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.
On 19 June, 2017 I was driving my 2014 Ford Explorer on I-95 South, I initially heard a single pop come from the front of my vehicle, I thought I had hit something in the road, but nothing was visible in the road, so I continued to drive. I continued to drive with no problems. On 20 June, I was driving again on I-95 North bound and my steering system began to malfunction with a little tightness in the steering, the vehicle still easily turned left and right. I continued to drive the vehicle with no problems, suddenly a warning flashed and showed a stability warning and all of a sudden the steering locked up and I could not control my vehicle at all. I was nearly killed along with six members of my family when my vehicle steering malfunctioned (froze/locked) and two tractor trailers swerved to keep from hitting my vehicle. I could no longer control my vehicle steering. My vehicle has 68,000 miles and has been regularly maintained with no known issues.
The ESC on my 2014 Explorer limited will engage for no apparent reason. This will occur on dry or wet roads, city or highway. The symptom is a roughly 1 second engagement of what feels like the left front wheel. It makes a grinding noise and slight pull to the left. There are no warning lights illuminated. The dealer has been unable to find any codes, although they have been able to reproduce the problem while they had it for week performing test drives. They have responded that without any codes, they can't find the problem. They have a opened a tech case with Ford. At this time they've advised to keep driving it until it breaks. I have provided the dealer with videos of the issue so they can see the driving conditions. This has happened at least once or twice a week for the past couple of months.
I bought a certitified preowned 2014 Ford Explorer in February 2015. Recently every time the Explorer was put in park, an alert would go off, showing transmission not in park. The past few weeks the steering wheel would make a grinding/growling noise when turning towards the left and right. The steering became a little harder to turn and it felt as if it would stick. This was a very scary feeling. I have 5 children and didn't want them in this car. I took the car to the dealership 2 days ago and found out that my electric steering system was locked, the gear shift assembly needed replacing and also a new belt. Total cost $2,309.30. I was devastated. We do not have that kind of money laying around. I called the Ford manufacturer and they gave me a case number to give to the dealership. After speaking with the dealership and giving the case number, they called back later and stated they would give me a $300 discount. Therefore at this time, I had to take a $1500 loan out for the electrical power steering replacement and belt. I will have to go without the gear shift assembly being repaired until we can afford it. My total without replacing the gear shift assembly is $1696.30. After researching the issue, this is nothing new with the Ford Explorer. There were several recalls for the same issue for the 2011 through 2013 models. My 2014 Ford Explorer has a 100,000 mile power train warranty but of course none of this was covered. I am saving my receipts in hopes Ford will do the right thing. If they do not, I will never purchase another Ford. This issues has put my family in danger and in further debt.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Chesapaeake, VA, USA