Carrier/rack problems of the 1998 Ford Explorer

Gas pedal bracket welding broke while driving and gas pedal is now just dangling - checked on internet and there are a large amount of complaints about same thing - should be a recall.

When accelerating from a stop, the bracket that suspends the accelerator pedal broke free from the firewall (it was tack welded in several spots). This caused an immediate loss of power. Luckily I was leaving my residence with no traffic behind. If I had been accelerating via on ramp to highway with vehicles right behind me might have been a different story. Local garage repaired ($47. 50) by drilling holes and reattaching with bolts. According to "serious explorations" users group, not an uncommon problem.

Spare tire is retained by a cable. Cable end failed. Tire came loose and rolled into busy traffic, sending vehicles swerving to avoid it. Very nearly caused a serious accident. Had this been at night, or on a busy freeway, there could be serious consequences to having 50 lbs of wheel and tire let loose on the freeway. From internet newsgroups, this appears to be a frequent problem and a design flaw. Cable is about 1/4 inch thick, and once it fails there is nothing (no retaining bar or other safety feature) to prevent the spare wheel from dropping into following traffic. I am so thankful no one was hurt this time, but want to make sure ntsa is aware of the problem. Thanks.

The inserts, which hold the roof rack to the roof, came loose while driving on the highway with luggage on the roof. Had I not further tied the luggage to the front bumper, I believe that the roof rack could have come loose from the roof, with potentially severe consequences to other vehicles. I did talk to the dealer when I returned from the trip, but the vehicle was out of warranty by that time, and they said that they did not know how to repair the problem.

At highway speeds luggage rack separated from the roof of vehicle, causing damage to the vehicle.