My mother bought this Ford explorer new in 05 and I was not happy with this purchase but it was too late. No I can't say I told her so since I am her son this thing is falling apart and her horrible experiences with the Coos Bay, OR ford dealer has made this a horrible experience. The latest problem is the transmission. Just like everyone else has experienced, when it is cold and you put it in R or D and push the accelerator it will rev up and engage at high RPM and then lurch forward or backward violently. After it warms up this problem goes away but this was the last straw. We traded it in on a Honda CR-V and she will never buy a Ford product again and, not that I would have ever considered, but I will also never buy a Ford product. You would think in a time when people are hesitant to buy an American vehicle that they would be kissing our bean bags. Instead you get A**holes at the dealerships and continual poor manufacturing.

I bought this car from DON SEEYLE FORD - first MISTAKE!!! They are a bunch of unhelpful, scandalous A-HOLES! I had paint problems with them prior to the transmission problems. When I called them about the transmission, several times, I NEVER got a call back. Anyhow, I barely had 60,000 miles on the truck and had it for only 7 months at this point. It cost me 2200 to fix, and FORD refuses to reimburse me even a penny of this as they say it is NOT A FORD ISSUE; even though this is a problem reported by several people with the same year and transmission. HOW THE F#$! is it not a Ford problem?????!!!!!!!!!!!

I have the same issue as other owners of the 2005 Explorer with the sealed transmission.

It slips, lurches, bangs into gears....I found, by accident, that by letting the vehicle warm up until the idle speed drops down under 1000 rpm, the problems rarely occur. I can no longer jump into the truck and drive off, as even with a warm engine it takes :15-:30 to drop down, but it is a less expensive solution than replacing the transmission.

I had ford look at it and replace a soleniod, which did not fix the problem.. they then said, we could try the computer module...Ok the soleniod was $800.. the computer about the same... better off replacing the tranny..... so I walked away disappointed and out $800

This is my 4th explorer... loved all the pre-2002 models and they were reliable. Not so much on this one. My wife drives imports and loves to tell me what a dope I am for driving American....still hanging onto hope Ford will take care of this problem.

I seem to have had the same problem that everyone else on this list is having so why hasn't anything been done about it!!!!! About 2 weeks ago my truck started slipping when it was shifting gears, then when putting in reverse it would jump real hard before going into gear. So my fiance a MECHANIC attempted to look at my transmission fluid and come to find out there was no dipstick for him to check! Apparently ford did not make one for that year, remember this truck is only 4 yrs old! So that now means there is no way to fill it and it would need to be replace because after draining the fluid and finding out that was the problem!!! Just today my check transmission light on the info screen came on and my O/D off light started to flash it will not shift gears at all and if you try to shift manually it will not lock into gear!!! This is absolutely ridculious and pisses me off my truck only has 58,000 miles on it that was the reason for getting it the low miles less likely for something to go wrong just yet oops guess I was wrong.!!! If I thought I could win I would sue Ford its just ridculious someone needs to make this right for all the 2005 Explorers having the same problem. Now after reading these other complaints it seems that I have to look forward to replacing it again in a couple thousand miles!!! I love my explorer and would prefer not to do that so maybe someone could come up with a solution to the problem instead of making money off of everyone everytime they bring it in! Luckily I have someone that can replace it for me and not cost my labor just the cost of the transmission but not everyone is as lucky as me so FORD do something.

I know it is not normal for a transmission on a <3yr old truck to go bad with only 41,000 miles on it. How long has Ford been making the explorer? Long enough to make a transmission last longer then 41,000 miles!!! I keep very good care of my truck all service done before it even states in the book. The transmission is not even serviced or looked at until 40,000 miles. This is a flaw in the truck and FORD should stand behind their product. I don't care that times are tough for people. Stand behind your product or get out of business. Don't get me wrong I love my Truck but for a transmission to go bad at this millage is beyond me!

Add me to the list for the Ford tranny problem. My '05 Explorer has right around 61k miles, and the other day the CHECK TRANSMISSION came up in the info center, a few minutes later, the "O/D off" light started blinking. I had noticed a couple hard shifts in reverse, but maybe twice and more than a month apart, so it didn't set off any bells or whistles. But more recently I did notice a little slippage in the lower gears, and I made a note to remind them to check it when I dropped if off this coming Saturday for the 30k service (which I do regularly!) ... but once that light came on, it was like I was forgetting to shift a standard transmission ... the truck did a Jekyll and Hyde on me! Scared out of my wits, I took it to the dealer ... they said something about a valve cover and solenoid ... silly me, aren't those things in the engine? Never mind that the only reason I was given for it happening was "parts wear out". So I politely picked up my vehicle and took it to Aamco ... he called back and said they got a P075 error, Pressure Control Solenoid Malfunction ... and the complete fix to keep it from happening again would be a rebuilt transmission ... about $2200 - $2400! Holy cow! He also said he sees a lot of it with the Explorers and F150's ... go figure. So naturally, hoping to find a painless way out, I looked for recalls and tech notes ... but Ford has published nothing. Aamco still has the truck, I'm trying to decide if I want the tranny rebuilt ... I asked about just putting in a new one, and get this ... he said there aren't any new ones! Clue, Ford stopped making it because they know its crap! I agree ... something needs to be done ... a three yr-old vehicle with less than 75k miles has no business needing a new transmission! I'm no little old lady driver, but I don't run it on an NHRA track, either. No doubt Ford knows about the problem ... so then why aren't they doing anything about it?