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.
Has burning smell of wires when heat is on, only has heat on drivers side, blows cold air on passenger side, had Avis Ford Dealership look at it, said it was the heater core and they don't know when it will be in stock.
A police officer dropped this SUV off complaining of an exhaust smell coming through the vents in the vehicle. upon opening the hood, a strong odor off exhaust from the right side of the motor could be smelled.No visible leaks or sounds were noticed. The vehicle remained out of service until our local Ford dealer could service this vehicle.
There is a problem with the transmission. Vehicle was stuck in first gear. Turned vehicle off and then back on 3 times with no resolution. On another attempt the vehicle seemed to be stuck in third gear.
Steering wheel shakes and engine sounds as it is going to stall at speeds between, 35 and 45 mph. Ford had vehicle for two weeks total and confirmed issues. They did not know how tp fix. They said vehicle is within specifications'
- Rochester Hills, MI, USA
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The vehicle will just shut off at anytime. It's not the auto start feature, all power will turn off at anytime. It has happened numerous times while driving waiting at a red light or to make a turn. It always happens while driving in the city.
The transmission on the vehicle started going out as we were driving back from an out of town trip on a highway. My husband made a stop at a light and upon accelerating after the stop, the vehicle made a grinding sound and began having engine issues. We made an appointment at the local dealership where my husband drove the vehicle on city streets due to high rpms despite low speed. The vehicle is at the dealership as of Monday February 8th and we have been told parts are on back order with no eta. The vehicle does have a recall for a transmission intercooler. We have read about this issue in numerous 2020 Ford Explorer.
This particular problem has occurred on more than one occasion, most recently today (January 30, 2021). While driving and then accelerating, the car sputtered and almost died. We were pulling into oncoming traffic and needed to accelerate. We pushed on the accelerator and the car made a sound as if it would speed up, instead it stalled. (a message flashed on the screen, but it was too quick for me to read.) we were almost hit by a car before we were able to pull into a parking lot. We turned off the car and drove around for a few minutes. We went to pull back out onto the street and accelerate when it sputtered and stalled. We turned the car off and sat. We were lucky we were not on a highway or busier street.
I have a 2020 Explorer limited edition, with just over 10,000 miles. Since I got it, I noticed that shifting from 2-4 gear was pretty rough, and jerky. About 2 months ago, I left the driveway, heard a thud when I put it in D, and it didn't move. I hit the gas harder, and it moved, but would not leave 1st gear. Got a check engine light. Turned it off, waited a while, tried it again, and it drove fine, but check engine light was still on. The car drove fine for a couple of weeks. The check engine light went off the next day. 2 weeks later, I took it out of the drive, put it in drive and again, it wouldn't leave first gear. Put the car back in the garage, waited a while, and it was fine. Called the dealer, and scheduled an appt because I can't have these serious issues continue. My concern was that they won't be able to duplicate the issue, and just send me on my way. Needless to say, they ran several diagnostics tests, and found some issues/codes. They performed a pinpoint test trace and found codes P062C, P2242. They then performed tsb 20-2217 again, and the codes were clear. For a short time after, the jerkiness in the shifting of the gears went away, however that has since returned. Stopping and starting, and driving especially in neighborhoods, is very frustrating. It is uncomfortable to say the. Least, the very aggressive shifting, and jerking of the vehicle at low speeds. I have not yet had the same issue where the vehicle refused to change gears, or was stuck without moving, however the transmission as a whole is very problematic, and somewhat scary to drive.
2020 Ford Explorer XLT purchased new from dealer 04/2020. On two separate occasions the starter would not activate to start the car. When the brake is depressed the starter button and exterior lights flash. The car was towed to the Ford dealer, but the car started immediately according to technician. No issues were found. On the second occasion, the issue resolved spontaneously as well. Since I am not able to duplicate the problem with any regularity, there is no sense in taking the vehicle to the dealer. In both instances the vehicle was parked in a public parking lot with the engine turned off. The vehicle has less than 10K on it.
Engine malfunction indicator lamp came on 10/15/20 while driving.. it was taken to the dealer and I was told that it was a thermostat problem which could wait until there was a loner car available. On 10/20/20 while driving 70 miles /hr, the engine coolant over temperature came on and it went into a powered down reported fail safe mode running on 5 cylinders. The vehicle had to be transported back to the dealer and now I am being told it is a wire harness which has to be replaced and there was no engine overheat or damage to the engine. Waiting for it to be replaced.
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.
Tried to start the car and would not start. The screen on dash board went crazy and everything was flashing. Head lamps came on and air blower for heat came on high automatically. Seemed like some kind of electrical problem. The dash was flashing everything and would not start the car. Waiting for the tow truck for 2 hours and I tried again and it started just fine. Brought the car home but can not duplicated the problem. There is something wrong with it. I take 5 boys for football practice and don't want this car to let me and those boys sitting in the dark..this is why I bought a new car so it would be more dependable. It would not allow me to start it and the whole dash was going crazy and flashing many things. Hope this helps.
I have had this vehicle since February and it has been in the shop 5 times for various things! there is a jolt when it changes gears and when hitting brakes. I have a delay when I put the car in reverse which has almost caused accidents. It rolls forward, even with my foot on the brake and the jerks hard when it finally catches up and goes in reverse. Corporate will not get me out of this vehicle, even after it broke down and had to be towed while I was out of state on vacation!
Purchased Ford Explorer St in Sept 2019 and windshield was not properly installed. Took multiple rips to dealership to correct. And it is still not properly fixed. They had to reinstall windshield and passenger side pillar. The electrically connectivity with sync 3 has never worked properly. I have been to dealership multiple times and they could nto fix it. Then I went to start the car (early in morning) and 3 different times white smoke came billowing from exhaust. The first time I shut off the car thinking it was on fire. The second time, it dissipated quickly. The third time, I drove to dealership. They could not fix it. 5 days later more white smoke when I started it, and the engine malfunction indicator light came on. After 7 days at the dealership, they replaced a ect sensor. Still pending to see if a 'sensor' causes billowing white smoke from exhaust. Dealership refused to check head gaskets, cylinder head, or engine block which are the main sources for white smoke. This vehicle has had nothing but problems. Such a frustrating turn of events that continue.
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.
On Sunday, June 14th, 2020 at 12:10 pm, I was headed East bound on a two lane state road with double yellow lines. My vehicle (new Ford Explorer St, 2407 miles on odometer) was on intelligent cruise control set for 37 mph and in 'normal drive' mode. Without any warning, the engine began to shake violently and the car began to slow down. The engine appeared to be running but would not accelerate. The vehicle came to a complete stop about 300 feet from where the problem started. The engine was stalled and would not start. No warning lights or messages. Called aaa and they called local police. An officer directed traffic as I was blocking the right hand lane. There was no shoulder to pull off on. Road was in residential area with curbs. A flat bed tow truck arrived at 12:35 pm and towed the vehicle to my local Ford dealer. Fault code showed a defective camshaft position sensor. There also is evidence that the timing belt has slipped. Scoring can be seen on top of #6 piston through borescope. The #6 spark plug shows impact damage from piston. Battery is draining and car is going into sleep mode. Service department manager stated the engine will likely require replacement. The dealership contacted Ford engineering and established a case number. Dealership is working with Ford engineering to determine the root cause of failure. A catastrophic engine failure of this type is extremely dangerous and life threatening. Three days earlier, a 140 mile round trip was made to boston without incident. If the failure had occurred on I-93 traveling at 70 mph, the end result could have been disastrous.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Detroit, MI, USA