Six problems related to brake foundation components have been reported for the 1997 Ford Explorer. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Cruise control failed. Also,brakes completely faded. Vehicle stopped by turning engine off, stop made without power steering or brakes.
Brakes fail continuously, causing loss of control.
Vehicle would not start. On second occassion, took to dealer for diagnostics 4 times before actual problem was found.
Back seats do not have a lock down mechanism to secure the bottom portion of the folding seats, resulting in incidents where children have were injured due to seats flipping up unexpectedly.
Problem appears to be sporadic and initially, applying the brake pedal slowed the vehicle down. Last incident caused engaging of parking brake, shifting to neutral and turning off ignition.
While driving at approx. 55mph, noticed vehicle suddenly accelerated unintendedly to 70mph without pressing accelerator pedal, ran over 4000rpm's, acted as though in cruise, but it was not engaged, when applied brakes, seemed not to slow down, turned off ignition.