The other day I noticed my explorer was having trouble shifting into 3rd gear. It would miss the shift and the engine would rev with the rpm's climbing higher causing the vehicle to show a "check transmission" message on my instrument panel's message center. The vehicle would also come out of O/D. However I did learn to deal with this problem until I got it fixed. I found that if I let off the gas a little bit as the vehicle got to its shift point I could convince it to shift into 3rd albeit sometimes with a little clunk. What a pain in the ass. All this happened only two months after buying the vehicle. Thank God I got the extended warranty!

I bought a 2002 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer Edition NEW from Island Ford on Staten Island. This week the truck wouldn't go into 3rd gear so I brought it to my mechanic who said it needed a new transmission AT 61,000 miles!!! I called Island Ford and was told that they have heard of no reports of the 2002 trucks having transmission problems and it would cost $1850 plus to have it repaired by them, my warranty ended 10/2006 so I wasn't covered. I found this web site in a matter of seconds and saw 110 complaints of transmission problems on 2002 Ford trucks. Amazing!!!

Originally my 2002 Ford Explorer began with a rattle when accelerating in third gear. Sounded like pebbles shooting thru a small tube. Once it hit 4th gear the noise went away and I was ok. OR SO I THOUGHT. One day (at about 148,000 miles) as I'm pulling away from a traffic light, I get to third gear.... or when I was supposed to hit third, the engine races as if I'm in neutral. I let my foot off of the accelerator and luckily the truck was going fast enough to switch into 4th gear. Shocked and confused, I began driving with caution. Much to my surprise it began happening EVERY TIME I pulled off from a dead stop. If I needed to slow down without stopping it was tourcher. I literally had to drive in second, trying to keep the engine from racing until I reached at least 30 mph. I would then let my foot off of the accelerator and the truck would shift into 4th. I tried to have my trans fluid checked, but there was no dip stick. So I call the Ford dealer and tell them about the problem, THIS GUY tells me....... uhh well we don't have any openings for another week and a half or so. "AM I SUPPOSED TO JUST BREAK DOWN IN THE MEAN TIME"?!?! I just wanted them to look at it and tell me what they thought it was...... NO DICE. So I took it to a trans shop to have them inspect it at least. They quoted me $2,200 for an overhaul. I then called a number of trans shops explaining the problem and everyone seemed to be familiar with my story as if they heard it many times before. I then called the dealer to try and schedule the appointment for the long wait, and he told me because I didn't reserve the spot when I called the first time, it would be a longer wait. FREAKIN AMAZING!!! Eventually I took it to an outside trans shop to get fixed. I ended up paying 2,000 dollars and the MOMENT I pulled off the lot after them telling me I was good to go.... I got to a traffic light.... the truck jumped as if it had hiccups, and once the light turned green I placed my foot on the gas....... the engin races, I DONT MOVE...... It violently jumps into gear and I turn that bad boy around and took it right back. PISSED is such an understatement........ This is just the beginning of the story. HONESTLY!! To be continued....... I'm really still waiting for my car to be repaired.

I purchased this 2002 ford explorer new. My husband drove it to work under 5 miles per day for the last 6 years. Purchased oct 31 2001. The car has had many problems over the years. As the Ford service dept had told me there is noting wrong with my car. I took it to a reputable non ford mechanic and he gave me a laundry list of things that were causing these mystery noises. They replaced 80% of the bottom of the car. I figured I was ok. Not true there were still mystery noises and I had that problem with every once in a while the transmission would shift hard into park and reverse. Ford said this is normal and ok. They said they ran tests and the transmission is fine.Life goes on and now we are out of warranty. Trying to trade the car in to the same dealership they now say the car is worth nothing (4500)They say trade it in and all will be better for the future, but they can not help me with the past. I would rather drive the car off a cliff and cook mashmallows at the blaze at the bottom than give it to them to take advantage of someone else while screwing me. My present mechanic is telling me because I went there while under warranty and It is under 8 years and under 80,000 miles I do have recourse for them to fix the problem because the car does not past ny state emissions because of the problem. I am going to ford today so we will see.

Just like a lot of other people that already wrote, this was our first Ford vehicle. Approximately 12,000 miles ago the OD light started coming on, and last June the truck wouldn't not go into gear.

Again, luckly, I was at a safe location outside the local YMCA, with my 11 year old daughter and niece. Close to $2,000 already spent and the mechanic working on the transmission, still gets error codes messages from the system. He has rebuilt the trans. and checked everything at least twice now, yet we're getting the same error messages. Not only that. back in 2004 the power window on the rear, driver side, broke. Warranty covered that repair. Nonetheless, driver door -this time- power window broke. My husband ended up repair it it, as warranty no longer covered that one. ... Oh... some more, one of the rear doors "gasket" -plastic part that seals? the door, came unglued and since we did not notice right away, water would leak when it rained... it seems like Ford definitively needs to do something about it. What if we go ahead and start a Class Action Law Suit? Anyone with me....