Both rear coil springs broke. Replaced front and rear wheel bearings replaced ball joints replaced transmission has now failed and is now undependable. May fail with out warning no accidents, any of the above could have resulted in an accident ford is aware of all of the mentioned problems and refuses to rectify the problems. This is a wide spread problem with all 2002 ford explorers.
2002 Ford Explorer: broken coil spring
137 of the 3,295 complaints about the 2002 Ford Explorer describe broken coil spring.
- owner complaints
- 137
- of this car's complaints
- 4%
- typical repair cost reported
- $800
- typical mileage
- 80,500
- recalls
- 0
Is there a fix? 5 service bulletins cover this area of the car. See below
Broken coil spring by model year
- 20051
- 20042
- 20039
- 2002137
- 20011
- 20001
- 19992
- 19983
- 19971
- 19962
- 19951
- 19911
What owners say
Inspection found both rear coil springs broke and driver front coil spring also broke. 3 broken springs. Never heard of spring breaking, ever. Seems to be a problem with ford exployers
Rear spring broke on left side, not even rusted. Car only has 32000 miles on it. Have been seeing that this is a known issue with this model but no recall was ever instituted. A travesty.
Bearing keep have to be replaced, an the rear coil spring is cracked an the tire came off while driving my truck, have replaced the wheel bearing 3 times already. An I have replace the transmission 2 times.
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 ford explorer. The contact stated that the vehicle was taken to the dealer for routine maintenance when the dealer stated that the rear coil springs needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was not notified. The failure mileage was 118,000.
Rear coil springs are rusted and cracking, piece fell off. It appears that inadequate or deficient metal was used. Mechanic says very rare for coil springs to rust like this, springs look as though they have been in a junk yard for 30 years.this vehicle is a family car, not used for off-roading and kept in a garage. According to my research many other owners have had the same issue, some have even had the pieces puncture tires causing a blowout while driving. I can only assume that ford is not concerned with consumer safety, but only with their own profits and are waiting for people to die before taking responsibility. This is just one of many issues with this model and ford needs to step up.
I am a mechnical engineer, and do a lot of my own car repairs, when I was adjusting the emergency brake I noticed that my rear coil spring was broken in 2 places and rusted through, I went online to buy replacement springs and struts, and I came upon a website with others also with this issue of broken springs on this ford model. This is a serious safety issue, a broken spring could drop and puncture the tire. At highway speeds this could lead to serious injury and fatalities. The federal safety agency should hold ford accountable for this serious manufacturing flaw I am lead to believe that the springs where manufactured in china. The federal safety agency should get some guts and expose this serious safety issue. As a personal note this vehicle has never been off-road .
Rear spring cracked at 100,000 mil transmission failed at 120,000 mil body electrical not sealed well and keeps shorting in different places cruise gets stubborn and scared to use it , im afraid of it getting stuck in cruise.
I went to perform brake pad replacement and found passenger side rear coil spring broken. When I got around to the drivers side to no avail that rear coil spring is broken as well.
Rear coil springs broke and had to be replaced ford would not warrenty.
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 ford explorer. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic for replacement of the rear wheel bearings when the mechanic noticed that the driver and passenger side rear coil springs were fractured and would have need replacing. The vehicle was not repaired. The VIN was not available. The approximate failure mileage was 70,000.
I recently had the dealer install 2 new rear wheel bearings (2nd time in 2 years) and was told that both rear springs are broken. I was told that the broken pieces can come out while driving and puncture the tire. I did an internet search and found over 100 complaints of the same broken springs on other explorers.
Service bulletins that may apply
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the 2002 Ford Explorer coil spring
Is broken coil spring a common problem on the 2002 Ford Explorer?
137 of 3,295 owner complaints about the 2002 Ford Explorer (4%) mention broken coil spring. The model year with the most reports is 2002.
How much does it cost to fix broken coil spring on the 2002 Ford Explorer?
Owners who mentioned a price put the repair at about $800 (median of 13 complaints that include a dollar amount). Costs vary with mileage, warranty and where the work is done.
Is there a recall or service bulletin for this on the 2002 Ford Explorer?
There are 0 recalls and 5 service bulletins for the same area of the car. Check them below with your VIN.
Other symptoms on the 2002 Ford Explorer
Transmission failure 314Slipping 180Whining noise 142Won't shift 107Jerking 95Harsh shifting 93Check engine light 89Grinding brakes 84Airbag light 74Stalling 68ABS 53Adaptive cruise 45No deployment 43Fire or smoke 38Hesitation 34Door locks 28Engine failure 27Knocking 26Power windows 26Sudden acceleration 26Brake failure 23Loss of power 22Ball joint 21Tire blowout 21Wipers 18Fuel gauge 15Seat belt 15Fuel pump 14Won't start 14Overheating 13Shudder 13Headlights 10Fuel smell 8Battery drain 6Water leak 6Fuel leak 5Power steering loss 5Premature wear 5
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used 2002 Ford Explorer?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history