Vehicle surged at full acceleration when changing gear selector from drive to park! Truck knocked down light pole and knocked over fire hydrant. Frame is bent in 2-3 inches where frame came into contact with hydrant! Other complaints that where fixed are; rebuilt transmission, rear end replaced, rear right wheel bearing replaced, rear springs on strut assembly replaced and replaced whole steering column weere main defects. Wife is now scared of vehicle. Frame issue has not been addressed yet. Also hvac system blend door actuator had to be replaced. This vehicle is a cash cow x 2.

Of Course Ford worldwide are saying that there is nothing wrong with my car and other explorers, or that no one else in the world has had issues with the car taking off on its own, or the cruise control to fail to disengage. Apparently Ford vehicles are perfect. After my car spent 3 weeks with the Police who only did mechanical checks, they disabled the batterey, so now, all fault codes may be lost on the cars computer. Ive been told the cruise module ''appears'' to be working properly, but the police didnt have the equipment to check the computer, professors and engineering experts are telling me to have the ECU checked. I spent 30mins in the car with police escorts down the freeway and the only way i got it to stop was driving it into a median strip, losing speed, and using very little footbrake power i had along with the handbrake at the same time. The discs are damaged, the left shoe of the handbrake snapped and the car is being checked for other damages also. Again Ford are trying to blame the driver and say its impossible. Well the police and myself know its very possible because it happened.

I was parking my Explorer in front of store (Subway), and was applying the brake. Suddenly the car accelerated, and I was unable to stop it. I went through the front of the store and hit two people before stopping against the back wall. There where no barriers at the front of the parking space, it was about 2PM, clear weather, about 50 deg.

My car is now in the shop, I got a ticket for reckless driving, and I will be sued by the people. PLEASE tell me who to contact, if this is a known 2002 explorer problem. I will inform my lawyer about others having this problem. I WAS NEVER TOLD OF THIS PROBLEM, I ALMOST KILLED TWO PEOPLE !!! Car has about 38,000 miles, small V8. ALSO the airbags DIDN'T deploy at all !!!

This has been a wonderful vehicle! It is equiped with automatic 4-wheel drive as well as full 4-wheel drive with high & low transfer case, 5-speed automatic, 4.6L V8 with double overhead cams, limited slip rear differential, towing package, leather seats, etc. However, this problem has the potential of causing harm or even death to its passengers and/or those in other cars and especially pedestrians. The problem has been extremely intermittant such that the technicians cannot experience it themselves. It usually happens on a cold day. The first time it did it, I was pulling a small trailer and I had driven a couple of miles to a plant nursery And on the way back as I neared my house, I drove down a long grade toward a stop sign. When I began to apply the brakes, the engine accelerated with such force that the transmission downshifted so that I had to stand on the brakes with both feet to keep from running clean across the road into a tree. It happened 2 more times that day. I then had it towed to the dealer and they replaced the idle valve. However, that did NOT fix the problem. It has happened several times sense. It has happened while travelling up a hill, down a hill, and on level ground. But it always happens when you apply the brakes. The last time it happened, it threw me out into a busy intersection but fortunately I was not hit. The time before that it tried to run over the little car in front of me but I was still able to stop it. I'm thinking about naming this suv Christine.