I have a 2002 ford expedition and have now twice in the last 6 months have had to have it repaired for the spark plug ejection fro, the motor. The vehicle gave way with its power right in the middle of the intersection. I feel this is a defect and that ford should take some ownership, it only has 75 thousand miles on it.
2002 Ford Expedition engine complaints
Page 4 of 5: complaints 71 to 100 of 122, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Tl*the contact owns a 2002 ford expedition. While driving 40 MPH, one of the spark plugs ejected from the engine. The vehicle has not been diagnosed by the dealer. The current and failure mileages were 182,000.
Ford spark plug blow out defect. It is a known defect thousands have experienced. It is where the spark shoots out of engine head stripping threads and damaging the head and sometimes causing fire. My car had this happen and now I am stranded. There are some temporary fixes but no permanent fix. The helicoil can come out. You can replace the engine but it will have the same defect. My car is a 2002 ford expedition 4.6 triton v8. It is affecting 1997 through 2004. Ford is aware but says they wont fix it. I am going to try class action. This can cause fire. This is a 9 passenger vehicle used to carry my kids if it catches fire from it I may not get everyone out in time.
I drive a 2002 ford expedition with a 5.4 triton v8 engine. I have had 2 of the exact same failures on the exact same vehicle. They both were blown out spark plugs! The first was april 24, 2007 and the second was feb. 10, 2009. The first one occurred at 77,402 miles on the vehicle and the second happened at 91,651 miles. I am livid with rage at an problem that I have now learned is very common with this engine. This is an obvious defect with this vehicle and something that can continue to occur over and over since there is nothing to be done about it according to the ford dealer shop service manager who repaired the problem on feb. 10, 2009. I have spent a total of $569.75 for these 2 repairs! And obviously feel it will happen again. How can it not? There were not any events or warnings this was going to happen! It just blew out the spark plug and of course could not be driven and required towing. The parts that were replaced/repaired were on both cases a coil assembly and spark plug, rethreading for the plug. I have no old parts and was not given any. Why this has not been recalled is beyond my understanding since it will happen again due to the aluminum head that was installed on these vehicles when they were built by ford. That is what the ford dealer service manager told me, in fact. It heats up and gets way to hot than it blows the spark plug! I do not think I should be responsible for repairing/replacing the head in case that would ever happen which it could. Ford screwed up on this one. Make them pay to fix this ongoing problem please! I cannot afford to buy a new car.
Hello we have a 2002 ford expedition with the 5.4 yesterday it blew a plug. We have kept very good care of this vehicle and should not have had this problem we are a family of 5 and the only thing ford wants to do is put in a new motor or sale me a new car this is not right, this is a on going problem with these motors to fix this problem it will be $500 to try and retap the hole for the spark plug that may or may not hold or $5000 to rebuild the motor. Can someone help us. Tim
Spark plug #3 blew while traveling with children on the highway resulting in engine damage, repairs of $4000.
My wife and I were going to eat and the vehicle started running rough. I told her to pull over and pop the hood. I got out, opened the hood and there was a fire on the drivers side of the engine compartment. I attempted to put it out but was unsuccessful.
Spark plug ejected from engine.
On three separate occasions, my 2002 ford expedition has blown a spark plug. This is a well documented, albeit unacknowledged by ford, issue with the triton engines. Each time, I incurred the direct cost of an independent mechanic correcting the issue using after market repair kits. Websites such as consumeraffairs.com are replete with others encountering the same problems. Why ford has not been forced to recall and fix these vehicles is beyond me. There is a very real danger with the blown spark plug igniting vapors and starting an engine fire. Each time the spark plug blew, it was while the car was in motion, causing rapid deceleration and jerking of the car. I am using the second date of incident for purposes of this report. The most recent occurrence happened on sunday, nov 30, 2008.
