Bought my '95 Explorer from the original owner in Louisville, KY at 139,000-great condition & no rust. Within the first year, had intermittent "electrical" problem when check engine light popped on and off. Was in a bad summer electrical storm on highway and headlights popping on and off. At one point Explorer just turned off. Ck engine light on/off & lack of accel.

After this had full tune up...plugs/wires/pcv vaulve/fuel filter/a fuse and then metal PFE sensor. Compression test done and EGR valve all good (165,000 miles). Ran ok after.

168,000 still has random missing.

Check engine light and random missing & now vibration at high speed 197,000. Cruise now surging when in use. Speed OM gauge bouncing around- had transfer case replaced, along with all breaks/rotors/bearing & arms/U-joints replaced along with new battery-$1,800.

Two months later - surging & missing- Ford Dealer replaced PFE sensor again $265 to a plastic one in lieu of metal. Ran fine but SOM and Ck Eng. remained.

At 201,000 bad random surging & shifting. Cruise surging and unusable. Had plugs replaced again & all vacuum lines good- ran fine with min. surging while accelerating & decel. Ck engine light still on, SOM gauge still bouncing. One week later, drove 1.5 hrs through storm & heavy wind. After this, O/D light flashing and there was shifting in/out of O/D randomly. Mechanic replaced speed sensor inside transmission & MAF sensor with no effect - unhooked battery-could not find problem. Took it home and cleaned grounds/fuses & had oil change. Ran fine for one more month.

Drove 1.5 hours through wind/rain and O/D light flashing again. With this came bad surging of speedometer/shifting of vehicle into random gears....sometimes not moving in or out of gear at all. Unhooked battery - did test drive and same bad issue....can't drive it.

Problem seems electrical somehow but cannot pinpoint where. Everyone's telling me transmission problem but I know its not mechanical. I've search internet suggestions and complaints and am running out of ideas. Should have been a recall for this same problem so many have.

Update from Mar 14, 2012: After 3 months, and several different mechanics, Honest Auto in Vassar, Michigan on M-15, located the problem! It did have an electrical short in the main wire harness (near the differential), stopping power to the back ABS sensor. But the main issue with the down-shifting and the overdrive light flashing was caused by a little round plastic "gear" attached to the speed sensor behind the transmission. My first mechanic tried a new speed sensor but not the gear. This gear was worn down and continued to slip. The part was $3.29!

Overdrive light started flashing on and off during normal city driving, just a few seconds before the car just stopped moving in the middle of traffic, and wouldn't go any further. Had to have vehicle flat bedded to repair shop, and the transmission ended up needing to be completely rebuilt, at a cost of $3,800. I can provide a copy of the repair invoice, if that would be helpful. I've been told that similar transmission problems are not unusual with these transmissions (also used in Ford Ranger trucks and some Mazda vehicles as well as Explorers).

well; i do things like a pro. the right tools and the books> i rebuilt the transmission, new full rebuild kit. $179. my cost. w/out book. torque converter>$100,

filter,fluids,gasket sealer and bolt grease and or locktight.$69 after total clean and inspect , i decided the valve body was not looking to good. so i got another one> $75

used just incase i needed it.. the only problem i had was the inter od servos springs were 2 dif type. 1> black ,1 green. didnt know where the went. book shows 1 color.

as u can see from pictures. i do quality work. put trans in veh.

filled and test drove. worked fine until i drove about 18 miles. o/d light started flashing

would not shift into o/d. so i call aaa to pick up veh. removed valve body and replaced with used. adjusted bands. test. drove fine shifted good . o/d light still comes on.flashing.. .trans. to find out was rebuilt 4 months before i bought the veh. found records and the plate tag. so. i think its in the computer. now. i have no reverse also. which was working fine.. started shifting hard and rpm way up to 3.5-4k . I've have worked on fords all my life and this looks like a recall. to many people have the same problems.... just like the 95 windstar van > 3.8 ltr ,mustang,,taurus, ect. oil pump blown heads. just like the radiator problem in the rangers. 1991-1993 4.0 ltr plastic steam back a blow out radiator. for, take responsibility for your mistakes. i have found and dealt with your mistakes and you have found ways to make it look like the consumer had neglected your product.. when you know. stepping up to your faults and correct them would only way to keep people from actual class action suits..

