One by one, both Electric and manual locks started to not work. Living in Florida it would be a pain to stand in the rain playing with both the door handle and the key at the same time to get the door to unlock, for a long time I had to go in thru the passenger side and open the driver door. then the passenger door started. then the rear hatch.I have two kids and this was a major pain in the ass. I took it to the ken Wilson ford in Canton NC where it came from as I am a Florida/N.C resident. to stand out in the friggin cold trying to get in is a pain also.

I now never leave anything valuable in my vehicle and just leave it unlocked.

This should be a recall as it is a danger in an accident situation. and I see a lot of similar complaints on this site and others. Shame on you Ford.

I have a 1999 Ford Explorer 4 Door Sudan XLT 5.0L V8. The day I bought this Explorer I had to go to a Dealer and buy the Remote Key Fob. It worked of course at opening and locking all the doors. However, a little while later I noticed the driver's side lock does not open instantly. You have to keep pressing the fob remote to eventually open it. I had this issue with my 1998 Explorer and sometimes it never opened at all and I had to walk around the car to the passenger side and get in from there and reach out to open driver's door. So I suspect the same will eventually happen with my 99 Explorer. Also in the rear, I cannot open the rear door window, so the locking system is definitely breaking down.

Why does this happen so often with Explorers from the 90s and how can I fix it without costing a ridiculous fortune?

My 1999 Explorer XLS drivers door would not unlock with either the exterior key lock or the power door lock. You could pull the interior door handle to open the door and it would unlock. The problem is the door latch is malfunctioning and needs to be replaced. It seems that the dealership parts counters keep these latches in stock ALL the time, as this is a common problem. The latch costs between $40 to $50. I fixed mine before I broke off the interior door latch. This is an relatively straight forward repair with anyone that is mechanically inclined. Just be patient and pay close attention to how ALL of the latch rods are arranged. They will only fit one way, so be prepared to be a contortionist when removing and replacing everything.

This should have been a recall for Ford, but if it isn't a safety issue to them, they simply aren't going to have one. This issue is called "normal wear and tear" by Ford. Good Luck!

As others, my driver door lock could not be unlocked from the outside under any circumstances. The key and electric solenoid just could not quite unlock it. The door could be opened from the inside. I kinda figured that there was something binding inside the door so I took the inside panel off and looked in. The whole mechanism was dry and dusty. As an experiment, i took some of my wife's olive oil spray and soaked it all. Lo and behold, the key and everything else worked great! That lasted about a week and the olive oil gave up so I got some lithium spray grease from O'Rileys and lubed everything up. No more lock problems!

Same problem. Driver's side door is stuck locked and I broke the inside door handle trying to open the door. Everyday I have to jump over the passenger seat and console to get in and out of the car. Did I mention that I am 7 months pregnant?!?! I took the truck to a Ford Dealership in Saginaw, Michigan and waited for about 2 hours to have it repaired. Just when I think the problem is solved, the service manager comes to inform me that he nor his employees can even get the door open!!! He said he would need more time with my car but I have yet to find a few days to be without a vehicle. This is a real pain in the neck!! I am thinking of just calling a locksmith to unlock the door and then taking it to have it fixed. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated!

The drivers door will not unlock by the remote, the key, or the inside handle. The latch assy seems to be jammed. I have removed the top of the inside panel and all the linkages to the latch appear OK. The remote unlock tries to unlock but fails. This problem started 1-2 weeks ago as the drivers door not unlocking with the remote. The key lock was hard to turn. Then the remote would not unlock and only the inside handle was able to stubbornly open the door. Now the door cannot be opened by any means. At 6-4, 250 lbs, I am sure to break something inside from having to crawl over the center console. I have seen these door latch problems mentioned on this site and many others, across several model years.

Dear Ford Engineers,

I have a Better Idea - DESIGN A NEW LATCH!

Ok, I am a mother of 2. I pick my kids up everyday and do all the running around for work and everything a working mother of two does. When you have to worry about someone trying to hijack your vehicle from you it gets a little frustrating. My driver side door quit unlocking with the remote long before it finally stopped unlocking with the key. So, I started unlocking it from the rear drivers side door but now I have to reach through the passenger side to open the door to get in. About a month after the drivers side quit working, my rear driver side door quit opening from the outside. I think it unlocks but I can't tell for sure because I can't open it from the inside because I have the CHILD LOCK on. I purchased the part to fix the Front drivers door and I was searching online to figure out how to remove the door panel to replace it and I was surprised to see how many other people out there that has the same problem. I don't know it this is going to help but I am a very frustrated and worried mother.

The problem when I locked the door then closed it, I could not unlock it again. The key wouldn't work, the remote opener would not work. Took a while to realize if I closed the door, then locked it, the key would work and the remote would work. I could live with that. I got a notice through the mail that Ford had a recall on the cruise control. I took it in to the Ford dealer and while I was there, I told them about the door. Showed them how it was working and when they said $400.00 to fix I said I could live with closing the door then locking it. The service tech went inside and got a spray and sprayed the door lock. When I got home I could no longer close the door and lock it and open it again. I will not work. I have to crawl through to get to the driver seat. Now I have an appointment tomorrow to pay the $400.00 to fix it. I am really mad.

Out of no where driver side door would not unlock with key or remote. Had to unlock passenger side door and reach across and open driver side door with handle.

Took off door panel and found a spring removed laying in the bottom of the door panel. After some research it seems that the spring came from the door latch. The spring functionally holds a lever in place to allow the latch to unlock and with out the spring the lever can not get into position to unlock.

I went to a ford dealer ship and bought the door latch for 60 dollars. It sounds like you can also have the dealer fix for 350.