I just had to have the transmission completely rebuilt on my Mercury Mountaineer 2002 (basically the same engine at the ford explorer). The car had 59,000 miles on it and this type of problem at this point in the car's life is inexcusable. Of course, I had to fix the car and it not only cost us 3000.000 but also a week of a car rental. I had this done a Aamco because I'll be damned if I give Ford anymore of my money. One mechanic we called even guessed that we had a Ford model car early 2000 and said that he has seen alot of these type of SUV cars with this particular problem. Ford should be held accountable for this. PLEASE go to www.safercar.gov and report your problems. If enough people do this then maybe Ford will be forced to issue a recall for this problem. From what I've seen and heard. there are quite a few of us with the same problem!