The fuel gauge in my 2005 ford explorer sport trac stopped working. It reads below empty at all times. I researched the problem online and it is apparently a known problem in ford explorers, mountaineers and ranger having a faulty fuel sending unit and fuel pumps in this model year. This is a hazardous condition and should be recalled. Not knowing when or where a vehicle will run out of gas is a serious issue and not knowing if the fuel pump will fail is also a serious safety issue. It could be on a major highway, in heavy traffic or in a desolate area. After viewing several complaints on various internet sites, ford is also still selling these vehicles pre-owned and not fixing the problem before the sale. Ford is aware of this issue and has done nothing to fix the problem except to charge people for the repair.
2005 Ford Explorer Sport Trac fuel system complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 16 of 16, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Tl*the contact owns a 2005 ford explorer. While the contact was adding fuel to the vehicle it sprayed back out. The contact stated that two people attempted to fuel the vehicle and they both experienced the failure. The contact was unable to add fuel to her vehicle and she was also unable to drive it. The fuel gauge on the dashboard displayed that the fuel tank was empty. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer for the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 65,806.
For the last year or so, I have dealt with a "check fuel cap" light that consistently turns on and off. In addition, whenever I try to pump gas, it usually comes spewing out. Now it has gotten to the point that whenever I do try and pump gas, it will only let me put in about 10 cents at a time before the latch makes me stop. I get very nervous after pumping my gas, knowing that the left side of my car has gasoline spilt all over it. What if I was to drive behind somebody that throws a cigarette out and it just so happens that it touchs the gasoline on the side of my car? In order to get the problem corrected, I took it to d&d collision, and according to them they said it is the evap charcoal canisters that are causing this reaction for the gas to come back out of the gas tank. It just so happens, that usually most cars only have one canister, but mine has two. The total cost to fix is approximately $500 and that is not including the fact that they said once they change the canisters they will be able to see if their are more problems. They believe that they are about 95% correct about the problem, but they said there is about a 5% chance that their could more to the problem. This car is completely unsafe for the road with gasoline all over the left side. The problem is, is that I have never been in any accident, or anything, so I don't understand where this randomly came from. I have spent thousands of dollars on my sports trac explorer and it just seems that all together, the car was put together in poorly condition.
Events leading up to failure:passenger stretching their legs failure: passenger bumped a sensor switch that is supposed to shut the fuel off in case of an accident,this occurred twice on a busy highway and once in residential causing the engine to shut off the first time ,I had to have the vehicle towed this could be fatal on a busy road.
Truck shut off while I was driving in august 2007 (mileage: 24587). Very dangerous I was on the highway. 2 others in truck with me, I was in middle lane of i95. Towed truck to quality ford of mt. Vernon and they replace fuel pump. It did it again in december 2007 (mileage: 29082) while I was on the street. Again, I had it towed to quality ford of mt. Vernon and this time they said my fuel filter was dirty dirty dirty. Even though I had less than 30,000 miles and the filter wasn't even due to be changed, according to their guidelines. Then the car shut off a few times and I was able to re-start it with a jump. Then february 22, 2008 (mileage: 30972) the car shut off on me while I was driving locally and I got a jump and took it back to quality ford of mt. Vernon and they replace the battery this time. Then april 8, 2008 (mileage: 32487) the car just shut off on me after starting when I tried to drive. I had to have it towed to quality ford of mt. Vernon and they replace the fuel pump again and a fuel pump module. Now it's june 2008 (mileage: 24,704) and my car has been at quality ford of mt. Vernon for almost 3 weeks. First they did the diagnostics and couldn't find anything, so they said they had an engineer coming in to determine the problem. The engineer supposedly said I needed yet another fuel pump and some other gismo. I still don't have a car.
I have a 2005 ford explorer sport trac - the fuel delivery system switch seems to shut down all by itself. Once about 6 months ago when I was at a stand still in the left hand turn lane of a busy intersection and again last night while driving on the very busy 405 fwy. The truck just "shuts off" no gas, no nothing. I had one passenger injured as we were pulled over, a car went buy at a high rate of speed and knocked my friend into the side of the truck. This is a very dangerous situation. You can't drive a vehicle that will just turn itself off in "mid-stream" I could have caused a very big accident.
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