This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
I had driven 8 hours, (around 575miles) into a 14.5 hour drive. The mechanical shift default flashed on the dash screen & the wrench symbol. I exited the highway to the nearest gas station. I checked the manual, did a google search & it said this was a transmission fault. I checked to see if the car would start, after filling up the gas tank. It started, but as soon as the Explorer was put into any gear, it shifted itself back into park & made an audible "clunk" sound. I called aaa to get it towed to the nearest dealership, which was Chevy. This was sat, dealership didn't open until mon. Called the Chevy dealer & he said he could not repair it. Called 5 Ford dealerships & no one could get it repaired this week, so we had to have our Explorer towed from al to ok to our mechanic. We were told by 3 dealerships that Ford is having transmission problems with this model & we should check recalls. I don't see 2020 Explorer included in the current transmission recalls, but this Ford Explorer 2020 has less than 3,000 miles & due to the "shift system fault" defect, it can't be driven without a major repair. I'm a very un-happy customer right now!🤬😡
I had been driving with no problems. Turned in to a minimart, parked vehicle. When I returned a few minutes later, I started the vehicle, backed up, stopped, then started to pull out of the parking lot to turn onto the highway. I accelerated and the transmission would not go out of second gear. I pulled off the highway shut the vehicle off, restarted and tried to continue my trip. The transmission would not go out of second gear. I continued with the engine running at high RPM until I reached home. I called for assistance, and had the vehicle towed to the dealer where I got a rental car and returned home. They called the house and said the vehicle was ready. I returned and found that they reprogrammed the PCM module and road checked the car with no problems found. I had received a Ford recall notice in late may about the problem and recall is good until May 31, 2021. Vehicle had 1406 miles when I left the dealer.
2020 Ford Explorer St with approximately 5,200 miles. Yesterday, I started the vehicle and put it into reverse and it started to roll backwards even though my foot was on the brake. Regardless of how hard I pushed the brake, the car continued to lunge backward until I fully depressed/repressed the brake. With my foot on the brake the vehicle continued to move. This same event occurred a few months ago but when in drive and the vehicle continued to lunge forward despite my foot full pressing the brake as much as possible. I shut off the vehicle, waited a few minutes, and attempted to restart. Restarted without issue. Today, I attempted to start the car and all lights on the dashboard began flashing and the engine failed to turnover. The in-dash display then began beeping, flashing all service/hazard/warning indicators, and cycling through the following error messages: - steering assist fault service required; - see manual (with wrench icon indicating powertrain fault); - front camera fault service required; - service advancetrac; - full accessory power active; - park brake fault service now; - pre-collision assist not available; - check park aid; - reverse brake assist not available see manual; - hill descent control fault; - normal cruise active adaptive braking off; I turned off the vehicle and attempted a few more restarts ranging in intervals from an immediate start/stop, 1 minute, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes without success (same error messages displayed as described above). My next attempt was a few hours later and the vehicle started without error, but did not give any indication that the vehicle had failed to start the previous time and the 'powertrain fault' wrench icon remained lit.
There are many issues with this vehicle. The first issue is that water is coming inside of the vehicle and pooling up on the passenger side floor. The second issue is water inside the passenger taillight. The third issue is the allwheel drive sensor is malfunctioning. The fourth and last issue with the vehicle is that the converter is cracked on the driver's side and exhaust fumes are coming into the cabin and is making the passengers sick. This is after Ford had replaced the motor at 12,000 miles because cylinder two malfunctioned.
Car was in drive or reverse but would not move, like the gearing was not engaged. Pressed on gas it finally took off almost hitting another car. Took to Ford, they fixed so they say, but it has happened 4 more times. Yesterday, was in parking lot and put in reverse and took off. When it is acting up, the transmission sounds like it clunks or gonna fall out. Back up camera is still not working and can not see behind you or when you are going to hit something.
