10/2000 - the left rear door latch from the inside would not work. Anyone who attempted to open the door from the inside of the vehicle would be unable to open the door. I brought the vehicle in for repairs. The dealer replaced the door latch assembly. The repair cost me approx. $175.00. March, 2001 - the right rear door latch has now broken. Again, anyone trying to open the door from the inside will be unsuccessful. This is a big concern since I have children who sit in the back and if there was an emergency they would be unable to exit the vehicle from the right rear door. I will be getting this door fixed next week by the same dealership. I feel that these safety defects put any person sitting in the back in grave danger if there is an emergency. These failures should not happen. Please advise how I can be reimbursed for these repairs. Thank you.
1996 Ford Explorer locks complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 34 of 34, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Both rear doors won't open. They will only open from the outside. Consumer feels this is unsafe because in an accident rear passengers wouldn't be able to get out.
The broken interior door handle may have been broken for a long time but, because of the child safety lock feature being activated it wasn't noticed until the child safety lock was deactiveted only to find that the door handle would not open the door. Upon disassembly, I found the plastic cam that unlocks the latch of the door to be cracked off rendering the handle useless. As for the transmission, the premature and expensive failure should become a recall item for ford as I have found that many owners of this type vehicle are experiencing problems of great financial consequence and possible tragic health consequence.. I'd say a disporportionate number of explorer owners are encountering similar transmission failures. The life threatening condition of a bad transimission could have LED to a lock-up or unexpected rapid deceleration at highway speeds which could have rolled the truck. Internal components were badly scarred and irrepairebly damaged. Initial symptons were hesitation on accelleration at shift points ford issued several service bulletins to address these symptoms but never recalled the defective product.
On the same day both my rear door latches broke.you can't open either from the inside.this is not due to child safety locks. It is dangerous because my passengers couldn't get out in case of fire or accident.
Both rear door child safety locks do not open from inside. Yh
Both rear interior door latches fail to open the door from the inside. First the right rear door failed to open from the inside, then the left rear also failed. This is very dangerous as it "traps" the rear passengers in the vehicle. The only way to open the rear doors is from the outside. I called a local ford dealer and the service department indicated they would not cover the cost of repair.
Rear liftgate broke. Occupant cannnot open door from the inside or from outside. Please provide further information.
Locking mechanism broke off inside door, makin g it impossible for occupants to get out in case of an emergency with both doors.
The rear right door will not open from the inside. Dealer has been notified.
Both rear doors have malfunctioned at varoius times, causing them to not open from the inside. This is a very dangerous condition and the dealer will fix but only if I pay.
Whenever child safetylock is activated, the handle from inside with a little pressure, can cause the door to be inoperative from the inside. Dealer notified.
The two doors in rear will not open from inside. Seems the child locks are on, when the child locks are in the correct position, the vehicle will still not open. Dealer contacted, and is not aware of the problem. Consumer states the problem still exists.
Hood latch malfunctioned.
Door cannot be opened from inside. Opens from outside. Latch disengages itself so door fails to open from inside. Took to dealer. Was repaired. Problem has reappeared.
The rear door on the passenger's side will not open from the inside. Mechanic stated that prolbem could be related to the child safety lock. The prolbem has not been corrected.
While driving on interstate highway and attempting to correct direction of vehicle. It rotated conter-clockwise and went into a slide. Vehicle rolled over 4 timess. In addition, during its first rotation, door latch failed, door opened and driver partially ejected. Driver died from fatal injuries and passsenger wa s injured. Driver was not informed by ford of recall regarding door latches and locks (96v‑070).
Door locks failed.
Door latch on drivers side failed.
Door lock failed.
The hood flew up while driving.
Consumer has not received her door latch parts under recall 96v070000.
Recall work not completed on the door locks due to lack of parts.
The dealership hasn't had the parts since may.*ak recall 96s38.
Order recall part from dealer. Still has not came in, have been waiting for more than a month. Recall 96v007000.
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used 1996 Ford Explorer?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history