Door Latch problems of the 2001 Ford Expedition

The contact owns a 2001 Ford Expedition. The contact stated that the driver's side door handle in the passenger compartment was stripped to the point where he could not use it to exit the vehicle. The handle finally detached from the door and cannot be bolted back. Ford stated that there were no recalls. The purchase date was unknown. The current and failure mileages were 93,450. Updated 03-04-08.

The contact complained about several problems with vehicle. First, the accelerator pedal stuck. The dealer cleaned the throttle body which seemed to solve the problem. The vehicle would sometimes surge forward. She thought the surging was related to apparent transmission problems. She finally had the transmission rebuilt. Part of the cost was covered under the extended warranty. Secondly, the seat belt in the middle row did not retract correctly. The dealer could not duplicate the problem. Therefore, no repairs were made to the seat belt. Thirdly, the left rear door actuator had to be replaced because the power locks were not working. Fourthly, the rear passenger child safety lock did not work properly. Once the child safety lock was deactivated, and the door handle was raised from the inside, the child safety lock activated. The contact's husband corrected this problem by taking apart the lock and cleaning it. She had to push very hard on the exterior key pad to get it to work. The dealer did not think this was a problem since she was able to get it to work eventually. Lastly, the right front power window worked intermittently. The dealer could not duplicate the problem, and no repair was made.

The door lock (recessed key cylinder) on the driver side of the vehicle can be punched out for easy entry due to a design flaw,, the consumer was unaware that this had happened until they relized that contents inside the vehicle had been missing, the consumer is unable to put the drivers side window down because of the punched out drivers side door lock.