The left rear lift gate window hinge broke causing the window to fall and bruise my daughter's arm. Terrible design and fraught with peril.
2004 Ford Explorer body complaints
Page 5 of 15: complaints 101 to 130 of 426, newest first, as owners wrote them.
I was driving down the street and heard a noise. We turned around and the liftgate had fallen off its on hinges and was hanging loose on both sides. We had to hold it on and drive the car back home. The car has not been driven since that date in 2010. Ford needs to be responsible for the 2004 model and all of its defective products. This is the second complaint that I have filed against ford concerning this car. The first was a #2 valve falling in the engine and causing the engine to blow up. The federal safety agency please do something about ford. Someone has to make car manufacturers responsible to the consumer. Every time that the federal safety agency is contacted nothing is done until millions are negatively affected.
My 11 year old daughter went to close the rear window gate and the right hinge broke off at where the hinge attaches to the window. My wife and daughter tried to get it lined up with the hinge again but was not able to do anything with it and had to drive home with the windows hanging by the struts. Later when I got home I noticed that the right strut was not decompressing as well which probably put some pressure on the hinge. I tried to push it back up manually it wouldn't budge. I was able to remove the right strut and close and latch the window but now it's crooked and obviously not working. I did research and see there are tons of complaints about this same thing happening on 04 explorers. I am very concerned that the window will fall off and this almost caused bodily harm to my daughter when it failed and fell.
On 19 apr 2012 while opening the back hatch window, the passenger side hinge of the window failed. When this occurred the driver side hinge was bent and the hydrulic lifts popped open the window rather rapidly which could have severely injured me if it hit me. I was unable to close the window myself so I could drive again. A bystander helped me out to close it. After reading other reports and complaints online, this is not an isolated incident for 2004 ford explorers.
While loading groceries, I noticed the hinges to my rear window were cracked. I quit using the window in fear of it breaking. The cost to replace the plastic hinge is completely outrageous! I also had a friend call today and his hinge broke, thankfully the glass did not break. Ford knows the hinges are defective. Why would a major company like ford overlook this problem and take a chance of many law suits due to their negligence? There are over 1600 complaints recorded. How many more is needed for a recall? Ford needs to stand behind their product. I hesitated buying this ford because my first ford caught fire while I was driving it. Thirty years later I still think of all the bad stories and now, I want my chevy back.
The hinges that hold on the rear window are failing and I cannot open the rear window because I am afraid that it will fall off. Other year explorers were recalled for this very reason and I cannot understand why the 2004 model was not recalled. The parts are the same as they were in other years.
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 ford explorer. The contact stated that there was a 6-inch crack from the base of the rear window to the license plate. The dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer was contacted, but denied any assistance with repairs to the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure and current mileage was 70,000. The VIN was unavailable.
After a cold spell in january the panel under the rear window fractured from the window down. We took the car to the ford dealer and was told this is very common and it would be around $400.00 dollars to fix. If this is common why is ford not correcting this without the customer having to pay out of pocket. It seems this is a manufacturing problem not a consumers!
Rear body panel applique ford series part #402a30.
When we had the cold snap a few weeks ago, a plastic panel, under the rear window cracked. The cost to repair this is about $450 to $550. Searching on line, this seems to be a problem over a number of model years, as there are several hundred reports. In the past week, I have seen 7 more explorers with a similar crack. Ford customer service says there is no recall. It is not a safety issue, but it is expensive to repair.
Update on rear cracked panel: rear back panel replaced twice. Ford service told me it would cost approx $800 to replace cracked panel again then suggested I take my '04 ford explorer to a body shop for a repair at a cost of approx $200 which I did. That repair lasted about 3 months...panel has cracked again. If the glass falls out someone is going to get hurt. It is ridiculous that ford will not take full responsibility for this defective part.
About a year ago I noticed the panel below the rear window start to crack. As time went on the crack continued down the entire panel next to the ford emblem. The rear window now makes a rattling noise. I don't know if it will loosen enough for it to pop out if I hit a bump in the road. It has certainly reduced the value of the vehicle. I went online to see if anyone else was having this problem and was shocked to see hundreds of comments. I contacted ford and they said there was no recall from you and that until there was I should go ahead and have it fixed. Repair costs seem to be around $400. For the panel plus painting. I really think a design flaw should not be my problem. They know it was a flaw since the newer models are designed completely different.
While at work my rear lift gate window exploded. At first site I thought it was vandalism but nothing (car chargers/cd's/ road side kit etc) was taken. After further investigating, things just didn't add up nor were consistent with the site of my destructive rear window and uplifting of the panel underneath the shattered glass (which was mostly on the ground as opposed to being inside my vehicle.)
