My 2006 ford explorer has started jumping hard into gear when you shift it. It sounds like it is really hard on the transmission when it does this. It does this in reverse or forward at times when you don't expect it. Really annoying as heck. Vehicle has less than 90,000 miles should not have this problem out of this vehicle. You expect to purchase good quality vehicles and all you get are problems that the dealers don't won't to stand behind. Ford sent me a recall letter on my shifter to have it worked on but other circumstances kept me from being able to have the vehicle brought in. When i did make time to have it fixed, Ford said the time had expired on the vehicle. Recalls on a defective vehicle should not expire. Very displeased in ford. Had plans to purchase a f-150, not now. Ford is selling high priced junk, that they can't fix. Ford needs to be sued.

Around December 2008, I noticed that my 2006 Explorer which I bought brand new would occasionally lurch forward when I was coming to a stop. I initially thought that my foot on the brake was slipping off and pressing the gas pedal. So I was more observant the next time and I knew that that was not the case. I mentioned this to the dealer when I had the vehicle in for another problem. They never found anything wrong when they test drove the vehicle. I just lived with this problem as it was only an occasional nuisance.

Now two years later I notice the transmission is slipping while I am driving at 10 or at 25 or 55 miles an hour. Recently I noticed some fluid on the garage floor under the vehicle so I am afraid to drive it anywhere. I know it is out of warranty and I don't have money to get it fixed.

So, my '06 Explorer still has the same problems, even after I had Obrien Transmission rebuild my tranny. They called yesterday and said that they had driven the vehicle and everything seemed right to them, no problems. I must be imagining it then!!!! Looking on line there is a variety of possible fixes. Some get by with just changing the fluid, others have changed the TPS, others have had the entire thing rebuilt, (that's me). From what I have been told by a few other mechanics, there is a up-date available for the PCM. It is believed that's what Ford did to correct this issue in the 2007 model. Would have been nice if Obrien Transmission would have done that first instead of going for the gusto. Going to try and bug Ford on giving me a "goodfaith" repair/reimbursement.

Me and a friend were at a redlight when all of a sudden it felt like someone rear ended me, Then as I was driving there was a hesitation at 20MPH once over and I let up off the gas a little the vehicle jerks into place. I took it to the ford dealer who told me I needed my transmission replaced and that it would cost me $3800, then I was told by another mechanic that you can only have Ford fix the 2006 explorer because they have not released the tools for anyone else to repair it, so a discounted repair is not an option. When I contacted Ford Corporate about the issue they just took my vin and the complaint stating that they have not issued a recall and that it would take for everyone to CALL FORD AND COMPLAIN for us to possible have that happen. PLEASE EVERYONE CALL AND cMail United States

Ford Motor Company Customer Relationship Center P.O. Box 6248 Dearborn, MI 48126 Canada

Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited Customer Relationship Centre P.O. Box 2000 Oakville, Ontario, L6J5E4 By Phone Customer Relationship Center United States

800-392-3673 800-232-5952 (TDD for the Hearing Impaired) Available 8:00a.m.-5:00p.m. Local Time Monday-Friday

Canada

800-565-3673 Available 8:30a.m.-5:00p.m. Local Time Monday-Friday

I take my vehicle into the dealer (Tomball Ford Tomball, Texas) because the car jerks when it's placed primarily into reverse and other gears. The service advisor (Nathan Dainton) calls me and says that the vehicle needs a transmission. I remind this guy that the vehicle was purchased new 5 years prior and has only 39k miles and that the tranny shouldn't be burned. I get the mechanics (Darwin Shaw) notes and they are "Found codes P0735 gear5 wrong ratio. Road test found trans is slipping badly and hesitates. Shifting also delays into rev ck fluid level and cond fluid has a burned odor. Susp the servo pin bore in the case has worn and the od servo is sticking. Need to O-haul or replace. Cost to O-0haul is 15.8 hrs $3784.77. Cost to repl is 8.2 hrs $4683.69. Skeptical of the diagnosis, I contacted a mechanic friend who suggested a reputable tranny mechanic he knows. This guy test drove my vehicle with me and stated what he thought it was (Solenoid Pack). He stated that if the tranny was bad he would need to replace the Solenoid Pack any way, so why not do it now and see if the Solenoid Pack is whats causing the issue. Makes sense to me. He drops the pan in front of me and the fluid is clear with no burned odor smell as diagnosed by the ford tech. He shows me a very small amount of shaving but says that's common given the fact that about 14 months ago I had the tranny svc flush recommended by ford @ 30k miles.He replaces the solenoid pack, and the thing shifts like new. My gripe is not necessarily with the solenoid pack going out, it's the fact that the service people attempted to hose me. After I made the service adviser aware that the problem had been taken care of and the cause, he attempts to convince me that he mentioned a possible solenoid pack issue and I reminded him that it's not written down on any of his documentation so therefore, in my mind, he never said it. Bottom line here is, the service department wanted to charge me in excess of 3k and the job totaled $682. Common sense tells me that the dealer knew it was potentially the solenoid pack and they were gonna fix that at $600 plus bucks and charge me as if they overhauled the entire transmission. Totally, unethical in my opinion. I suggest that if it doesn't pass the smell test, get a 2nd opinion. Finally, the guy that did my repair has been doing transmission work for over 30 yrs and left me with the impression that the TECH at the dealership is either incompetent, a crook or both. BEWARE!!!!!!!!

