My wife and mother went outside to take a ride to get food and I had the back lift gate open,my wife closed it gently w/one hand and it smashed into millions pieces and a big piece of the silver ford truck part even came off. My wife had glass all over her and she was covered in blood as she was bleeding from the shards of glass that flew everywhere.Now the truck is sitting in our driveway as we don't have over 1.000 dollars to fix it. My wife is still bleeding the next day. She's very lucky it could have been worse Not to mention we JUST paid ford 1200.00 dollars to have work done to 3 weeks prior.... This is awful and very dangerous. Ford needs to fix this problem as I also noticed the arm was hanging off!

It was pouring rain on Friday. Went to open the my back hatch and the WHOLE window exploded!! Cut me in 3 different places and my 8 year old stepped on a piece of glass!! I am beyond furious. Had the recall replaced back in 05' when the whole thing fell off in the middle of a busy 4 lane road, raining of course! Called to Ford recall on Saturday center and they were like, sorry. WHAT! SORRY!! How about replacing my window. I am a single mom. Are they for real?? Never ever again will I own another piece of crap Ford!!

FORD= Fix or Repair Daily, Found On Roadside Dead, Found On Redfields Dump!!!!! Same problem here. Went to open back window, didn't open all the way, so when lifting window up the glass, it exploded. Was a bit cold but apparently that doesn't matter. Thankfully it wasn't my wife or kids this happened to. No injuries. Thankfully I have full coverage, so the glass is covered but its a rare item. No telling how long it'll take to fix, and no telling if the bottom plastic housing needs to be replaced.

Back in June, my fiance was driving down a paved street in our city. Didn't think much of it, till all of a sudden the rear hatch window while driving exploded. It was a sunny day about 80 degrees, thought maybe it had something to do with the heat, that because it got too hot while driving that it would break. So we took it in a couple of days later to get the window fixed, spent $500 and didn't think much of it. When we got it to the shop, they said it would was going to cost about $250 to replace it. When we brought it back in to get it replaced, they said it was the wrong window and going to cost $500. There is some special type of window for this make and model that it requires. So, we spent the $500 and got the new window. For some reason, after that, never could open the back door again with that window. It would never pop open. So, we just decided to leave it be and not use it. No big deal. Yesterday, October 30, 4 months later, my now husband, takes the vehicle to the car wash to get it washed, its a nice fall day, sunny, and 50 degrees. He starts spraying the car, and the back window just shatters all over again. He had to spend most the time in the car wash spraying the glass down the drain. Now, don't you think there is really something going wrong with this? I mean, 2 windows in 4 months, what if we had kids in the back seat. Thankfully, at this point, we are taking the car in tomorrow, but it should be covered under warranty. Will let ya know how this turns out again. And btw, we are looking for a new car now.

Just yesterday my family and I were getting ready to go out and spend some quality time with each other. I had asked my oldest son who is 13 years old to help me carry some small bags and load them at the back end of my wife's explorer. The second I pushed the button to unlatch the back glass window the whole glass just shattered into a million pieces. Tiny little pieces of glass were all over me and my son. I had a few minor cuts and scratches. My son thankfully did not. He only had pieces of glass all over his hair. If there are so many complaints about these back glasses shattering, shouldn't there be a recall?

I guess I now fall into the class of unfortunate ford owners that have bought a so-called american car. I was lifting up the rear hatch of my wife's explorer when it exploded sending glass all over my garage. I have had other issues with this fricken car also. I own a toyota tecoma truck, and toyota made it right by their frame rusting issues. I have since purchased a new toyota truck which I love. I will never buy another ford product again. So if you work for ford, and are reading this, maybe you should start looking for another job. At this rate ford will be owned by the government soon. I am not sure if insurance will pay for this or not. If not I guess I'll be going to the junk yard, to buy a windhield for the junk I have to put it on. they were right when they said FORD = Fix Or Repair Daily

With reading all the other complaints on here and it dealing with the same problem and my uncle has the same model Explorer hes done the same thing. I think something needs to be done and this problem needs to be checked in on. I'm just glade my 4 year old and 12 year old son was not around at the time my back glass shattered or they would of been hurt really bad. I barely did shut my back glass down when it shattered all to pieces. My wife was inside the house and heard it shatter. I will never buy another ford vehicle. We have had nothing but trouble out of this vehicle since we've had it. It started with the four wheel drive and then the brakes and now the back glass shattering. Its sad when you buy a vehicle and you have problems like this especially a American made. What if my kids was sitting in the back seat and this window shattered into piecs my children would of been hurt really bad.. Ford needs to replace this instead of money out of my pocket..

I had to replace the struts on this window in a recall and it has not been worth a tinkers damn since. It would never stay up. Had to hold it up to load and unload. The struts they put on only lasted the first summer and then it might as well had string for struts. Upon closing at the local grocery, the whole window exploded into shards about 1/3 the way down. Upon examining the mess, I found the left strut would not close no matter how much you pushed. Before, a child could close them both with no trouble. The window and struts were defective. Going to call Ford.

Update from Nov 26, 2014: I am replacing window raising motors over and over again. Have replaced all 4 windows once and am replacing the rear window motors again plus the passinger side motor is sluggish and may need to be replaced again.

The panel below the rear tailgate window has split again. Replaced the tailgate window unit completly once and now the FORD replacement has split again. The glass is still intact. I have replaced the hydraulic hinges on the window twice. The hinges on the hood no longer hold up the hood.

Several years ago we took our Explorer to the dealer for the rear glass strut attachment recall. We had this fix immediately upon getting the recall card. The dealer applied some sort of glue between the glass and the strut attachment bracket. Last night I opened the tailgate window (not the whole tailgate), upon closing the glass when the window was about 1/3 of the way down, it exploded. I was applying mo more pressure than normal and was pushing from the center. The wiper panel hit the ground just missing me, I received several minor cuts on the back of my hand. It could have been much worst. To me, clearly this is a defect in design. Called the dealer this AM, they said they have seen this issue before and agree its a defect, but still want to charge $1200 + paint of the rear panel.

Recently, I took my 2002 Ford Explorer into the local Ford dealership for a recall concerning the cruise control. Since I was having problems with rear liftgate window staying up, particularly during cold weather, I decided to have the service department replace the struts because the hydraulic gaskets were worn and leaking. Plus, water from outside was leaking inside the window through the mounts of the top hinges of the window.

Guess what happen. After I gave them permission, they replace the hinges first, which were the ones they installed in 2006 as a recall, because they found them loose and worn. Soon after they replaced them, the window exploded. First, the service advisor said that the dealership would furnish and install the window and lift gate at their expense. The next day, he was overruled by the manager and I was told that it was not their fault even though my car was under their care. I call Ford Customer Relations Center the next day and the representative told me that there was no "coverage" and he agreed that the dealership was not at fault. He offered no apology that Ford could not help me.

To keep a long story short, I had to file an insurance claim, My insurance will pay for the repair except for my deductible. Now, iIt has been 2 weeks since the incident and my vehicle is still not repaired because they don' have the liftgate assembly yet from the Lower 48. At least that what they tell me but I think the body shop is full. Maybe this week, I'll have my car back.

Bottom line...the rear window liftgate is defective on the 2002 Ford Explorers and continues to be even with the recall a few years ago that was supposed to have solved the problem. I think that Ford is responsible every time this window explodes. Therefore, Ford should have extended coverage policy to repair them at their expense for at least 10 years or 150,000 miles. Overall, this experience has left a sour taste with me on how much Ford values me as a loyal customer.