- Whittier, NC, USA
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Vehicle jerked very hard while slowing down, around 30mph and 1500 RPM, worsening to include violent bucking when pulling out around 1000-2000 RPM and 20-30mph, worsening yet to affecting another gear while slowing down. Dealership told me to drive it until appt.(over a week later). Snap ring broke and transmission housing cracked upon inspection at dealership, new transmission installed
Vehicule was purchased new end of May 2020 and transsmission had to be replaced with less than 2500 miles in September 2020. Frecuents jolts would occur when I would hit over 40mph and when I would slow down around 20-25 mph. I brought my Explorer to the dealership and I had to have my transmission replaced based on analysis performed by Ford technicians.
Vehicle is jerking while accelerating. RPM gauge hand is jumping back and forth between 1,750 and 2,250. Takes around 10 seconds to down shift when pressing the break after going freeway speeds.
Total electrical shutdown when stopped at turn lane of 6 lane hwy intersection. Reportedly due to low transmission fluid automatic shut-down. Vehicle was recall buy-back repair to transmission cooler failed to correct leaking line connections. No warning. Shuts down all power to all systems. No warning flasher. No window power; no door lock controls. Reset after 30 min. Stranded in center turn lane; could not open windows, rear hatch, or doors. Had disabled wife & 3 dogs in 95 deg. Temps. Inside car 115 deg. Plus. Computer protects drive trane over life & safety! when it reset after 30 min. Engine check light came on. No actual message. No way to check transmission fluid levels! no option to add fluid. Only dealer service option to check or remedy. This is unacceptable. I figured by-pass by turning transmission to park before each full stop. Kept running for 300 miles on return home to safety. Error message is appropriate. Safety over-ride is appropriate with warning signal like no seat-belt alarm. Shut-down of all systems is absurd response to low fluid levels. Add means to read fluid levels, mech. Or electronically. Add method to restore fluids w/O dealer service. My company owns 2 Ford Explorer & former Ford vehicles.
While driving across state, Aug 3, the transmission experienced hard shifting between first and second gear and no warning light came on the dashboard. When taking it to the dealer the next morning the car, on it's own, went into park and would not shift out. This was frightening as it just it's self down shut down. It was towed to the dealership where they found a manual override switch to free it. The car was leaking transmission fluid and a new case installed. While driving it off the lot, it started doing it again. They looked at it for a second time, Aug 10, and said a sensor needed to be reset so it could "relearn my driving habits" once again, driving it off the lot, it still had issues shifting but not as hard. I gave it the 2 weeks they said it would take for it to relearn and it made it worse! on Sept 3, it then shifted hard when decelerating from second to firs and took it straight to the dealership. While going 50mph it did a hard shift and then started to decelerate on it's own like a break was being pushed and then hard shift out of it. It is now in the shop again, 3rd time in one month, waiting for a sensor from a tsb that came out Sept 1 that "should fix the problem" but the part is on back order until October. I bought a brand new 2020 Explorer in February and this is outrageous and had this many transmission issues. These bandages are not helping.
The vehicle malfunction while it was in motion on the highway going 70mph pulling a trailer. The car.would not accelerates properly and it seem like it was not shifting gears properly. The car kept going from driving to parking automatically. There were no indication lights during this process. Once the vehicle was brought to a stop, all the indication on the Ford pass app appear;powertrain malfunctions and indicator lamp. Once outside the vehicle, there was transmission fluid leaking. The car was not able to be driven and had to be towed to the nearest Ford dealership. Since it was after hours that the incident happen I was stuck in the highway for nearly 3 hrs awaiting for road side assistance from Ford I then had to sleep in the vehicle since the car broke down on highway I-71 Ohio and I reside in Florida.
While my vehicle was in motion there was a loud clank. The car would then not accelerate properly. After stopping the vehicle there was a leak in the transmission fluid and then the car would not move. There was never any lights that appeared or any warning signs. It had to be towed to the Ford dealership at my expense. Less then 6000 miles on the vehicle.
