To those that have a Ford from the years 1997 - 2004 approximately, there is an engine defect in the Ford Explorer engine. It has a habit of spitting out the spark plug randomly, stripping the threads where the plug

was, damaging the coil, and leaving the engine vulnerable to explode or really damage itself. I know of no recall notice, but I do know it can cost significantly to get it fixed. 1. You have to buy a kit to rethread the spark plug casing, 2. the coil has to be replaced and 3. the engine has to be checked out thoroughly to ensure there is no additional damage to the engine. It can also happen again w/ one of the other spark plugs because of the design defect in the engine. The cost to fix such a problem can be between $1,200 to as much as $2,500 depending on the damage to the engine. I had to secure different transportation because of this massive blow out. I am sure Ford is more than aware of this defect in the 1997 - 2004 models, but there is no recall notice or manufacturer paid for fix. They are just screwing the customer.

was pulling out of a local garage here in my home town (thank God) and all of the sudden I heard a sound from hell. sounded like my engine blew the top off. here the plug blew out. the mechanic told me to sell it after he fixes it because these vehicles are known to blow plugs out because of the heads they put in them.

All in all i have to say that this is the worse vehicle that ever got assembled. This is just 1 of the many problems. The tranny went out and cost me 2700.00 to rebuild. Go foreign!!!!!!!!!

3 CYCLINDER PLUG BLEW. HAD TOWED TO DEALER. DEALER SAID THEY COULD FIX EASILY BY INSTALLING A HELIX COIL ADAPTER & COULD HAVE CAR READY NEXT DAY. DEALER CALLS BACK AND SAYS THEY FIXED IT BUT IT WAS REALLY RUNNING BAD AND THAT THEY WOULD NOT RECOMMEND DRIVING IT. I ASKED WHAT THE SOLUTION WAS AND THEY SAID THEY COULD PULL THE HEAD AND REFINISH IT BUT THAT THEY WOULD NOT RECOMMEND DOING SUCH. I ASKED ABOUT A JASPER AND THEY SAID THEY WOULD NOT RECOMMEND AS JASPER HAS A POOR WARRANTY (12 MONTHS+LIMITED MILEAGE & NO LABOR) WHILE A NEW FORD ENGINE WOULD HAVE 3 YEARS, NO MILEAGE LIMIT & BE WARRENTEED FOR BOTH LABOR AND PARTS. AS I NEEDED THE VEHICLE - AS IT IS I HAD TO RENT A VEHICLE. AFTER GETTING THE VEHICLE BACK AND TALKING WITH SEVERAL OTHER FORD DEALERS - IT WOULD SEEM THAT THERE IS A STRONG POSSIBILITY THAT THE FORD DEALER INSTALLING THE HELIX COIL MAY HAVE DROPPED DEBRIS INTO THE ENGINE - AS NONE OF THE OTHER DEALERS SAID THEY HAVE EVER HAD TO REPLACE AN ENGINE FOR A BLOWN SPARK PLUG. PS: THE PLUGS WERE THE ORIGINALS FROM THE FACTORY. I HAVE TRIED TO WORK WITH THE DEALER TO GET SOME SORT OF REDUCTION IN WHAT I HAD TO PAY BUT THEY HAVE BEEN LESS THAN INTERESTED IN TALKING WITH ME. SO AM TRYING FIGURE OUT WHAT MY NEXT STEP SHOULD BE.ALL ADVISE WOULD BE APPRECIATED AS APPARENTLY THE PLUG BLOWING PROBLEM IS COMMON!

Truck was running great with absolutely no problems until I was driving home fairly late at night and heard a loud popping noise. The engine was so loud I pulled over. No oil pressure at all. Got out to check under the hood and all I could smell was gas. I thought it had something to do with the oil change I had gotten that afternoon. Had to have it towed to a shop. They discovered the #3 spark plug came out of head. They did a re-thread and installed helicoil. Cost me around $430.00 not including the tow! Mechanic said he has done quite a few of these on the same engine.

I was in the passenger seat and my 16 year old was driving (with her learner's permit !). As she turned left at a trafffic light across Cobb Parkway, it sounded like the engine exploded !! We both freaked out a little, she turned into a parking lot and jumped out of the driver's seat because she was afraid the car was going to explode ! It was making a terrible thumping noise.......I called our mechanic and he said, "oh, I think I know what it is....you have an Explorer, right?"

Anyway, I had it towed there (this was Saturday around 2:00 and the shop closes at 3:30, so I would have to wait until Monday (today) to find out what was going on. No car, hmmmm. Apparently, a spark plug just blew out of it's socket so I had to pay to have the cyllinder re-threaded, a new spark plug installed and a new cylinder coil pack. In February of this year I paid to have all new spark plugs and another cylinder coil replaced because they said that's the reason my car was skipping. So, it looks like before I'm finished, I'll have 6 more to replace as they pop out of their sockets. (2 down, 6 to go). I was told it was a bad design by Ford.

I don't have time tonight to add all of my complaints, but I've had the transmission re-built, electrical problems, covers falling off the mirrors on the visors, bracket breaking on the small access door to the jack, so many engine things I don't remember them all. Oh, we were stranded at a pumpkin patch one year while on our way home from a camping trip. We were loaded down with 2 kids, a dog, and everything except the kitchen sink, towing a camper and the explorer just wouldn't start. It was a solonoid or something.....whatever. I JUST WANTED A PUMPKIN !!!!

