Well let me start off by saying that so far I think I have been pretty lucky with my Explorer.140,000 miles and the only problems I have had are the rear struts rusted out and I had to replace the emergency brake pads.I might add, what a stupid design. That was until a few months ago. I first noticed, after I got stuck in the snow, that my 4 wheel drive wasnt working. Seems to be a control module that has gone out and they want about $600 bucks for a litttle box behind the glove box. So I was driving home a few days ago and all off a sudden my overdrive light starts blinking like crazy. Then I notice it jumps and clunks when shifting from 3rd to 4th. All other gears are are fine when going forward. When I put it in reverse, it jumps very hard.

I did call Ford and was told common problem on both and will need to have tranny rebuilt or replaced. Three grand average. Ofcourse dont you know I just put new tires all the eway around. I do not drive it hard nor do I abuse it. After looking on the web and seeing all the complaints about both problems, I feel Ford is very well aweare of the problem and should fix this because it is very common. I dont care about my rear glass that can not stay open. That was 1 recall. Most of the other recalls were about lighting issues.

Cmon Ford fess up. Okay so what do we do, let the big auto companies decide what defect they will fix. Seems like they only fix the cheap ones. Toyota at least was man enough to admit their fault and fix it. Ford it is now your turn to step up to the plate. Show me why I bought an American car and why I should continue. Are you only going to stand behind your product only if it costs you less than $100 to fix.If it costs you more, DENY DENY DENY. The data is inconclusive. Right.

well,what a costly lesson i've learned in life this month.dont ever buy a vechile without researching it first.my husband and i have always bought 1,000 cars,usally they are cheap to fix and we can fix them ourselves.we have 10yr.old twins girls who hated driving in our super bomb bombs they called them.so this year we took a leap of faith and took our tax refund and put money down on a 2002 ford explorer in april. it looks great,silver ,20inch chrome wheels,tinted windows,ac,6 player cd and low miles very clean!!!! well the worst possible thing that can be wrong with a car,the transmission!

it seems i am having the same problem as everyone,o/d light flashing,rpm's going up to 3 thousand before it shifts.i'm taking the explorer to the shop on wednesday,and hoping for just a simple fix,wishful thinking!!!! to kim s in decatur,il a class action law suit is what all owners of the explorers in the yrs. mentioned should do.i'll call an attorney today so we can get this going.i work to hard for money to let this happen.and to the FORD company,shame on you, people like me have made you what you are today. now its clear to me why the FORD company didnt take the goverment bail out!! it seems you made enough money ripping us off.

I can't believe there are soooo many complaints about 2002 FORD explorers! I was searching the web to find out about my 2002 ford explorer's o/d light when I came across this site. UNBELIEVABLE why isn't Ford doing anything? I've had trouble with my transmission for a year now and yesterday that darn light starts blinking. What does that mean? I am soooo afraid to drive my car. I start praying as soon as I get on hoping it will get my kids to school and me to work! And praying that when I'm at a stop light and it turns green It won't jerk so hard that I hit the car in front of me or that my car takes so long to go forward that someone may ram into me!!!! This is becoming a safety issue for me! I had a 1991 explorer and I loved it- never gave me problems that's why I chose the 2002 but now I am totally disgusted with Ford and their lack of responsibility!!!!!!!

I took out an extended warranty through one of those not worth mentioning companies. The first thing he asked me was how the transmission was, which at the time was perfectly fine(we only had the vehicle for three months maybe). Then he continued to tell me that they were natorious for going out. But offered me the power trained warranty which covered everything. Now not even a year later the transmission has failed. I am really ticked off after reading all of these complaints.

Ford does need to recall the transmission if they would like to keep a good name. Now of couse the company that I have the extended warranty through is sending me through all these loops to get out of paying for it even though it is covered. I am in quite the situation I have two kids and attend classes at my home town college. What do you do other than complain??

EXACTLY what everyone else says... at first the light just randomly happened, now it is flashing all day everyday, plus you can tell it has alot of troubles shifting into gears. At first I thought the thing was going to explode, but now I have learned to deal with it. But with in the past 2 months it is now occasionally doing some weird clunking thing when driving at say a consistant 35mph, but it does not do that at higher speeds.

Also I just got 2 new front tires and Firestone pointed out my back tires are loose... the mechanic said he had also seen that alot on this model.

