Every time we put the car in park, it would not register that it was in park and warning kept flashing that said shift to park. We had to just turn off the car most of the time and sometimes wiggling the shifter would work any time the "Not in Park" sign comes on when I know the gear is in park. I believe this can cause serious damage to property or cause death since the vehicle can roll. I believe Ford Motor Co should own up and recall all vehicles for service much for This is a known problem that has been know to happen to 2011 Edge and Explorers. The switch in the console shifter tends to fail prematurely. If the light does not light up the computer thinks the car is NOT in Park and alarms go off. THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED BY FORD THIS IS A SAFETY ISSUE
2011 Ford Explorer transmission complaints
Page 2 of 3: complaints 11 to 40 of 64, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Between 7/17/20 and 9/7/20 car stalled five times and stopped moving while in drive mode with no warning. Dealer kept car from 7/30/20 to 8/7/20, but problem was not fixed. Car returned to dealer 9/8/20 and kept by them until 9/16/20 when it was returned with problem apparently fixed. No problem since. Diagnosed Throttle Body Failure. Have verifying work order and invoice.
While driving down interstate 75 from gainesville fl to loganville ga my power steering pump went out ! Thankfully my children were not in the car , but even after pulling over and cutting the vehicle off to try to reset it it did not work!
My power steering totally went out. It kept saying power steering fault and just stopped working. Then it started saying something about trac terrain fault or something. I've only had this car since 2018 and then found out today there was a recall on them for power steering. We bought our car in oklahoma and now live in alabama. The power steering has been weird on me before but turning off the car and restarting it would fix it, but it has went out saying fault while I was going around a turn and I had to brake quickly, throw on my hazards, turn off the car and restart it. But now nothing is fixing it, I had to tow it to my house from an hour away because I was stuck at work at 1am. I am the only person in my family able to work and work about 52hours a week and don't know I can afford to fix this issue that apparently was known but not fixed in my vehicle before it was sold to me (not your fault, the delearships fault, but they are 10 hours away...)
Tl* the contact owns a 2011 ford explorer. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked, the contact entered and started the vehicle. The vehicle was shifted into reverse however, while turning the steering wheel the vehicle failed to operate as designed. The power steering warning light became illuminated. The vehicle was towed to the residence. The vehicle was not diagnosed. The contact spoke with a representative at tony serra ford (40905 highway 280, sylacauga, al 35150 (256) 245-5000) and was informed that the vehicle was not under recall. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 161,000.
While driving and while just starting the vehicle, the power steering and terrain management systems ding loudly on the left side of the display while telling me I have an error. While driving, the power steering did go out briefly but came back.
Randomly has a awd fault warning. Loses trans power. Requires stop. Shut off & restart. Dangerous! Has happened of freeway several times. Dealer found no record saved???? Just happened again yesterday!!!
Every time I go in the highway and I go 60 miles per hour I start smelling the exhaust smell inside my car start feeling kind of dizzy with headaches took the car to the dealer check that and it's doing it again exhaust smell comes inside of car really bad
Second (2nd) occurrence. Vehicle as backed into driveway and parked wednesday february 20,2019. Thursday february 21, 2019 at approximately 7:00 am, it was observed the the vehicle had rolled backwards approx. 13 feet on its own. Vehicle was locked and transmission was in park. Approximately 7:15 am it was observed that the rolled approximately 16 inches more with the back bumper resting against the wall. This even is documented with pictures. First (1st) occurrence vehicle was parked nose first in driveway on february 11, 2019. February 12, 2019 at approximately 8:00 am, my wife had asked if we had moved the vehicle forward because the front of vehicle was almost touching the wall. The vehicle was locked and in park. The weather on both occurrences was snow then rain. Unable to attach photos due to file size.
I was turning out of my alley and the car had no power. When I tried to accelerate nothing happened. I had an orange warning light with a wrench come on the dashboard. I turned the car off and then back on and there was no warning light and no issue with the acceleration. Dealership couldn't find a problem but this issue is all over the internet and there is a recall for it but not for my VIN number or year.
I was driving my 2011 ford explorer (65,000 miles) when I suddenly lost all power to my gas, break and steering wheel. Luckily I was going close to 10-15 miles per hour and I managed to veer onto someone's lawn and hit the emergency break. I was told that there was oil leaking into the engine that cause a complete engine failure. No sensors went off prior to the incident and I have only gotten my car repaired at the ford dealership.
