The transmission of our 2002 explorer started slipping, jumping, jerking' surging, refusing to shift, shifting slowly and other associated things approximately 4 years ago. There is no consistency, it does it whenever it wants, regardless of the speed, outside temperature, driving distance. I feel ford owes me a new, redesigned transmission with installation. I would like to know what ford is doing about the problem with the transmission which was installed in this model and year explorers.
Ford Explorer Sport jerking problems
10 of the 733 owner complaints about the Ford Explorer Sport describe jerking or lurching, most of them for the 2002 model year.
- owner complaints
- 10
- worst model year
- 2002
- typical mileage
- 95,265
Is there a fix? No recall or service bulletin covers this area of the car yet.
By model year
- 20031
- 20024
- 20012
- 20001
- 19991
- 19971
Often reported together
Harsh shifting 3Slipping 2Wipers 1Fire or smoke 1Adaptive cruise 1
What owners say
2002 ford explorer. O/d light blinking. Slow gear shifting. Random jerking of car. Have read this on many websites and even people that have had a rebuild or solenoid replaced, just happens again. Is also dangerous, because once changes gears, MPH jumps very high, very quickly with no control over it.
Driving my 2002 ford explorer with my daughter in the back seat, when the o/d light starts to flash and the car becomes jerky, then locks into gear so I brake put it in park and turn the car off for a bit , turn it back on and the o/d flashes and I managed to make it home but only going slow as concerned for the safety of myself and my child. I let the car sit for a few days and had my husband drive it around the neighborhood and it got stuck in gear on him twice. We've contacted a transmission shop and they said in this year and model it has been very common for the transmission to be rebuilt or replaced. They recommended to have it repaired and either put the car up for sale or repair it as in their experience they transmission will probably go again in a year or 2.. Ford need to accept that there is an issue and own up to their mistakes, they can't expect people to just sit back and accept it. Something needs to be done about the issue, if I was traveling at a higher speed when it first started who knows what could of happened, I may not of been able to keep control and something serious may of been but luckily it wasn't, but we don't want to read about the person who couldn't keep control.
Transmission o/d light started coming on and blinking periodically with hard shifting or slipping and car lurching forward before shifting. O/d stops working after o/d light starts blinking. Had transmission solenoids adjusted last year but only helped slightly then back to slipping again. Only have 88,000 miles on vehicle with good care and no towing ever.
Dt*: the contact stated the vehicle is equipped with a button to push to place the vehicle into overdrive. However, it goes into overdrive on its own causing the vehicle to jerk badly. It is an intermittent problem that occurs during cold weather. To disengage the overdrive, the vehicle must be turned off and restarted. The dealership was consulted. During cold weather when the vehicle is in overdrive it goes out of overdrive and jerks. The vehicle, speed and rpms drop, and overdrive off light flashes. Contact had to pull off the roadway and turn vehicle off and restart for vehicle to start inoverdrive as normal. Contact came close to being rear ended. The vehicle would remain in overdrive unless the contact clicked button on shift column to take it out of overdrive or if in overdrive to resume back to overdrive. Took vehicle to dealer, who claimed there was no recall, but did advise had similar problems with other consumers. Contacted ford motor company, and was told there wa sno recall and could not do anything.
We were forced to take this vehicle from hansel ford in santa rosa when they felt we wouldn't be able to afford the 2004 ford f-150 we purchased they had sold my trade in hadn't made a deal with company for contract came a few day before first payment due and repoed it since we have had car nightmares the seat on driver side broke just regular time it does a lot of jerking and sputtering the light work when they want to etc..... Please get me a decent vehicle for after.
2003 ford explorer eddie bauer awd 4dr VIN [xxx] under warranty - 33125 miles when in reverse experience bangs/jerks - dealer stated it was transmission shift solenoid pack and replaced 6/05 - continued to bang/jerk into reverse until approx 1 month later, vehicle would not move whether in drive or reverse, along with loud whining noises - dealer could not look at vehicle for one week at which time flat bedded at owners cost as now at 37,000 miles (out of warranty of course) ford inspected transmission and has denied repair/replacement under warranty. At 37,000 miles one would not expect a transmission to fail. Owner escalating this issue to ford customer service. Dealer has been great, after reading similar complaints from this website, it appears ford corporation is in total denial of a transmission problem for 03 explorers. *jb updated 07/19/2012 *js information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6)
On easter sunday march 27 2005, my family (3 young boys and my wife) left my moms house at about 10:20 am to head to church, my wife was driving, and as we got out onto the main highway road route 360 hull st. My wife set on the cruise control and about 60. Speed limit is 55 after about 20 seconds she needed to take off the cruise due to another car upcoming, when she went to get off the cruise it would not come out of cruise control and the speed went back up to like 80...at this point my wife and I tried to press on brakes, and press the off buttons, and nothing.... We could not stop!!!! I finally told my wife to put both off her feet as hard as they could on the brakes.... The car finally got down to about 30 and we got over on the shoulder, and I quickly jerked it into neutral, and we stopped....as I got out, the freakin tires were on fire!!!!! Seriously flames were coming out of the brakes and tires....oh did I mention we had 3 young children in the vehicle..... Come to find out the cruise switch got stuck....thank the good lord jesus we were on a stretch of road with no stop lights or heavy traffic.... 2000 ford explorer sport ford sucks!!!! Could have killed myself and my whole family.
Consumer's vehicle is equipped with automatic 4-wheel drive and option was turned on. While driving there was a noise, the vehicle began jerking and transmission started clunking almost causing consumer to lose control of vehicle.
Engine temperature gauge reading hot when vehicle is not overheating. Check gauges trouble light comes on. Dealer replaced but still malfunctioning transmission shifting hard. Vehicle will jerk/clunk every time tranmission shifts. Dealer flushed transmission and replace fluid. No change in transmission function. Vehcile vibrates/shakes at higher speeds. May be the driveshaft. Dealer rotated tires. Virbration still exists. Rear seat bottoms do not anchor securely. The seat bottoms flip up when exiting the vehicle. The rear window wiper was not clearing the covered area, leaving dirt and debris on the window obstructing the view. Dealer adjusted arm problem is resolved. Dt
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the Ford Explorer Sport jerking
Which Ford Explorer Sport years have jerking or lurching problems?
The model years with the most reports are 2002 (4 complaints), 2001 (2 complaints) and 1997 (1 complaints).
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