I bought my car with 20,000 miles on it nov. 2008. It only had 3 months left of the factory warranty. As soon as the warranty expired I started noticing the lunging into gears very hard and there was a delay. I was told by everyone that this was a common problem with this transmission and there was no fix for it. It would also sometimes get stuck in park. please call FORD CONSUMER SERVICE 800-392-3673 and report problem. They are required to report to the national highway safety. If everyone reports they will recall it...but please report problem. If there is a recall(which there should be) you will be reimbursed for expenses. My transmission just fried at 48,000 miles and I had to pay $2500 to rebuild and replace solenoid pack. It is running fine and better than ever now. I have only had it back for 2 days so hopefully it stays that way. I also had to replace my radiator a few months ago. The mechanic said he couldn't believe the condition of it. It was leaking in several spots. I am finding out that this is also a common problem

Had the same issue most people have had with the V8 Automatic on this site. The tranny would slam into 1st gear from 2nd when stopping, so hard it felt as if one was being rear-ended. I originally went in and talked to the manager of the 'used car fixes' where I bought my car (Germain Ford, Sawmill Rd, Columbus, OH) and he tried to give me the run around when I told him I read on here to update the TSB and it would fix it. He told me he'd never heard of "updating a computer. The computer has nothing to do with the transmission". HA! I pretty much laughed in his face and said I would drop the truck off so he could have his transmission tech look at it.

The next day, he called and said they took it for a test drive, confirmed the problem, updated the TSB (as I had originally suggested), and retest drove it and it seemed fine.

I refused to pay for it, because I just bought the truck less than two months ago, and he.... I guess... agreed. I drove it yesterday for about 100 miles or so with no problems. So far so good. I have to say, in the end Germain Ford did the right thing and I give them props.

If you're having an issue, and they won't believe you, print out a couple of these complaints (I did) and show them (never had to). I was well prepared to pull out the '15 pages of complaints' card. After it's all said and done, I'm happy (again) with my Ford!! and happy Ford did the right thing!!

Update from Jan 27, 2011: I have the receipt that explains what was done.... and I quote,

"Customer says that he vehicle has a hard downshift from 2 to 1 while driving. No Check Engine Light. -- Roadtested vehicle; verified bump during 2-1 downshift. -- IDS tested no codes. Preprogrammed PCM and TCM. Cleared TCM KAM. Roadtested vehicle and relearned trans stragedy. -- Vechicle roadtested OK at this time."

Print this out and bring it with you if they give you a hard time. Good luck and please don't let this discourage you from buying another Ford. Everyone has their issues. You just gotta give them time to fix it.

I'm having the same issues that most of you are. Seems like its definitely an ongoing problem that Ford needs to look into. I get the hard jolting when putting the car in reverse, the transmission light keeps coming on, tranny slipping, etc.

We haven't had it in yet, although it's been doing it for quite awhile. We bought the car in 2006 brand new. The problem started around the same time most of the other's issues started - 40K miles or so. I can't really recall the exact start time now. We kind of been brushing it off, but it's getting worse and I think it's time to have something done. Our car now has 86K on it. We have had my dad and uncle (both used to be mechanics) look over it to see if they could find something. The lunging and gear slipping doesn't happen all the time. It's just sporadic off and on. But, again, it seems to be happening more often now. And after reading the complaints, I see I'm not the only one to have this issue.

I'll take the advice of others and see if we can get out of this as cheap as possible. Here's hoping, but doesn't seem like that will be the case.