The last week of June 2020 while driving my Explorer XLT a check brake system warning message started flashing on and off when applying the breaks. The message was difficult to read since it would go on and quickly off. My fordpass message center noted antilock break fault pre-collision assist not available hill start assist warning 40 min later fordpass noted same messages. I took it in to be serviced. They found that the electronic break booster need to be replaced. Approximately 10 days later while driving @ 35 mph I applied the breaks and the car jolted when coming to a slow stop. It definitely caught our attention we drove to our our destination around the corner. The car was off for approximately one hour. We got in the car drove down the road then when applying the breaks the jolt happened again this time more forcefully kicking our heads back. Luckily no other cars were behind me otherwise they would have slammed into us. We took the vehicle to the dealership asap. The entire drive over we drove slowly and it jolted at very application of the breaks while decelerating. At that point it was determined that my vehicle that I've only had under 4months with approximately 1300 miles on it needed a transmission replacement.
I was driving going to get food and when I press on my break to slow down, I had a huge jolt, like it was shifting gears not correctly(it's an automatic)the jolt would occur when I would hit over 46mph and when I would slow down to 26mph. I brought my Explorer to the dealership and I had to have my transmission replaced by the dealership.I have heard of 3 other people who had a Ford Explorer 2020 this happened to!
2020 Ford Explorer St with approximately 1,927 miles. I started the vehicle and put it into drive and it started to roll forward even though my foot was on the brake. Regardless of how hard I pushed the brake, the car continued to inch forward until I fully depressed/repressed the brake. I shut off the vehicle, waited a few minutes, and attempted to restart. Upon the attempted restart, all lights on the dashboard began flashing and the engine failed to turnover. The in-dash display then began beeping, flashing service/hazard/warning indicators, and cycling through the following error messages: -park brake fault service now; -pre-collision assist not available; -service advancetrac; -driver door ajar; -steering assist fault service required; -check park aid; -see manual; -front camera fault service required; -full accessory power active; I turned off the vehicle and attempted a few more restarts ranging in intervals from an immediate start/stop, 1 minute, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes without success (same error messages displayed as described above). There were also no alert messages/notification in the fordpass mobile app indicating the above failures. My next attempt was a few hours later and the vehicle started without error, but did not give any indication that the vehicle had failed to start the previous time. I stopped/restarted the vehicle again without error and put it into reverse and then drive and there did not appear to be any failure of the brake pedal. I took the vehicle for a test drive around my neighborhood and noticed that 1st and 2nd gear appeared to shift just fine, 3rd gear made a loud grinding/vibrating noise and took longer to shift than normal, and then the vehicle did a hard shift into 4th gear. I only got up to about 35 miles per hour, but the vehicle never shifted out of 4th gear, but appeared to hold the rpms higher than normal.
I just pulled out from a parking lot into traffic and there was a loud clunk and warning lights appeared on the dash. One said "service advancetrac" and the other said "4WD fault service required." The vehicle would not shift out of low gear and would not accelerate over 25mph. Then, several other warning lights came on, such as "pre-collision assist not available." I took the vehicle to the dealership the next day and they were unable to repair/resolve the issue.
The contact owns a 2020 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that while driving 20 mph, there was an abnormal sound coming from the vehicle. The vehicle was driven to the residence and the contact discovered an unknown leak. The vehicle was taken to boggus Ford (2521 South expressway 83, harlington, tx 78550 (956)423-2580, to be inspected. The contact was informed that when the transmission coolant system came in contact with air, the transmission coolant lines would leak. The transmission fluid system was repaired. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and informed of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 6,000.
Strong jerking when slowing for corner or stop sign...sudden abrupt downshifting. Transmission failure at 8,500. Told that a ring or clip in the transmission had broken, allowing some parts to move forward. Currently waiting for a complete transmission replacement, but transmissions are evidently back-ordered.
Has happened to me a few times. Foot on brake, put the car in gear and it starts rolling. Brake pedal won't depress any further, but it definitely was not all the way in, almost like it was locked or something. Only way to get it to stop is to put it back in park or neutral and let off the brake.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Edmond, OK, USA