1996 Ford Explorer: hesitation when accelerating

Filed Mar 15, 2013 · Acceleration, Transmission · 175,000 miles · IN

The vehicle began hesitating during takeoff, allowing the engine to experience high RPM's but very little acceleration. The vehicle then began to not fall into 1st gear, when you shifted the car into drive from park the vehicle would hesitate for about 4 seconds then lurch heavily, the vehicle also does this at every stop, after you make a complete stop and precede to attempt to drive again the vehicle will RPM as you push the accelerator but won't move for about 4 seconds, after the 4 seconds the vehicle lurches forward heavily and spins both rear tires.

Filed Jul 16, 2003 · Acceleration, Transmission · 153,000 miles · GA

While driving vehicle suddenly hesitated to accelerate, transmission had gone bad, per dealership.

Filed Jul 11, 2001 · Tires · AZ

I have had four tire separations on this same explorer. Two were on the atxii 235/75r15 - both vdhl from decantur, il plant. The company (after much hassle) replaced them with the firehawk r45 also vd dot numbers indicating they are from the same plant. Both blowouts caused over $1000 worth of damage to my vechicle. This last time, I had to pay $350 for new tires. I suspected something was wrong with the atx long before the recall (aug. 3, 1997 was the first blowout, june 9, 1998 was the second). Now I suspect something must either be wrong with the firehawkr45, or the ford suspension system. Please do not hesitate to call or write if you have any further questions.*ak (dot number: vdhkfma457 tiresize: ltp235/75)

Filed Jun 22, 2001 · Transmission · NM

Consumer had taken vehicle to dealer regarding transmission problems on seven occasions, when shifted into reverse, vehicle will hesitate and then pop into reverse after 15-20 seconds, vehicle will not always go in reverse, dealer stated that transmission was going, but not to do anything until all gears were affected.

Filed May 8, 2000 · Body, Locks · OH

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.