This happened multiple times until our mechanic finally found what caused the plug to the computer to melt. See below:

Sick to death of all the problems. Ford just throws these things off the assembly line and then says "Oh, so sorry, it's out of warranty". We actually won a lawsuit regarding a 2002 Explorer. The tailgate window exploded in my hand when trying to shut it. The car dealer knew it was a piece of junk and the judge called his selling it to us "the most egregious case of taking advantage she'd ever seen".

We had to replace the transmission in this 2004 model, replaced the visors and interior overhead console, one back seat belt doesn't work, again a cheap plastic problem, and the electrical/computer problem where a plug next to the computer melted and caused the engine to cut off while driving down the road, well that almost got us all killed. Turns out there is a group of wires near the rear and they were supposed to be suspended in some sort of harness and never were, so over time, the plastic coating rubbed off and caused at least one wire to ground out, which caused the plug near the computer to overheat and slide out of its socket, causing the engine to shut off. Once it cooled, sometimes the motor would start again. This cost us more than one battery, lots of time, being stalled at 2 in the morning with our daughter in the back seat. After $2500 spent in multiple visits trying to fix the electrical issue, and another $2600 for the transmission, and just under $1000 for the interior console and visors, add more $$ for visits to check out the Check Engine light and the ABS light... wonder what I'm leaving out... ? Oh yes, the air conditioning has been blowing hot on once side for quite awhile. The crack in the back window frame on EVERY SINGLE EXPLORER I see reminds me of the Ford Grenada back in the 80s.

Does anybody else remember the Ford Grenada? The gas cap was located behind the license plate and on every single Grenada, the spring on the license plate broke so they all drove around with their license plate facing the ground, wide open.

We have no idea why the Check Engine light stays on. No idea why the back passenger windows quit working years ago. No idea why the cruise control works about 1 out of 20 times you try to use it, and no idea why the volume control on the radio slips deafening everyone in the car.

Owning one of these Explorers is like being in a club with other unfortunate individuals who have found themselves wondering if the $9,000 they've spent on repairs makes it worth keeping the car now. My mechanic calls it the "Ford Exploder".

Bought the Explorer used from my Father and problem occurred first time using the cruise control for city road at around 33 mph. Like others the car just shut down after less than one minute from engaging the cruise. I just shifted into neutral and it started up while rolling and my dad claimed it had done that since day one of his original ownership. He never even bothered to have it looked at and just didn't use cruise in the city. I decided to call the dealer and ask about the problem. They claimed to have no idea what I was talking about. Prior to that I did some online research and saw that this is a somewhat common issue. I also came across a comment in the "Serious Exploration" forum that claimed to have fixed the problem by turning off the Overdrive when cruising at low speed. Well I tried that over several trips over the same road that I originally had the problem on and it did not happen again. Others had commented that the engine at low speed cruise would kick into overdrive at low speed and just wind up going too slow to keep running. With the overdrive off I monitored the tach and saw that it would come down to around 800 rpm or lower when going downhill so it makes some sense that with overdrive on it might kill the engine. Anyway after this I decided to cancel my appointment with the dealer for a diagnostic and just remember to turn off the overdrive. So far no more issues.

On Saturday,September 28,2013 My wife Tanya Lopez was making a U-turn on Peach orchard road when all of a sudden her car completely stopped in the middle of the road and would not start back up. On Monday morning we had the vehicle towed to Bobby Jones Ford Lincoln where Carlos @706-738-6697 handled my transaction. I was charged $94 and Carlos broke the bad news to me that the engine has ceased up. He explained to me that a refurbished engine would cost me $6500, $2900 of that being labor alone - 23 hours of labor total. He told me it was my only option and wasn't able to explain to me the cause of the sudden engine failure. I asked him about my oil and he said it wasn't great but it wasn't horrible but it wasn't the oil that caused it. This is a known issue that should have been recalled for years so why am I being charged for Fords defect.?? As of today my vehicle is still sitting at Ford. Ford Feel free to call me!!!

I have had this issue twice now. As someone else previously stated, you can easily duplicate it when in use under 45-50 mph. I have found that going uphill with the c/c set is just fine. When you are on roughly level ground or going downhill at this speed or lower it will it shut the engine down. I don't know the cause, I just refrain from using it under 50 mph or in downhills. The first time it happened at like 2 in the morning, while the second time was in the middle of the day. The first time I was cruising at 40 on an expressway and there was a large over pass to go over, and was fine until the downhill. Then silence, everything shut down. Haha, bad morning experience while I was moving. Other than the slower descents, I have had NO problems with the cruise control at all.

I just bought a used 2004 Ford Explorer. Was happy that I got a big enough vehicle to lug my family back and forth to Ohio from Georgia. I went home for the Thanksgiving holiday and after 12hrs of driving in traffic, rain and witnessing tons of accidents I got off on my ramp to go home and switched seats with my son to take us on in. He put on the cruise control and the car just powered off. No steering, nothing! Everything went off. Thank God it started back up but more importantly Thank God it didn't do it on any of those mountains or slick highways coming home from Ohio.

I have a lot of mileage on my explorer, but I rarely have used the cruise control, but I was on a trip and I decided to use the cruise control because my legs were tired of the long driving. I got on a long straight stretch of roads and the speed limit was very low, so I was driving around 35 mph, set the cruise control, and a few seconds later the Explorer shut down completely, all the gauges lit up. I put it in neutral quickly and restarted it. I had no idea what happened and decided to try the cruise control again...same thing happened and the Explorer's engine turned off. I have had no other issues happen that were related to this, but talk about a scary situation...I'm just glad I was not in heavy traffic or turning around a corner. Very, very scary.

So I was driving on a busy road near a school and decided to put to speed control and low and decellerate the car using the cruise control functions when the engine shut off, all emergency lights came on and obviously power steering gone as well. Luckily no one hit me, but I took it to the dealership, Beach Ford, in Virginia Beach and had the head of the service department take it on a test drive with me fore at least 45 minutes. We were able to replicate the problem everytime when the cruise control was 35mph and decellerated to 28mph. He could not come up with a solution and said flashing the pcm and replacing the scds (speed control deactivation switch). As of now, I do not know how to fix the problem, other than avoiding using cruise control at low speeds.

If this does happen to you while driving, kick it into neutral and restart your car while moving to get back power steering and drive to a safe location.

Anytime I have to come to a stop the car wants to shut down, you can look at the rpm and it's very low. It constantly want to shut down and it has shut down a couple of times.

I try to press hard on the break to prevent it from shutting down when I'm at a light or in stop and go traffic. I hardly drive the car because it's so frustrating, I have to car pool with others. I check with the dealer and other mechanics and it will cost $200.00 to fix.

I haven't had the money because I just paid for the transmission overhaul.

I bought my 2004 Ford Explorer V8 4.6L. Just recently i was driving in the City and decided to use my Cruise Control to avoid ticket. Suddenly at 30-35mph, my engine just died and i cannot control the steering wheel. It just stopped. Then i tried to start again the engine and it worked straight away. I was worried about safety so i took it to Ford Dealer and paid 115 USD just for the diagnosis. i did not get any definite response. They suspect its the Throttle Body which would cost about 700++ plus tax or PCM which would cost more.

I took it with me with the same problem. They want to keep the car to diagnose more.

I will never ever buy a FORD VEHICLE again.