The consumer parked the vehicle at her house for at least 7 hours. Then, vehicle caught on fire. The fire department was contacted, and they indicated that the cause of the fire was possibly electrical. Also, consumer contacted the manufacturer, who was no help at all. *ak the vehicle was totaled.
1998 Ford Explorer fuel system complaints
Page 2 of 3: complaints 11 to 40 of 64, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Massive fuel leak under the hood of 1998 ford explorer xlt.*mr another fuel leak occured when a woven part of the fuel line broke.
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.
Dealership refuse to repair car parts that are important and have serious safty issues. Drivers car seat back collapse, accelerator pedal support bracket ell off the floor boad...needs to be welded back on.
The consumers were never notified of three recalls that applied to their vehicle until the defect occurred. The dealership refused to honor the recalls them because the campaigns had ended. The recall numbers are: 99 v 164 000, 98 v 060 000, and 00 v 422 000.
After the vehicle had been parked for about two hours it caught on fire. Fire department was called, and they said fire was due to a fuel leak.
Fuel leaked onto the engine, causing a fire. The location of the fuel leak had not been determined.
Vehicle engine idle will jump up to 2300 rpms while in park or netural without touching gas pedal, A/C and acc's off. The only way this is noticed is when you shift out of drive while engine is running, or hear the transmission making a clunking sound tyring to downshift at such a high RPM. Vehilce will also increase speed on it's own without pressing gas pedal. It's almost a daily occurance.
The federal safety agency recall 98-v-060-000:vehicle description: multi-purpose passenger vehicles equipped with 4.0l single overhead cam engines. Engine fuel lines can be damaged if the vehicle is jump started and the ground cable is attached to the fuel line bracket that is located near the battery. Since the bracket is not grounded, the stainless steel fuel line braid could act as a ground potentially overheating the ptfe inner liner of the fuel line, resulting in damage to the fuel line. Consumer has the same problem. However this vehicle was not recallede due to the VIN.
When hood was lifted during routine smog certification test, gasoline was observed spraying on engine from fuel line. The hole was behind the tie down bracket on front of the engine. The obviously extremely dangerous condition was repaired on site. Upon examination, the metal braid hose did not appear chafed but rather appears to have spontaneously ruptured. The hose was defective and repair costs should be paid by the manufacturer. (hoses are available for examination) a very serious situation would have developed had the gasoline ignited at highway speed. Dt
When making turns, especially right turns, vehicle slides and almost turns over.*ak. Consumer states vehicle is experiencing acceleration problems,and there was a humming noise coming from the engine, signals are not working, dealer replaced a defective connector and multi-function switch, firestone tires have experienced tread separation, which were replaced in july 2001, the rear seats move/bounce when driving, the rear seat belts were inoperative, the dealer replaced the buckles, there was smoke coming from the steering column, dealer replaced the multi-function switch, the windshield was chipped, the alarm would not chut off at times, dealer replaced a bad loose wire.
Consumer stated that the vehicle might not start if parked with nose down and has ? Tank of fuel. Consumer is concerned about the safety.
Car keep stopping and dying, the plenums (fuel injector) that melted and had to be replaced.
Consumer stated that the fuel pump failed three times and the fuel line had broke causing, the fuel to leak and vehicle to stall.
While driving late at night in a residential neighborhood my wifes explorer stalled in the middle of the street. She had the explorer towed home for me to diagnose. I examined the explorer and found that the inertia switchs electrical connector had slid off. This resulted in the loss of power to the fuel pump. Ford has located this switch near the floor on the passenger side foot area with the wiring routed under the carpet. Repeated passenger foot pressure on the floor had resulted in the connector sliding off. While driving this reduces steering and braking efficiency as well as forward movement. Thank goodness she was not on a freeway, bridge, tunnel or maneuvering through a curve which could have resulted in a serious accident.
While driving smelled strong fuel smell, vehicle taken to dealer who replaced a leaking fuel rail.
Reference the "fuel tank sender assembly" on explorers and mountaineers model years 1997 thru 2000 does not reach far enough into the tank causing the sensors to believe the vehicls are out of fuel when parked on a down hill slope, this could also occur when driving downhill with less than a quater tank of fuel. This problem, supposely, was corrected with the 2001 models, by extending the length of the sender assembly. Should this , for safety sake, be done on 97 thru 00 models. I am aware of only one incident where an explorer with a few gallon s of fuel remaining the the fuel tank, was parked on a down slope and could not be started until vehicle was placed on the level.
Vehicle stalled when making a 90 degree left turn. Consumer stepped slightly on gas and it hesitated. Consumer has to press down giving vehicle gas to by pass hesitation. Dealer really had no remedy. But once before replaced fuel injection.
Vehicle began stalling earlier this year. Thought it was just seasonal. Took it for service in april. Fuel induction system cleaning performed. Problem persists and now vehicle cuts off completely after stalling. Also stalls during quick accelerations. Am afraid that injury or fatality will occur before dealership locates difficulty. Have heard of other ford vehicles stalling. Is this related? Any help is greatly apprecieted and needed!
Fuel lines going into engine were leaking fuel near spark plug. Consumer repaired this himself, and informed dealership when he went in for replacement parts. Please provide any additional information/attachments.
The inertia switch is located in an area where a passenger's right foot can hit it's wiring and could cause it to become disconnected while driving. Causing the fuel to be shut off unexpectedly.
Vehicle is blowing fuel inside of gas tank, it has been on more than one occasion. Dealers will be notified.
While starting explorer an explosion occurred blowing off (into many pieces) the intake cover. The explosion lifted the car up into the air and the noise could be heard from inside our house.
Drivers side door does not catch properly. Nlm
No summary listed for above vehicle.
There was a massive fuel system failure under the hood of the vehicle resulting in fuel odor, consumer request reimbursement. Nlm
Engine starting failure has caused the car to be left two times, each time it stumbled and when it did start my wife put it into drive at which time it rolled into traffic and cut off again. This is dangerous, the shop I took it to could find no bad codes and had no idea why it happened. I found a tsb concerning it on your website so now I know others are having the same problem. Concerning the squeeling coming from the front end at speeds from 0-40, I took it to a shop and they sprayed some lubricant on it but the noise returned, I am afraid that something is going to fail in the front end and again. I found a tsb concerning the same problem on your site, so I am not alone in this problem. The oil leak was noticed when the squeal problem was investigated and again I noticed a tsb conserning the rear main seal leaking.
This component has failed four times starting jun 24 2000, then again aug 15th 2000, oct 7th 2000 and then nov 24th. No sadfety defect mentioned in summary.
I have a wilderness at tire which was manufactured at the canadian firestone factory. I dont recall the dot number but I had found that it was a canadian tire. I inspected the tires after the recall was announced and found that the right rear tire had a visible crack which went around the entire circumference of the tire. The crack was on the tire at the point that the tread meets the sidewall. The crack was on the side of the tire which had the raised white letters. After removing the tire, I saw no crack on the inside surface. Anyway, I have replaced the tires and still have the old ones. If this tire may be of any use to you in your investigation, you are welcome to have it. *ak( dot number: tire size: 23575r15 )
When our explorer had 29,000 miles on it, I brought it into the dealership because the check engine light had come on and the vehicle was stalling out at stoplights. They replaced the oxygen sensor, a gasket on the intake manifold, and a fuel injector. Now, 3,000 miles later, I returned to the dealership complaining about the same problem, except that the check engine light had not come on. At times, the explorer sounds and feels like it's going to stall out at stoplights or when shifting from reverse to drive. The dealership had the truck for 2 days and ran up 11 miles on it, but they could not recreate the scenario. They could find no problem at this time.
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