Bingo, time number two. This time all of the threads are gone and another coil broke. It was the same cylinder (3). The machine shop said head would have to be replaced, engine supposedly has to be pulled to get head off. No dollar figure given on amount to fix. I am not too interested in putting a new set of heads on a POS that has $5000 worth of other drivetrain issues. Ford doesn't want to stand behind their product and that is weak. The CEO made 48+million on stock options so he don't care. I bet he would care if it showed up on his front lawn, or better yet I wouldn't mind getting my cousin Eddie to bend him over while I shove this piece of sh*t up his ass! This is the first Ford I have owned in over 25 years and I promise it is my last.

I was driving back from a family BBQ with wife n kids n were less then an 1hr away from gettin home when suddenly I heard a popin noise coming from the engine.I had to pull over in the middle of nowhere to see what the noise was.To my surprise I saw that the 1st sparkplug out of its socket n the holder was busted.Luckly a truck driver pull over @around 11pm only cus with the dome light on he seen that there was children inside he claim.We manage to catch enough threds for it to hold till we got home.Im really fed up with this Explorer looks great but built very poorly boo Ford!

This one pissed me off! I had the spark plug blow out of the head once, taking the coil with it. Finally got another plug to seat in the hole and accept torque. That cost about $80 for a coil. Then, that same plug blew out again, and this time it took the threads with it!!! Ford wants to remove the head and all that for over $2k. You can do this yourself for $350 or so, if you're handy. This is COMMON on the Triton engines of this time. There's a kit out there called a Calvan 38900, and it's a life saver for this problem! You make sure the piston is down and valves closed and DRILL out the old hole. Then you tap the new hole, put in a insert and screw it and the spark plug down in. Slick! Why the Triton engines only grip about 0.25" of the plug threads I will NEVER know, but when it blows, it's pretty startling. I noticed NO RECALL despite the effort to get one established. When I begin to add up all the things I have had to do to patch this Exploder up, I'm getting madder and madder. I won't buy a Ford again.

Problems started right away. We've owned the truck for just about 3 years now. Bought it with a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty.

1. Passenger Door completely off track - wouldn't close - covered under warranty. 2. 4X4 failed. Loud creaking noises when turned on 4X4 high - covered under warranty. 3. 1st Spark plug spit out of engine - not covered under warranty. Didn't have Ford replace due to high cost - found effective spark plug re-threader kit at auto part store that worked - total cost to fix $250. 4. Wouldn't stay on - problem with the accelerator - which caused us to drive the truck like a 5 speed, with a foot on the gas and the break at the same time. Found a simple solution - banging a wrench on it worked! Something was junking up in there and needed to be pushed along - however, the shop wanted to charge me about $500 to fix!

5. 2nd Spark plug spit out of engine - not covered under warranty. Didn't have Ford replace due to high cost - found effective spark plug rethreader kit at auto part store that worked - total cost to fix $250. 6. 3rd Spark plug spit out of engine - not covered under warranty. Didn't have Ford replace due to high cost - found effective spark plug rethreader kit at auto part store that worked - total cost to fix $250. 7. 4th Spark plug spit out of engine - not covered under warranty. Didn't have Ford replace due to high cost - found effective spark plug rethreader kit at auto part store that worked - total cost to fix $250. 8. O/D Light started blinking - then trouble switching gears - then trouble going in reverse - transmission failed - not covered by warranty - total cost for a Rebuilt transmission - $1300.00 9. 5th Spark plug spit out of engine - not covered under warranty. Didn't have Ford replace due to high cost - found effective spark plug rethreader kit at auto part store that worked - total cost to fix $250. 10. Rocking noise heard after correcting 5th sparkplug incident. (Currently at 118,000 miles) Found out that Piston Arm was bent and would cost thousands to replace - so, NEW ENGINE (one with 72,000 miles) was purchased. Total cost - $1750.00 (This is currently being worked on)

Lucky for us - a very good friend is our mechanic and does the majority of the work for us - with the exception of rebuilding the tranny. He warned us at the beginning to get rid of the truck - but owing so much on it, there was no way to do so. When the tranny was going, we looked into trading it in and the most we could get was about $3000 - considering we owed $7,500 at the time - it was impossible - now, we owe about $6,200 so, it's still not an option. Hopefully with the new engine - we'll be in the clear for a while.

The Ford Explorer is not what it's cracked up to be...don't buy this vehicle! The engine is defective in that the spark plugs blow out of the engine causing you to buy ignition coils that hold the spark plugs in place. I never heard of or had spark plugs blow out my engines before. All together, 5 spark plugs blew out my 2002 Ford Explorer and it cost me about $3,500 to fix! Ford should have never designed this engine to be defective so that consumers would be forced to spend more money on Ford's auto parts.

What a scam, it's a shame that Ford, an American company, does this to it's own citizens when American families are struggling to take care of their families. Of course, there will be no apology or retribution to the common citizen of the United States, therefore I urge every single American to honk their horns when they pass Ford and maybe they will recall the garbage they sold us!