Tl*the contact owns a 1998 ford explorer. The contact heard a huge explosion coming from her driveway and noticed that the vehicle was engulfed in flames. The vehicle was destroyed. There were no warning signs prior to the failure. The contact called the fire department and they extinguished the fire. The cause of the failure was undetermined. A police report was filed. She called her insurance company and is in the process of notifying the manufacturer. The failure mileage was 143,000. Updated 03/17/09. *lj updated 03/17/09.
1998 Ford Explorer engine complaints
Page 2 of 8: complaints 11 to 40 of 194, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Tl*the contact owns a 1998 ford explorer. The contact heard a huge explosion coming from her driveway and noticed that the vehicle was engulfed in flames. The vehicle was destroyed. There were no warning signs prior to the failure. The contact called the fire department and they extinguished the fire. The cause of the failure was undetermined. A police report was filed. She called her insurance company and is in the process of notifying the manufacturer. The failure mileage was 143,000.
Tl*the contact owns a 1998 ford explorer. After the contact parked the vehicle in his driveway, he noticed firefighters outside of his house. He then noticed that his vehicle was on fire. The engine was determined to be the cause of the failure. A fire report was filed. The vehicle has not yet been towed. The failure and current mileages were 110,000.
I was leaking antifreeze. Brought to mechanic. He changed the intake manifold. A tune up was also done. Now periodic smell of antifreeze and oil at different times. Very potent. Mechanic is aware of these problems, but cannot find anything wrong after doing many pressure tests and flushes.
Tl*the contact owns a 1998 ford explorer. While leaving his home, the contact noticed that the hood of the vehicle was on fire. The fire department was called to extinguish the fire and a police report was filed. The contact did not notice any differences beforehand. The vehicle has not been diagnosed for the failure. The current and failure mileages were 110,000.
Engine failure. Engine code p0300. Cylinders 4, 5, 6 have weak compression. Timing chain is damaged. Dealer has previously serviced timing chain twice and after second service ford extended engine warranty to 100k miles (now expired). Dealer now recommends engine replacement at cost of $5,500. What was once a $30,000 beautiful eddie bauer rig now has a kelly bb retail value of ~$8000, but without engine, car is a total (auction block) loss! While no one was hurt when this engine failed, it is both a potential safety hazard and yet another shock to a vehicle with a troublesome (and expensive) past, and to a loyal ford customer who expected a better quality product. I can't help but wonder how many more 1998 explorers are out on the roads about to loose their engines. Is 10 years too long to own a ford? I am still pondering what to do with this vehicle which now sits as a 2-ton "bookend" in my garage.
My daughter was driving home the car (engine) caught on fire . The fire chief was not really sure what the cause was.
My wife was just leaving our house and the crankshaft broke. This happened without any warning and LED to sudden loss of power steering. She was able to get it to the side of the road without mishap. This was at a low speed. This failure at highway speed could resulted in an accident.
Dt*: the contact stated while pulling out from a stop sign, traveling 5 MPH, the vehicle's check gauges light illuminated on the dashboard. As the vehicle accelerated, there was a noise heard coming from the engine that sounded like something flying around inside the engine. The vehicle stalled and wouldn't restart. The vehicle was towed to a local ford authorized mechanic who determined the pins used in the timing chain on these vehicles are plastic and had fractured, penetrating the engine and ending up in the oil causing the vehicle to stall. The dealership has been informed.
Very heavy rattling in the engine of my 1998 explorer 4.0 sohc. Took to local ford dealer, they claimed characteristics of the motor, twice. Some time later tensioners broke while driving and motor ceased. No cooperation offered on ford's part. Had to replace engine out of pocket for ford's design flaw, which has been getting swept under the rug for years now. One month after the replacement ford offered to fix others, if found before 75k miles, etc. Too late for me. How many failures have occurred? What if this failure had of occurred at highway speed, instead of idle speed. Check the figures on this problem, it's scary, and ford is pitiful.
Intermittent stalling when coming to a stop.