Well here's the thing,I parked the car one night, and came out in the morning to go grocery shopping (mind you the truck was fine the night before) got in and fired up the truck and the O/D light was flashing and as I drove I realized the tranny was not shifting into Overdrive I talked to a ford mechanic and he said he thought it was a shift sensor, no big deal right..........wrong now today I goto back out of my driveway and the truck will not move once shifted in to reverse and now I get a gear grinding noise when I place the shifter in reverse and now also in drive.I always loved my old explorer it was a 5 speed manual. Can anybody give me any ideas here short of replacing the transmission I'm out of ideas

Bought this vehicle used with just about 90,000 miles on it from Baril Auto in Murphysboro, IL (just in case you ever consider buying a vehicle there). Price was far below book. Got on Carfax and found out was rebuilt and issued a scrap title in another state. Dealer tried to pretend he didn't know- yeah right! It was his son's car!

OD light flashed when we were test driving it, but the tranny shifted fine, so we weren't concerned. Bought vehicle then moved to Wyoming, noticed it lost some power when going up those mountains, but nothing major. Then we moved to Michigan- way up near Canada. Didn't know we needed special anti-freeze up there and the radiator froze and leaked coolant into the tranny. We had that repaired and had them look over the transmission to make sure there was no damage. They didn't find any and the truck ran great.

One year later, we are back in So. Illinois and the OD light starts flashing again. Over the course of the next two years we had it checked out about every six months. All told we ended up taking it to three different mechanics. All three flushed it, all three looked over the tranny and found no problems. All three reset the light. Was still shifting just fine. Each flush cost us about $75 and we just figured it into the maintenance.

Vehicle had other problems, mostly stuff you would expect from an older high-mileage vehicle. Nothing major and we could still drive it to Chicago and back w/o any problems.

Bought a new vehicle and sold the Explorer to a lady for $1300 because it needed a wheel bearing replaced. She was really happy, b/c up until then she had been hauling her four children around in a tiny Sentra.

One month after she bought it, the tranny failed. I felt so sorry for her, but we had never had any problems with the tranny itself, just that stupid light! She still gives me the evil eye when I walk into the grocery store (where she works)!

i buy it used two months ago without having any warning lights in dash. but now from two weeks i have two warning lights in dash.

1. engine exhaust air

2. overdrive off light

before i don't know what are this light for and what to repair cz i dnt have user manual for this 4wd. then i look it on internet and i found definition what are these lights for. but i still dont know how to fix these problems. problm no1 appers only whn i go for long drive with120 km per hour. pro no 2 appers continusly when i start the engine .and when i m diving first gear is not changing only it change when i relase accerlator a bit and also second in same way. plz help me that how can i solve my problems with my ford 4wd.

Really easy to fix on mine, It started acting funky after I was driving it and realized I was in 2nd gear going 50mph so I switched it to from 2 to D while in motion and the O/D light flashed and the trans clunked and didn't like whatever I did from that point on. Little did I know that all you have to do is unhook the battery for like 10min+ to reset the computer and presto! the light doesn't blink any more... no more clunks.. and for me I've been 50,000 miles without clunks. I've got 110000 miles on it now and that includes about 5000 miles of heavy towing! orig eng and trans.

Don't bother buying an Explorer. They're nothing but trouble. I've had mine for 5 years. In that time, I've replaced the transmission twice, and had it rebuilt once. The goddamn O/D off light is blinking again. You'd think I'd have dumped it after the first time!!! Other than the tranny, I've had to replace the steering wheel wiring harness twice, the wheel bearings twice, the brakes every three goddamn months, and the rotors with them. I've had to change the belt twice because the tensioner keeps breaking, and had one of the pulleys break right off the block.

I'm dumping this piece of sh*t. Think I'll buy a Chevy to spite Ford.

Anyone want to buy an explorer? it's in great shape! lol