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 ford explorer. The contact stated that the rear liftgate exhibited a fracture that started from the top of the manufacturing emblem and down to the bottom of the liftgate. The contact spoke with the manufacturer but was advised that there was nothing that could be done to assist. The vehicle was not repaired. The current mileage was 89,000 and the failure mileage was unknown.
The rear passenger window hinge broke causing the glass to fall on top of me and hit me in the head and knock me down to the ground.
Cracked panel below rear window. Also, rear window appears loose.
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 ford explorer limited. The contact stated that the rear liftgate was fractured and the contact was concerned that the window would possibly fall out while driving. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where they advised him that the failure was not a safety concern and offered no further assistance. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and they offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 58,000.
I have this crack in the middle of my liftgate and I have seen some other ford explorers and found on internet complaints about it. I called ford dealer and they said there was no recall for this. As I have said. I have seen other fords with the same crack on the middle of the lift gate.
Transmission was working just fine till one day it wouldn't shift into overdrive and then it was shifting hard from 2nd to 3rd. Rear window hinges broke. Rear tail gate cracked right down the middle by ford symbol. Also just the other day my passenger window stopped working no signs nothing of anything wrong. I'm going to start buying chevy this is just unacceptable. No wonder america is not doing good our car company's can't make good products anymore.
Rear liftgate glass hatch failure hinge and attachments back glass fail off.
Paint bubbles in the hood. The dealer just responded that it was a manufacturers problem and that I would just need to replace the entire hood at a large cost.
The rear lift glass hinges on my 2004 ford explorer broke during use of the lift glass. The pin broke right through the hinge on both sides. This happened while car was parked and lift gate window was open. Left side just fell, and then right about 1 minute later, I just happened to have some 2x4's in the back which prevented the window from falling to the ground. This seems like a pretty dangerous defect. Internet research has revealed this issue was cause for a recall on the '02 & '03 explorer and seems to be wide spread on the '04, yet no recall for the '04.
I was at a grocery store with my young children, came outside, popped the tailgate (top half of the trunk on ford explorer) and loaded my groceries in the car. My 12 year old then went to close the trunk (top half only) and the left side of the tailgate came off of the hinges. The window/tailgate was extremely heavy, so I had to run to the back of the car and help her to hold the window up. Then, as we were trying to put the window/tailgate back onto the hinge, the other hinge broke and the whole window came down. The window was only connected by the wiring and the shocks that are inside the window. We easily could have been injured by this falling window/tailgate. Mind you I had no warning that these were going to fail...no cracks, no problems closing the tailgate, nothing! My daughter, a woman who was in the parking lot, and I could not get the window back on so I could drive it home (45 minutes away), so I had to call my brother in law to come help me because he was closeby. He ended up having to take the shocks of the window/tailgate off completely, so that we could put the window/tailgate into the car so I could drive it home. The wiring was still connected. I have contacted ford directly, and they will not take responsibility for this failure...even though they have done recalls on the 2002 and 2003 ford explorer plastic hinges for the tailgate. Same problem, different year. I have researched online looking to find if my 2004 explorer had a recall, and found that many people had this same things happen to them on their 2004 explorer. I am not the only one.
Rear panel cracked under window. There was no damage to vehicle, an di have seen several ford explorers with the same crack.
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 ford explorer. The contact stated that when opening the rear lift gate, the hinge fractured and fell back, striking him in the head. The contact received a minor injury as a result. The vehicle was not inspected by a dealer nor repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and they offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 70,900.
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 ford explorer xlt. The contact stated that the panel below the rear window of the tail gate developed a crack. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who stated it was a design flaw and the panel needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure but did not offer any assistance since the warranty had expired. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 60,000 and the current mileage was 75,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 ford explorer. The contact stated that the rear liftgate glass was hanging beside the struts. The dealer was not notified of the failure. The manufacturer denied any assistance with repairing the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and current mileage was 180,000.
One of the rear lift gate hinges has failed. The pin has pushed through the hinge. The structural strength of the aluminum used as seemed to failed. The other hinge shows similar signs of failing but has not completely failed.
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 ford explorer. The contact stated that there was a small oblique on the rear liftgate which fractured. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where they advised replacing the oblique but the vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and they offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 65,000.
The liftgate glass hinge on my 2004 ford explorer (model exxltspnbx) broke while closing. There is only one bolt holding each of the two hinges onto the glass and the bolt broke on one of the hinges. Fortunately, I held the glass as to not slip down and pull the other hinge causing it to break. The window lift did hold it but would not slide back up. The lift had to be removed in order to shut and latch the window door. The back panel below the window was cracked when I bought the car and this may have lead to shifting in the window and additional stress added to the bolt in the hinge. This is the same problem that occurred in the 2002 and 2003 hatch window hinges. There are many examples online of the bolt breaking in the 2004 models but a recall has not been issued yet as has the two previous years.
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