I wish I had known about this issue when I bought it. I'm the 4th owner of the car at 88k miles. I get it. There will be wear on the car. But why in seven hells would you make the fracking shift column assembly pivot out of aluminum??? It's going to have plenty of wear from using it because of shifting gears. :( I really think they made this part to break to keep the parts industry going. This apparently doesn't make the car totally undrivable just really hard to shift. Yeah, you can jury rig it to have a screwdriver shift for you instead, but why?

Bought a new part and installing it today. Part number is a Dorman 905-104 if anyone wants to do it themselves. I'd suggest picking up a Chilton too. Part will run you about $60+ and the manual is $25+ new or about $15 or so used. Don't bother taking it to a mechanic because all they try to do is make you get a new steering column... If you have no choice, buy the part and say "here, put this in and do nothing else."

Best of luck

I bought my used 2004 Explorer in Florida for $9,000.00. Soon after, the driver side viser broke and kept falling into my vision path. I had to remove it after my duct tape solution failed. I moved to Colorado. During the first ice storm in Colorado, the front driver's outdoor handle, and the back 2 passenger handles broke loose. I had to enter the car through the front passenger door and climb over the console to get into the driver's seat. I am 62. Thank God I am flexible.

Meanwhile, the interior ceiling cloth kept deteriorating and pulled away from the window. I waited through most of the winter riding in my car with these defaults in order to save enough to get them fixed.

I spent $1,500.00 and was again confident in my ride until my steering column gear shift broke.

My car now adorns my son's drive way and I am vehicle-less.