Dt*: the contact stated without warning the engine stalled and the steering and brakes locked up. This occurred at 55 MPH, the vehicle was towed to the contact's residence. A family member inspected the vehicle and determined the crankshaft busted, causing engine failure. The engine would need to be replaced at a cost higher than the value of the vehicle. The contact tried to replace it with a used engine, but was told by several mechanics that ford manufactured a bad engine with the 4.0 sohc, and to put a used engine would be a waist of money since it would fail again.
I own a 1998 ford explorer. This vehicle has been making an awful knocking/rattle in the engine on start up. It has been doing this for about 6 months now. Unable to diagnose problem due to it only does it on cold start ups, once the engine has warmed up it tends to stop. However, after a cold start up it will rattle (sounds like a diesel engine), the rattle increases as I accelerate, however once vehicle has ran for about 10 miles it will go away. If vehicle is parked for an extended period of time then started up again then the noise will return.
Dt:1998 ford explorer. While driving the vehicle shut off and was almost involved in a wreck this was the first time this happened. The consumer took the vehicle to dealership, who informed the consumer there were recalls 00m12 and 01m01, but the recalls expired, dealership said they were not official recalls. Ford m said it was the intake manifold gasket.
It started with a minor rattle in the engine towards the front of the engine. The rattle got louder and louder and louder until it was decided not to move the vehicle any longer. Took vehicle to a certified mechanic, turns out, the timing chain assembly broke throwing pieces all over the place causing the chain to malfunction that lead to damage to the engine. Engine block had to be replaced at a cost of around $3000. Ford has a service bulletin out on this same problem, however I bought the vehicle in nov 2000 and I never received any service bulletin from ford informing me of this problem. I tried taking the vehicle to the local dealer and was told they won't repair it under the ford safety bulletin because it was only for 7 yrs or 100,000. The vehicles 7 years expired in april 2005. I tried emailing or contacting ford directly and got no response.
The vehicle was parked around 8:00am, about 4 hours later, the vehicle caught on fire. The fire was coming from the driver's side engine compartment. There are 35 mm pictures. The vehicle had cruise control, but it was rarely used, and the consumer did not know if it was working. The insurance was liability only. *ak *sc
The timing chain tensioner inside of the engine failed, causing the timing chain to come loose. As a result heads and pistons inside of the engine came loose, destroying other parts inside of the engine. The ultimate result of this was that the engine seized and the vehicle lost power, making it difficult to steer at highway speed prior to getting off of the highway. Manufacturer has a waranty extension in place prior to 72,000 miles, but no recall, and considers a vehicle that looses power and cannot be completed steered as a result of an explosion in the engine not to be a safety issue!?!?!? The manufacturer acknowledged that there is a potential problem with these engines, but will only do something about it if the vehicle has symptoms. I had the first minor symptom on a sunday afternoon, and a major problem the next day, monday.
While driving 50 MPH engine started producing a clicking sound. Cause has yet to be determined.
While driving consumer experienced that vehicle was riding roughly. While sitting still vehicle vibrated uncontrollably. Consumer drove the vehicle to the dealer for inspection, and mechanic determined that the engine needed to be replaced due to a cracked cylinder . *ak ......
Since purchasing a used 1998 ford explorer I have been blessed with nothing but problems with it. 6 months after purchasing the vehicle my wheel bearings went out and damaged the spindle. This was a $500 expense as the spindle was a dealer part. When I purchased it there were 26000 miles on it...there were about 36000 when the bearings went out...just as the warranty expired. Then, about a year later, the upper air intake manifold got a hole burned in it. Again, ford couldn't offer me any kind of help and said it was a $800-1000 repair. On a side note, this type of problem was a known issue by ford. In fact, recalls were made by ford to replace the intakes free of charge to fleets but not to the general public. Just recently my freeze plugs rusted through and caused my car to overheat. This has been quoted by ford as a $1300 repair. I called ford to see about some sort of goodwill warranty and of course anything with goodwill in the equation is definitely something ford will not do. I currently have 2 years left on the loan for a piece of crap car that isn't even worth half of what I still owe on it. I am really thinking of taking it back to the dealer and parking right in front of the entry way and taking the keys with me and telling them to stick it up their rears. Ford makes the whole car industry look really bad and in no way would I ever buy another ford. Please help us consumers out and make the game fair between the auto industry and consumers...we are getting ripped off left and right while they keep getting richer and richer.