Update from Feb 18, 2011: Took our car into the dealer finally today. We actually talked to a friend of my husband's and he'd said he'd fix it instead of actually going through the dealer and paying their outrageous costs! Anyway, he said he pretty much already knew what is was by us just telling him about it cause he's seen it so many times in all Explorers. He mentioned that the transmissions only have a 3 year or 30K mile warranty on them and that's about what you'd expect to get out of it too. Which makes sense now that our problem started right after that. So, he puts it on the computer this morning and it comes up that the selenoid is bad in the transmission. So, come Monday he's going to replace that, the filters, fluids and update the computer for us. It's gonna run around $700 he said. Which is way better than what I thought it was going to be. I don't know if that'll fix the problem for us completely, but I have a good feeling it will.

And we have yet to get the radiator fixed...that's a whole other issue though. It continues to leak horribly.

So, in the end, before you replace or rebuild a transmission...have them check that first cause it will probably be a lot cheaper than redoing the whole thing!

Purchased a my 2006 Explorer used in 2009, had 32K on it. In Nov 2010 around 46K I noticed it would slam when put into reverse. Shortly after it started to feel like it was skipping gears. I took it to have it looked at, no codes could be found when hooked to a computer. The mechanic said it sounded like a pressure problem, possibly bad seals. I was referred to a good transmission guy, Obrien Transmission. SO I took it there. After having the vehicle for a week, they called and said, no codes were found, and it's actually shifting "funny" between all gears, going to have to rebuild the transmission. A week and $2,000 later I picked up my vehicle. Within 30 miles I realize that the problem is not corrected. WTF????

Have had severe problems with car slamming into gear, when coming to a stop & puling off. I have read the reviews and I have been dealing with these problems since 2007. LemonLaw states if you take your vehicle before it reaches 20k miles & the problem is never fixed after the third trip to the dealer, then you are entitled to a new vehicle. You have to report it at least once before it gets to 20k miles. Unfortunately, I purchased the vehicle used & over that mileage. So I have taken my vehicle back more than 9 times. Still does the same. They have tried reprogramming & replacing the megatronics unit. NOTHING WORKS! Now when I drive on the highway and accelerate it slips into gear. RIDICULOUS! There is no fixing this problem. Ford SUCKS!

The car felt like I was getting rear ended frequently from the beginning. Reported to Ford dealer service with every oil change. They said could not find a problem and eventually they ignored my comment. Originally,lurching happened only when starting off or coming to stop. Around 80,000 miles began to occur in all gears.I brought to Ford dealer service Dept...they found a 306 CODE . So they replaced cylinder and plug. Must not have test drove because ...... as soon as I picked it up I detected problem had not been resolved.

I purchased the vehicle from a local ford dealership in '07 with 20,000 miles on it and have experienced the problem almost on a daily basis since day one. I never made a big deal out of because I always had the vehicle serviced as recomended by ford but the problem always returned. Now my warranty is up and I am just now looking into this issue and am actually surprised to see how widespread the problem is. I wont hold my breath on ford doing the right thing for its loyal customers in an always growing global car market. I hate to say it but this may be the last ford I ever buy. As others have said on this site please encourage others with similar problems to report them.

My transmission started acting up about a year ago. I took it to our local Ford dealer and they gave me the run around because the vehicle was still under warranty. They told me at one time that the only time it shifts hard when placing it in reverse is if you shift it when the vehicle is not completely stopped while shifting. Well anyone that drives a Ford knows that you can't shift if your foot is not on the brake.

After paying to have transmission reprogramed (as per the dealer) the vehicle was still the same. No they are telling me that I need a Shift Solenoid Assy and it will cost me some KYD1,000.00. Why can't Ford try and do a recall of fix the problem that is obvious.

The major problems that I have had is a leaking radiator and most recently a lunging, slipping transmission. At first I had difficulty getting the car out of park into reverse. (really bad on hills) . Last month car started to buck, make loud banging noise when shifting. Took it to mechanic, he changed my transmission fluid and couldn't find any problems. Car ran ok for next few weeks.Today it got really dangerous. I drove a short distance, and the car kept slipping out of gear, it jolted and several warning lights came on the control panel on dash.

I only have about 64,000 miles on it. I bought it from Ford Dealer with less then 3000 miles on it. I have kept up with all the oil changes and the maintainance guide in my Ford manual. I am very upset. This was an upscale loaded, expensive vehicle. I certainly expected to get more then 4 years out of it!