The spark plug in my 2002 ford expedition blew out while I was driving the speed limit on the highway. After this happened, I tried unsuccessfully to get my car repaired at a non-dealer mechanic. Every mechanic I called said that they would not touch my car because of the engine and the threads being insufficient. And that most of the repairs are not lasting so the situation escalates to the point where they are losing money to fix this problem that they did not create. The dealer fixed my car and said that the fix has no warranty even though it cost me $1116.98 to repair. I was also told that the problem is common. And that 1 in 100 of the repairs do not hold. The spark plug repair is recommended at the 100k tune-up mark. My car has had all maintenance recommended by the manufacturing including the every 3k mile oil changes. This should not have happened to my car. It was near but not over the 100k mark. And even if the spark plugs had been changed as recommended, the coil would have still blown because the problem is with the thread on the engine, not the plug itself. This item should be recalled and ford knows that they are responsible for putting safe cars on the roads. Thank you, vicki bezio
# 3 spark plug blew for the second time and destroyed the motor head. Now have to replace head and have been quoted around $3000 to fix a problem ford has known about and has had many complaints about as well as consumer affairs.
2002 ford expedition with 5.4l - july, 2008 spark plug/coil are blown out of #6 cylinder. October, 2008 spark plug/coil are blown out of #3 cylinder. With coil still firing near exposed cylinder being injected with fuel, chance of fire is substantial. Spark plugs were replaced and coils replaced. Apparently need to install heli-coil kits to prevent it from happening again.
I have a 2002 ford expedition with a 5.4l engine that has just recently experienced a blown out spark plug and coil. In more than half of the 5.4l engines produced by ford between 1990 - 2005 have experienced a blown out spark plug and coil. The plug thread within the cylinder head are inadequate resulting in replacement of your heads or to temporarily fix the problem with the lock-n-stitch method which is ford approved. The reason I am raising this concern is that this situation has affected so many vehicles yet ford still continues to produced equipment set up to fail. I always see recalls on items that are definitely safety issues but are a cheap fix but when it comes to complex problems that are costly to repair and very common among the same style and size engine it should be addressed as well. At this time I am not sure of the result in damage or injury except for maybe the person working on the vehicle.
I have a 2002 eddie bauer ford expedition, and it just blew out a spark plug at 66 thousand miles or so. Dealer says it isn't covered under warranty. I am seeing a huge amount of these v8 triton engines blowing out spark plugs on the internet, and attempted class action lawsuits. It looks like the engine threading is messed up and the plugs blow out. All the plugs are original factory. I smelled fuel after a loud pop happened, and I was worried the engine might explode from gas vapor, but I wasn't on the freeway thank god.
My 2002 ford expedition threw out a spark plug(#3) after I started it. The car showed no signs of any problems prior to the event. From the number of complaints I've seen online, this is not an isolated incident. The dealer recommended a head replacement but I could not afford the $3,700 they wanted. I had to choose the helicoil fox at $600 and was informed that there would not be any guarantee on this fix or how long it would last. *tr updated 07/17/08
Engine backfired blowing out no. 7 spark plug stripping out cylinder head. Has backfired before splitting no. 3 spark plug. Causing the vehilcle to be unusable until repaird.
2002 ford expedition - out of the blue, the car blew a spark plug. It was towed, did full tune up and new spark plug. Was informed that there have been many problems with blown plugs and faulty aluminum heads in my year and make. It was $500.00. 2 weeks later same plug blew out. Had to tow again. My choice was either new car or drop a new engine in the car. A new head would have been a band-aid. I had to put a new engine in, the engine and the labor were $6,000.00. I should have never had to do this for a 2002 that I paid over 30,000.00 for. Several mecanics said they are seeing more and more of these coming in their shops from years 2000-2002 in different fords.
Spark plug ejected from engine. Original spark plugs in the vehicle. Ejected at start up of engine. Heads will need to be removed and heli coil inserts installed.
My 2002 ford expedition exploded, last night on april 11th.
#1 spark plug ejected from cylinder head damaging coil and plug wiring this is 2nd incident costing over 4000 dollars to repair head replaced.
A factory installed original sparkplug in my 2002 ford expedition blew out of the engine for no particular reason.
2002 ford expedition with 5.4l trition engine suffered spark plug "blow out".
