Slight grinding sound on turning and now ABS light has come on. We have quit driving it due to this and the transmission going bad for the safety of our children. Ford says they know about the problem but our car does not meet the CRITERIA for them to do anything about it. I thank God we found that there was a problem prior to an accident but now the challenge is how to get it repaired, since nobody will help. The dealer has told us between $3000-$3500 for the tranny and close to $1000 for the bearings!

I bought my Explorer in 2010 with 111k miles on it. It ran great and everything was fine until at about 180k miles the first wheel bearing went out. I wish I had found this site before I ever purchased this vehicle. I surely would not have bought this model.

I drive about 40k a year over dirt roads most of the time. I have replaced 6 wheel bearings at about $400 a pop. The replacements last about 20-30k miles. That's it! What a scam. They are warranted for 12 months or 12k miles. The engine is in great condition and I replaced the transmission at 250k miles. I really should have gotten rid of the car at that point.

Have I gotten my moneys worth out of the car? I'd like to continue driving it, but now the two front bearings are bad again. The car has 290k miles on it and with a fairly new transmission, I hate to just get rid of it, but I don't really want to put any more money into it either. With all other repairs I have spent over $15k to maintain this vehicle. I think that's a little too much.

This is at least the 2nd time in 3 years that the wheel bearings went. May have been only 20,000 miles. No off-roading. I had a 1994 Explorer for 15 years 114,000miles and never had to replace the wheel bearings. Already had the front diff. serviced in March 2014 for $693, oil change, air filter, coolant flush, front pinion seal, 4 new tires, transmission flush, and 4 wheel alignment for a total of $2183. Then 1 week later exhaust leak that needed a new flange and gasket for $192. So far a total of $4035 with taxes. Had the rust removed last year for $1700.

I find that this used Explorer is costing about $2000 per year in average repairs. The 1994 averaged maybe $400.

I promise you I will never ever buy another Ford product again. I purchased a 2003 Ford Explorer after talking with friends and was told they are great vehicles. What they didn't know is that the 2003 model has a chronic problem with wheel bearings. I bought the vehicle in 2010 with 110,000 miles on it and drove it for my work and put another 140,000 miles on it in a little over two years. I am a traveling salesman. In that time I had to replace wheel bearings six times. I retired the vehicle a year ago and have put less than 10,000 miles on it since the last wheel bearing was replaced. I have been hearing noises and checked the right rear bearing today and found that it needs to be replaced. This is ridiculous. The engine runs great and does not burn oil at all and I replaced the transmission at 250,000 miles. I planned on keeping the vehicle because I have put so much into it. I may have to cut my losses or find a wheel bearing with a lifetime warranty. Seven wheel bearing failures in two years is absolutely absurd. That's over $2000 for wheel bearing replacement alone. No warranty on this last one because it's for 12,000 miles or 12 months. It's been over a year even though not over 12,000 miles. No bearing should fail with that little miles on it.

had to have both front hubs replaced and both rear bearings repacked.

local garage did both rear for around 600.00 (if i remember correctly.)

one front hub dealership did at cost of about 400.00 (if i remember correctly.) had to have them do it as we were leaving for vacation the next day.

other front hub i replaced myself for about 180.00

this is just another common annoying problem with this explorer. i've owned several vehicles that have had over 100k miles on them and i've never had to replace a hub/bearing. to have to replace all 4 on one vehicle is crazy. this thing has not been off-road or hauled anything.