A seat belt/air bag warning light has been coming on intermittently. I was told that the service dealers could only investigate this when the light was on. As it comes and goes, I have not been able to take the vehicle into the dealer for a couple of months. When I did, I was told that it was no longer in warranty and I would be charged about $450. The representative said if I did not get is corrected that the air bag would not work properly thereby exposing me to risk. It seems that a situation such as this should be covered by the manufacturer indefinitely or are they willing to take the chance that their customers will not be injured for an error on their part in manufacture. I had the defect repaired at my expense but would like to have an investigation opened and possible charges against ford motor company and possibly even their dealership network.
2011 Ford Explorer airbags complaints
Page 3 of 3: complaints 41 to 44 of 44, newest first, as owners wrote them.
I was driving down the street at 55 MPH when the 'power steering assist fault' displayed on the dashboard interior display. The steering wheel immediately locked up & I lost complete control of the vehicle & drifted to the right. I stepped on the brakes to avoid crashing & turned the car off. Once I turned the car back on the fault was no longer there & I drove home. I called the ford dealership & made an appointment to get the vehicle checked the next day. Later on that same day, my wife & I had an appointment. However, when we started the vehicle up, the same fault was immediately displayed & the steering wheel locked up. I kept turning the car off & trying to restart, but the fault would not go away. I had to get my vehicle towed to the ford dealership. I did some research online only to discover that I was not the only ford owner that had this problem. Several others had the same issue. This finding prompted me to look on the ford website to see if there was any recall but there is none. The ford dealership quoted me for an 'air bag safety fault', electrical & valve malfunction, after running a diagnostic test on my vehicle. I was deeply concerned because the 'air bag fault' never displayed due to the other fault. The estimated cost was over $3,000. Also, I had to rent a vehicle in the interim. I asked about recalled parts & legal action when I was at the dealership but no one had any information. When I went to pick up my vehicle, the ford dealership said they would pay for the rental & they made contact with ford company. The ford company allegedly emailed the ford dealership & took $1,000 off the total cost. I have a wife & a baby. This is our only mode of transportation. I fear for the safety of my family in this make of vehicle & I would like for ford to investigate this electrical issue further & recall its parts. Please help us & all others with this issue.
The airbag indicator illuminated on my 2011 ford explorer limited so I took it to my local ford dealer. They informed me that when this light is on, the SRS is deactivated as it is a closed system. The repair was done and in jan 2013 the problem arose again. It was fixed after a couple of days and returned to me, since then I have had it back 7 additional times. Had I been in an accident I would not have had any of the protective equipment to help prevent serious injury or death. To date at least one pre-tensioner, a module, and a wiring harness have all been replaced.
I pulled into my driveway at a slow rate of speed, as I was braking the car was not stopping, as I pressed on the brake pedal it collapsed all the way to the floor but the brakes did not engage, just before the car hit the garage door which was directly in front of me the right front brake engaged, fully, stopping the right front tire only, the car pulled to the right and instead of hitting the garage door it struck a concrete column to the immediate right of the garage door. The air bags did not deploy and the seat belts automatic locking retractor did not engage so I was thrown forward into the steering wheel. The vehicle was towed to the dealership it was purchased from. We contacted ford, filled out and returned the paperwork they requested, after almost four months of the vehicle sitting at the dealership waiting on ford they decided that the problem was not caused by a manufacturer's defect. I am not sure how they could come up with that assumption as the vehicle was not in drivable condition and according to the dealership ford never checked it. We have pictures showing the one skid mark from the right front tire and none from the other three tires.
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