Experienced failure of heater/defroster in cold weather. Ford dealer in athens al wanted $1000 to correct failure.
1996 Ford Explorer visibility complaints
Page 2 of 3: complaints 11 to 40 of 47, newest first, as owners wrote them.
The plastic blend door breaks and you have no control of hot/cold temp on truck.
Part that switches heat to air conditioner is warped ,cause unknown. Please give further details.
When driving this fall I found that when using the vent I got nothing but hot air, then the automatic setting on the heat/air temperature control would not regulate properly. It would go to extremes to 85+ degrees, then drop off and blow until it was down to 60 and then back up to 85 continuously. I went according to the owner's manual, which stated I needed to have it put on the computer and checked at the dealer. After they kept my car 2 x as long as promised and charging me $100 to call the engineers at ford itself, they told me it was the blend door in the heater plenum. This door is apparently made of plastic and breaks. In my case it worked for a little while, but very slowly, and was in the process of breaking. It currently does not work and is stuck in the air conditioning side. I get no heat and can't defrost my windows. I live in wisconsin and we are expecting freezing rain today, not to mention snow later this week. The dealer has told me that the engineer they talked to said this has happened before. If it is a bad design, but because it is not officially a defective part on their list, they could not fix it without charging me another $700 on top of the $100 already spent to diagnose the problem. I have found on the internet that I am not the only one this happened to (see mightyautoparts.com, on the line with larry hammer - exploring the limits of patience). The newly designed door is made of nylon that is stronger and less susceptible to breaking. When contacting ford customer 1st to let them know about my visit, they said an advisor would be assigned to me and would contact me the next day, that was 2 weeks ago. I feel I am being given the run-around. I am driving in an unsafe vehicle. Ford will not take any responsibility for the bad design. I fully appreciate and accept that things wear out on vehicles and need to be replaced, but defective design shouldn't be at my expense, in dollars or safety.
Left front seat rocks in full elevated position, dealer said it was normal play in the power seat track. Nlm
Due to defective rear defroster, car burned and was complete loss. Ford was contacted but claimed that they were not liable because no open recalls existed. The representative in the consumer affairs refused to give me their name and refused my repeated (3x) requests to speak with their supervisor.
Design of console causes rearview mirror placement to be too low. This creates a blind spot for driver when trying to merge right. Vehicle was taken to dealership. Dealership seems to recognize that this is a design flaw. Ford has agreed to look into this matter. Please provide any furhter information.
Glass is soft - pitting and chipping occur easily
Fords service bulletin 99-8-8 admits to defective air plenum. Consumer cost to replace is $700-$1000. Has become a dealer stock item. When the air door brakes there is no air flow hot/cold/def control. Can't see where you are going with fogged windows. Ford revised the plenum out of nylon (#f87z-18471-da) claiming it would not break like the plastic which was originally installed. Consumers should not have to pay $1000 for a factory defect. Crashes will occur without defrosters. They admit it in the mentioned service bulletin but refuse to make the repairs.
Due to faulty design of air plenum door which was made out of plastic, it caused a loss of ability to control defroster/ heater and air conditioning. Ford has sent a tsb (99-8-8) for defect. A new redesigned plenum was made out of nylon (f87z18401da).
I was driving along and heard a big thump, like someone threw something and hit the side of the truck. I took it into ford and they couldn't find anything wrong. In the meantime my engine check light came on (second time within 16000 miles) and my window washer was broke so they had to order the part. I went in a week later and they put it up on the rack and that's when the bolt fell out holding my front end together. I was told I was lucky to be there for them to fix it. If it went out on me when I was driving I would have be killed. I was also told that seeing how they couldn't find the problem the first time I would have to wait until it did it constantly . If I would have waited , I wouldn' t have been around for them to find the problem. No one could explain to me why this happened. I was told by ford motor company that this isn't a recall item. $500 plus later I was also told that they couldn't pay for it because it was out of warranty. How would they like my family owning ford motor company for their shoddy workmanship??? That could have been a nice law suit. I have owned this vehicle for 2 years and I'm constantly putting money into it (besides my monthly car payments) to keep it on the road. I am very dissatisfied with this vehicle and will never buy a ford product again. I just want the buyers to beware!!!
Intermittently the windshield wipers become inoperable, causing poor visibility. Dealer has been notified.
The rear window shattered while vehicle was parked, no reason why it shattered.
Front differential vent tube sprays out lubricant beacause the vent mechamism is deffective. Yh
The design of the wipers allows ice to build up on wipers and windshield resulting in poor visibility.
While pulling vehicle into driveway rear window exploded for no reason. Cause of problem unknown.
Evaporation system keeps failing, causing gas fumes to come into vehicle and overflow gas from top of tank. Also engine check light keeps coming on.
Power windows failed.
Window regulator failed.
Side view mirror failed.
Engine light failed.
Windshield failed.
Power window motor failed.
Window failed.
Blower fan relay fails intermittently.
Problem with front windshield.
Problem with windshield.
Heater switch failed.
Problem with windshield.
Motor for power windows failed.
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