- December 12: Ford EcoBoost Engine Recall Closes Federal Investigation investigations | 10 days ago
- December 12: Ford Recalls 28,000 Vehicles Over Missing Warning Labels recalls | 10 days ago
- December 3: Ford Recalls Vehicles With 3.5L GTDI Engines That Leak Oil recalls | 19 days ago
- December 1: Ford EcoBoost Class Action Lawsuit Dismissed news | 21 days ago
- November 26: Ford Cracked Fuel Injector Lawsuit Back in Court news | 26 days ago
CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2003 Ford Explorer one of our worst vehicles on record. "Avoid like the plague" is putting it lightly.
The 2002-2005 Explorer has a very well-established record of expensive transmission failure at under 100k miles. The Explorer has an enclosed transmission which is typically replaced with a rebuilt transmission at a cost of almost $3,000.
Another common problem for the 2002-2003 Explorer is wheel bearing failure at around 90k miles, with a typical repair bill of $500 to $1000 depending on how many wheel bearings failed.
Adding insult to injury, the 2002-2005 Explorer also has a massive problem with the rear panel cracking. While it's a minor annoyance compared to transmission failure, ironically the crack usually goes right through the Ford logo.
8.0
pretty bad- Typical Repair Cost:
- $110
- Average Mileage:
- 40,350 miles
- Total Complaints:
- 6 complaints
Most Common Solutions:
- Ford needs many improvements (4 reports)
- not sure (2 reports)
accessories - interior problem
Helpful websites
- Home-made *Metal* Visor Brackets - Ford only sells the bracket as part of its $100+ visor assembly. Besides, I wouldn't want to replace these defective brackets with an identical, thus identically defective, bracket.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
Driver's side visor bracket disintegrated, since it seems to be made of, say, marzipan or animal cracker. The visor dangles and obstructs the driver's vision. I had to remove the defective visor in order to see.
I never bothered to buy the $100+ part (you need to buy the whole visor assembly from Ford), because there's no use buying a new part with exactly the same engineering flaws.
I'm going to try out this enterprising fellow's home-made solution, if it works for '03 models: http://ezclipsunvisorrepair.blogspot.com/
- Jamie J., Falls Church, VA, US