Shifter does not engage into park and warning light comes on. Will not engage my seat to slide back after putting it into park. My car was stationary every time. Although, the person who realised it was not shifting into park was the ford dealership. And now ive noticed it every time. No matter how many times I restart my car it well not shift into park. I must apply the parking brake. Ford has numerous recalls on vehicles for the same problem, however the ford explorer is not....why? After leaving dealership I was given the parts list for the shifting issues, which is a safety concern that should have been fixed by ford.
The explorer was put into park and left running in the driveway as I went into the house to get my kids. When I got out of the car it didn't move at all. While I was getting my kids together I happen to look up and see my explorer crashed into a tree in the backyard. I went out to see what happened and the explorer had gone up a slightly inclined driveway, down a hill, through and aluminum fence, and crashed into a tree. When I opened the driver door the gear shifter still showed in park.
On 8/24/2017, while I was driving on garden state parkway, nj, approaching toll gate near exist 114, suddenly the indicator lights showed awd off and I lost all power. I was able to coast through the toll gate but could not accelerate anymore. I was able to park on road shoulder. I dismissed indicator awd off warning by click "ok" but it kept coming back and I cannot drive forward anymore. Meanwhile, the terrain management system indication light got off. I stopped engine and restarted engine, and everything was back to normal. This is a serious lose power issue that many other ford explorer owners reported. There is a pe13003 the federal safety agency recall but this doesn't cover ford explorer, even I believe many other ford cars (like ford edge) share same parts with explorer. If I lost power when I drive in high speed, I may end up with major car accident!!!
Electronic throttle body issue - over the last 30 days, my 2011 ford explorer has stalled leaving me with no power to control my speed. Luckily the times this has happened, I have been on city streets driving 30-40 MPH. A warning goes off stating "awd off" and then a picture of a wrench appears and I lose all speed and am forced to limp off the road. I am able to shift into park, turn the vehicle off and then start back up. After the first incident, I took the vehicle to the local ford dealer and they were unable to detect the error code and said it was likely a fluke. Since that visit to the dealership, my vehicle has had this issue on multiple occasions. Today, it happened 4 times which has left me to fear driving on the highway or interstate for safety reasons. After doing online research, it appears that the issue is very similar to the etb issues that ford opened up "customer satisfaction program 13n03" but unfortunately it did not include ford explorers.
Car losses power while in motion. Frist time near my home. Second time while driving in town. Stop, turn off motor then back on and message is gone. My car has done this twice now. Do not trust my car to drive far from home. Throttle body assembly is having issues and understand it's been recalled on a different ford car but not explorer. Most likely same throttle assembly!
I have a 2011 ford explorer and I absolutely hate it !!! Ever since I purchased the vehicle , I have had many problems. I just had my power steering rack replaced , out of pocket, until ford decided to recall it. Now, I had to replace the transfer case , which ironically went bad out of no where. The transfer case is a major issue with ford vehicles and ford refuses to recall it . I have had many many problems with
Went to go drive the SUV while doing only 25 MPH & it was raving our 3-5 RPM. While drug in the city
My 2011 ford explorer had a faulty transfer case, which set me back $2000.00. The issue I was experiencing was a grinding noise in my front end while driving. I would experience hesitation when increasing speeds, as if the transmission was slipping. While going in reverse, the car would stall and the gear would lock. I would have to put the car back in park and try to reverse again, in order to move. Mazda has the same issue with their transfer case, which is the same transfer case on the 2011 ford explorer!!!!!!! This car has major issue across the board. I just recently replaced the power steering rack, which was eventually recalled by ford after numerous complaints. The 2011 ford explorer transfer case should be recalled by ford. The transfer case can dismantle and cause a major accident while your are driving!!
While driving 65 MPH on the interstate, I heard a ding, saw a large wrench icon on the left side of the dash, and I lost all accelerator power. My car slowed to a creep. The auto propulsion mechanism would drive it about 2 MPH, and I could push the accelerator to the floor and nothing happened.
Have extensive engine damage due to water pump failure with no warning! I was driving my vehicle down a main highway and all of a sudden the "engine coolant overtemp" came on then "low oil pressure" and my vehicle shut down! I couldn't drive the vehicle. Luckily I drifted to side of the road so that my car could be towed without having an accident! Shop determined water pump failure and water leaked into my engine poor engine design on fords part) and destroyed the engine with no warning! No engine light came on or anything. Please investigate this. There are numerous complaints about this same situation. I called ford to complain but all they did was take down my compliant. This is a safety issue because I was driving in traffic and this could have caused an accident. The whole car just shut down!