I had problems with my ford explorer engine since the first day I bought the truck. It has been in the shop a few times for recallas on the engine, the last time only this past december. Last saturday, may 22nd the truck stopped in the middle of traffic. I had it towed to ford dealer and was told my crankshaft broke. Two different dealers told me the same thing and agreed that that should not have happend but also told me that there is nothing they can do. Basically to bad on you. I have seen many messages on the internet on this very same problem happening to others. This could have been deadly if I were on a highway when it stopped. Ford should be responsible to cover costs when something that should not break does. Ford could care less. Cost to me over $4,500.00 for a new engine on a maintained 6 year old car. Per an attorney this is known as a latent defect and it took this time to happen, when that kind of part should last a long time.
Engine head gasket cracked. *ak the consumer stated while driving home the engine started to misfire and the temperature gauge went up a little.
While idling or driving vehicle vibrated continuously until vehicle was turned off. Consumer applied the brakes and vehicle stalled. Consumer drove vehicle to the dealer for inspection, and mechanic was unable to duplicate or resolve the problem.
The harmonic balancer came loose and the camshaft had broken right at the engine block. *ph consumer was given an option by the dealer to either overhaul the engine, with no warranty, or replace the engine, with a 3 year 36,000 mile warranty. A service technician found out that upon inspecting the harmonic balancer camshaft area that the long bolt holding the pulley to the camshaft was never tightened was able to removed with the technician's fingers. In addition, the bolt should have some markings on it consistent with an impact wrench. It was confirmed that the bolt would have been removed in order to replace the timing chain. When engine was replaced and performed additional test on vehicle, dealer found a small fuel line leak. Fuel line was repaired and made another test on vehicle. Consumer currently seeking reimbursement of all expenses incurred due to mechanical error that rendered vehicle inoperable.
Crankshaft cracked at 93000 miles.
1998 ford explorer fire.*mr the consumer ( a fire fighter) responded to a vehicle fire. The owner of the vehicle stated the brake light blew. He changed the 15 amp bulb and noticed a plug on the master cylinder was hot and had some soot on it and it wasn't melted or deformed. The vehicle sustained heavy fire damaged to the engine compartment with the heaviest fire damage near the master cylinder.
I have read 24 complaints concerning the failure of the camshaft chain on the 1998 ford explorers with the 4.0 sohc engines and seen 23 technical service bulletins concerning this same problem. This type of failure can cause serious injury if this occurs while operating the vehicle due to engine failure,not to mention the fact that it also blows the engine requiring it to be replaced at a cost near $5000. Ford has acknowledged this problem and has offered replacement with mileage limitations. If this is a defect and a safety hazard causing the loss of control of the vehicle when this failure occurs ,why is this not important enough to warrant an investigation? My ford is 4000 miles over the limit set by ford to replace the parts in question. Although this did not lessen the danger when this failure occurred to my wife, 5 year old and 1 year old daughters while in the vehicle causing her to lose control due to the engine failure as a result of these defective parts. I was told in a phone conversation that the recall was voluntary by ford and it is legal for them to set those limitations. This is unconceivable that they can place individuals in harms way knowingly and in an effort to save a buck, not a life , set limits to the remedy of the situation. Why are these complaints not being investigated and if they have what was the end results of this investigation? *la david kyde 810 third st. #5 trenton, ohio 45067 513‑988‑6516
Check engine indicator light illuminated. Vehicle was taken to the dealer at consumer's expenses of $850.00. Twenty days afterwards the problem was still recurring.
Cam shaft broke inside engine, during normal operation. Car had only 85,000 miles, there must have been a defect in the part. It cost $3,500 to repair damage.
Upper intake plenum had burnt a hole in it.*mr while driving the vehicle hesitated and the consumer smelled something burning like rubber/plastic. The hole in the plenum caused two vacuum hoses to melt. *ph
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