years old (even if it's just the start of 07, may psychological effect din yun) and there's a new Explorer out, which tends to negatively affect the resale value of the older model.

As does Ford's fire sale mentality. When they put the last of the old Everests on sale, it sent resale value of the Everest through the floor... who'd buy a secondhand Ev if you could buy a new one for so little money?

Plus, people don't often like to pay good money for a secondhand gasoline SUV, simply because they're not as economical as diesel SUVs. AUVs sell secondhand for a ton of money simply because they're very simple to take care of, and are practical for commercial use... that's why even the crapulent L300 has great resale value... it can't be because of its inherent build quality (I call it the "gas chamber" due to the possibility of dying inside one from monoxide poisoning).

Wait a while longer, you might get a better offer. AFAIK, most you might get on offer is 1.3 or 1.4, but buyers like that will be few and far between.

-----

Sorry to hear about your troubles... best you can do is to go outside to have those rattles fixed, then go to another casa and see if you can claim warranty elsewhere.

As for "First and Last Ford"... I hope you mean American Fords only... ...but I understand your frustration... I went through something similar with Nissan a while back.

**rsc6288** · January 18th, 2007 01:34 PM

Lucky you, Dee!!!! The Car Gods must have been frowning at me when I got my Explorer.

In any case, this experience is enough to turn me off buying another Ford vehicle. As soon as I get everything fixed, I'll try to dispose of the car....No more Ford for me....

**rsc6288** · January 18th, 2007 02:12 PM

Thanks for the tip, Niky..........I've noticed the air recirculation problem while I was driving the explorer on Roxas Blvd during the recent pyrotechnics exhibition at Mall of Asia. I was stuck in traffic behind this bus which if you live in Manila, buses are notorious for being big-time smoke belchers. The fumes that went in to the car was enough to make me and my friend, who was inside the car with me that time, stop to get a breath of fresher air as fresh air is rarer than diamond here in Metro Manila.

As with the noise from the brakes, it seems like it is coming from either the spring mechanism or the rubber stopper to which the brake pedal is attached to. It is not coming from outside the car. I just hope I'd have better luck having my car fixed this time.

**cardo** · January 18th, 2007 04:24 PM

By default the Explorer(when set to auto) the aircon is set to not to recirculate. Clicking on the recirculate, the climate control will set it to manual. or is it vice versa? hehehe

Well, the explorer EB at home is trouble free. Minor gripes are squeaky brakes, beige interior easily gets dirty... it consumes alot of car shampoo too and its SO difficult to wax

malaki

sorry you have issues with your unit.

**rsc6288** · January 18th, 2007 05:01 PM

Carlo...For your sake and sanity, I hope your car stays that way......What I am going through right now is every car buyer's nightmare........Am getting that piece of junk fixed and selling it........I'll pass on the headache to someone else.........Btw, the default for the Explorer is not to recirculate...have to press the recirculate button every time you turn on the aircon on the car..........