Driving at speed light on the street at 35-40 miles and all of the sudden the speed goes down to about 5miles and starts to shake and a wrench light appears on the dash board and I have to pull over and turn of the car wait about 5-10 mins turn it back on and works perfectly normal about, this has happend once every week for the past 4 weeks, last week we took it to the dealer for several recalls the car had, and tokd them about it but they didnt say anything. Theirs need to be a recal on this because this is a serious dangerous situation
Tl* the contact owns a 2011 ford explorer. While driving 35 MPH, the vehicle felt as if the transmission attempted to shift gears independently without warning. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 70,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2011 ford explorer. While driving 35 MPH, the vehicle failed to accelerate and the service vehicle soon warning light illuminated. The contact coasted the vehicle to the side of the road and restarted the vehicle. In addition, while driving, the vehicle failed to downshift. The failure recurred four times. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, but the cause of the failure could not be determined. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 83,000.
I was leaving my house pulling a kayak trailer with one kayak on it, went about a half block and the engine slowed down and the ford explorer would hardly move. Was able to go around the block and make it back to my driveway. After stopping and restarting the problem was gone. I had the ford explorer towed to the dealer were I bought it, they checked it and said it didn't show a error code on the computer and drove it twice and could not make it happen so there was nothing they could do. I researched the problem and found out it is the electronic throttle body and they have changed over one million of them. Both you and ford are aware of the problem but a recall was never issued. Also once this happens it will happen again until the problem is fixed. I have a vehicle with 38 thousand miles on it that is unsafe to drive and cannot get it fixed.
While driving at 35 MPH going straight ahead, the car suddenly shifted into reverse, causing the vehicle to skid to a stop, this locked up the front and rear wheels skidding on the pavement. There was transmission fluid on the ground when it was towed to the dealership. Also the rear view camera came on at the same time so the occupants could see the car behind them, also indicating the car was in reverse. The transmission lever/handle was still in drive. I believe this was some type of electronic malfunction, but no warning lights came on, and on the computerized vehicle check it indicated no malfunctions, temporarily the hill assist light came on but went out shortly before the car was towed. The car could not be shifted into any gear, nor move forward or backwards. The front wheels were locked and skidding as it went onto the tow truck. The rear wheels moved at this point and it is a four wheel drive vehicle.
Faulty electrical switch within the gear shifter knob periodically indicates that car is not in "park" when the car is actually in park. This is worrisome since you are always afraid your car will roll away. This problem occurs periodically for me and is remedied temporarily by frantically "clicking" the gear shifter switch until the message goes away. This problem seems to be a problem that is not unique to me. There are several posts online about the exact same issue.
Tl* the contact owns a 2011 ford explorer. While accelerating from a traffic light, the vehicle started to vibrate uncontrollably. The contact stated that the failure only occurred when driving from a complete stop or when decreasing in speed. Also, while driving 15 MPH, the vehicle stalled. The contact was able to restart the vehicle. The failure only occurred once. The contact also stated that the interior lighting on the instrument panel would dim occasionally while driving. The contact stated that the failure was intermittent. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic to be diagnosed. The mechanic was unable to duplicate the failure. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 36,800.
I revieved safety recall notice 14s06/nhsa recall 14v‑286 from ford motor company in dearborn, michigan informing me that a recall was to be performed on my power steering. The notice also stated that the power steering gear would be replaced under warranty free of charge (parts and labor) should it fail before 150,000 miles or the end of december 2015. "the loss of power steering effort, especially at low speeds, which may increase the risk of crash" was stated in the letter. I took my vehicle to the local ford dealer(southwest ford of greenville, texas) and was told that the programming of the power control module was complete but they could not replace the power steering gear unless directed by ford to do so. The letter stated the gear would be replaced at no charge (parts and labor) if the gear is replaced before 150,000 miles on the vehicle, or december 31, 2015. The ford dealer service department said they are not authorized to replace the gear unless directed by ford home office. If this is a known safety issue I would like to have it replaced before it fails. I am not close to the 150,000 miles but the end of 2015 is near.
Tl* the contact owns a 2011 ford explorer. While driving approximately 55 MPH, the vehicle stalled after the power train warning indicator illuminated. The vehicle did restart, however, the vehicle failed to respond properly when the accelerator pedal was depressed. The vehicle was towed to the dealer but the failure was unable to be determined. The vehicle was not repaired, however, the failure recurred on three other occasions. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 34,147.
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