I don't plan on fixing any of it honestly... due to gas prices and being a Ford it has NO value anyways. Just wish this big stuff would get recalled, not a stupid little metal parts on the lift gate that rusted out,

This is a piece of sh*t.. obviously its a Ford! My husband purchased it, but this isn't the site for that complaint ;)

Had an '89 Explorer Eddie Bauer and loved it... no troubles. My son was hit by another car while driving it, and it was totaled. Fortunately, my son was unhurt. I used the insurance money to purchase a used 2002 Explorer, thinking this would be as close to having what we had, without all the bells and whistles. Boy, was I wrong! Within a few months, the transmission started to present problems. The OD light began to blink, I had to start out slow so the engine wouldn't redlight waiting to shift gears, and trouble shifting from park to reverse. After spending $350.00 to have the mechanic tell me it couldn't be fixed without a rebuild or replacement, it's now locked up in park, so I can't even drive it to the shop. Can't believe Ford is ignoring this. None of my family will waste money on Ford products ever again. Wish I had seen this website before I made my mistake!

Just wanted to thank the others who posted the NHTSA website. I did forge a formal complaint & hope Ford does something that resembles fair. No need to for me to tell another story about yet another blinking o/d light. I hope everyone who makes it to this portion of this website does the right thing & goes to the NHTSA's website. Otherwise, Ford will continue to make a profit and not have to do anything about this obvious issue. I do not have time right now to add an additional complaint on this website, but back in 2003 when I first bought this car, a few months later(appx 25k miles on it) the o/d went blinking. The local Ford shop mechanic requested Ford replace the tranny, but Ford denied it & just replaced the solenoid(for the 1st&2nd gear, I think). I've taken care of my tranny since with proper maintenance & do not drive my car hard...But, now the blinking light is back.

Well i bought the vehicle at a dealership and the o/d light started to flash on the drive home,unbelievable.called the dealership and they came and my mistake was shutting off the vehicle,cause it didn't come back on when the dealership guy arrived,so thought nothing of it but was still nervous.the following day i went to visit a friend and 'THERE IT GOES AGAIN' whenever i reach 70 km per hr.so instead of bringing it to the dealer first to hear some lie,i brought it over to mister transmission and what do u know...'U NEED A NEW TRANSMISSION'.I was really upset and went back to the dealership and told them off,they said they didn't know 'RIGHT'.But they ran their own test and did say the transmission needed to be rebuilt and told me to leave it with them over the weekend and they would start working on it on the Monday or drive it for the weekend and bring it on Monday.so Monday i am bringing it in for a new transmission,i am under warranty for 2 yrs,and i just got the truck 2 days ago,great timing.so i will keep everyone in touch with what happened.

Of course I buy this truck I asked for an extended warrenty back in 2006. Just to make sure I don't get broken down while driving down to school(4 hrs from home) I get a 3 month 3,000 mile warrenty for 100 bucks. It was 2k and 2 months into my new (Used) Explorer and it starts messing up. I brought it back and the warrenty covered it. So after I got it back I got a carfax report and I found out that the new transmission they just put in was now the 3rd one in the truck. With the new warrenty they gave me a 1 year 20k warrenty. It was about 6 months again and O/D blinking light happens again. They coverd the cost of that. Than about a year after that it was doing the shifting hard again. I guess it was a broken bolt and spring. I covered that. It was around 650.

Now the damn thing is doing the O/D blinking again. If this happends again this will be the 4 transmission in the truck. I don't understand why they have not recalled them because of all the damn issues. But i guess thats life and so good with standing behind your products.

It started on a random day, never driven off-road, or excessive acceleration. Yet all of a sudden i notice that the truck jerked when taking the 4th gear. It also felt like it wasn't shifting on the right times. At that time i noticed the overdrive light blinking, looked online, and found this to be a very common problem. Took it immediately to transmission repair shop, it was Friday, said they needed to order some parts, and that a rough estimate was 750 dollars, and they told me to return Monday, but not to drive the truck unless necessary. On Monday morning i took my truck, that afternoon it was fixed. $710 was the final cost.

...adding to the continuous, endless list of 2002 Ford ExploDer transmission complaints. Same thing - O/D started blinking, would not go into gear, when it finally did, would shoot off like a bottle rocket. Then, the inevitable....was almost to work and then it would not go into gear AT ALL and left me stranded on the side of the road. Could turn off, turn on and inch my way - about 8X's I did this to get to work cuz yes, first time in 5 yrs, I had no cell phone service to call anyone! NEVER again will I buy a Ford. Everything from the electrical, wheel bearings and hub assemblies, axel bearings, clunky, clanky, whining noises...third time in shop in what, 6 months? Will only cost anywhere from $2200.-$2500. plusl labor for THIS fix. NOT ! ^%$(!(@$#)!