The #3 spark plug on my 2002 ford expedition ejected from the cylinder. I was told by a mechanic that this failure could have resulted in a fire in the engine compartment. I am now looking at a $2,200 repair bill!
On december 22, 2007 while traveling we heard a 'pop' in the engine compartment and then the sound an smell of exhaust escaping the engine. When taken to bob tomas ford in mckinney texas I was told the the #3 sparl plug had been ejected from the engine head which had stripped the threads. I was then told that this has been an ongoing problem but that ford has not issued a recall and was not providing any financial assistance for those customers who were no longer covered by a warranty. My vehicle had 97,433 miles when this problem occurred. The total repair bill was $3375.20 to replace the right head. I requested assistance from ford after pointing out that the maintance schedule that came with the vehicle did not require a check of the spark plugs until the vehicle had reached 100,000 miles. Ford stated they would not assist in any way.
We owned a 02 ford expedition which gave me no problem and I loved and owned it out right. In august of 07 the expedition blew out a spark plug from the engine while stopped at a stop light. When I took it to the mechanic they speculated right away what the problem might be and upon checking it out found there speculation to be true. I phoned other mechanics who immediately said they were aware of the problem with that year engine and those surrounding it. It has obviously happened enough times for several mechanics to be aware of the problem and state that ford was doing nothing about it. My husband went to speak to the ford dealership who responded that it was not a problem and they were only aware of a few incidents and were going to do nothing about our problem. We ended up heli coiling the plug and having a temporary fix. We no longer have the vehicle because I could not trust that it would not blow a spark plug again and we have children and need a reliable vehicle. I'm very discouraged by the fact that I now have a car payment when I didn't before. I don't know if any other complaints have been made but the mechanics here seem to believe it is happening far to often and nothing is being done about it. Again I owned the expedition out right and am very upset about the fact that I had to buy another vehicle because of something that never should have happened. Vehicles don't just blow a spark plug from the engine. Thank you tanya bishop
Timing chain and tensioners.
On 7/3/2007 I heard a loud banging sound and smelled gas coming from under my engine. When I had it towed to sioux falls ford, they said a spark plug had blown out. When I asked if that was a factory defect, I was told that the plug may have been put in incorrectly. I have never had the spark plugs replaced, so I knew it was a factory plug, but the technician said that they had no way of knowing that. I spent $800 to have the it re-thread. 4 weeks later, a different spark plug did the same thing. At that time, they told me that they would check all of the spark plugs to ensure that they were tight. 4 weeks after that, the ignition coil needed to be replaced in that plug and the plug needed to be replaced. They claimed that their repairs had not caused this, but I feel like I have been getting the run-around on all of this simply because I am a woman.
My 2002 ford expedition 4x4, 5.3l engine with 71k miles had the #3 spark plug became dislodged as I was driving on the highway at ~65 MPH. Turns out the threads on the cylinder head are stripped. My car had to be towed to the dealer and is awaiting being fixed. If I choose to have the cylinder head replaced, it will cost ~$3000. I've read other articles and complaints on the internet that lead me to believe there are thousands of people who've experienced the same thing with their ford trucks. I believe there is sufficient data to suggest ford should do a recall on these trucks for this problem.
Tl*the contact owns a 2002 ford expedition. The contact heard a clinking noise coming from under the hood when the vehicle was started. She inspected the vehicle and noticed that the spark plug blew off. The mechanic confirmed the failure, but was unable to determine the cause. The consumer stated dealer informed her this is a common problem with expeditions, the mechanic had not repaired the vehicle. The powertrain was unknown. The current is 82,362 and the failure mileages was 76,400. Eq-10203932-4200, date received 12/12/07. Updated 12/12/07
My 2002 ford expedition (83,000 miles) on the way home from lake powell blew a spark plug out of the cylinder head. We were 350 miles from home on vacation and had to obtain assistance and added expense to return home in time for our jobs. The vehicle is still in st george, utah at a ford dealership being repaired. It was explained that the spark plug issue is well known. There is no assistance from ford for repairing the well known design flaw.
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used 2002 Ford Expedition?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history