Five problems related to engine stall have been reported for the 2003 Ford Explorer. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2003 Ford Explorer based on all problems reported for the 2003 Explorer.
Engine stalls out when braking or turning. This is an issue that occurs at random with no warning. This has continued to occur multiple times over the last four years, and leaves myself and family in a, powerless, defenseless, potentially fatal, situation.
Sat. Jan. 19, 2008; approx. 99,780 miles - engine stalled while we were turning off the highway to a side street. We had just driven approx. 20 miles, so the engine was warm. The steering wheel locked up when the engine turned off, which caused us to go into the oncoming traffic lane. Fortunately no one was coming towards us so we could stop, put it in park, and restart the engine. This is about the fifth or sixth time it happened.
The Ford recall for engine stalling does not appear to apply to the 2003 Explorer, but I have definitely had the engine stall 5 or 6 times while I've been driving. It has happened while I've been decelerating, either for a stop sign, traffic light, or turn. The engine was warm each time. I was always able to restart the engine quickly enough so that no accidents occurred, but the closest call was when it happened at a busy traffic light. I did not write down the exact dates when it happened, so the incident date below is only approximate. I believe the recall should be expanded.
2003 Ford Explorer boyfriend's description of event: 1)I can consistently get the vehicle to stall out when coasting down to a stop. It is all in the way of the coast down. It is more repeatable if you start braking way before a stop event (slowly coasting in). The bad thing is the event is so quiet that half the time you did not know it stalled (unless you were looking at the ipc). You have to put the car in park or neutral to restart engine each time event occurs. I would say it has happened 30+ times. 2) the failure is a stalled engine. The consequence could be rolling out to incoming traffic, thinking the vehicle is running, yet the engine is stalled. ) nothing has been done yet. Took it into shop and it was said that nothing was seen (not a Ford dealership).
The vehicle jerked while being driven. The vehicle has been taken to the dealer 4-5 times. Each time the technician stated the problem was repaired but each time the jerking problem returned. The consumer does not believe that the technician can repair the problem. The vehicle would oscillate intermittently while pulling in and out of a driveway or parking. The wheel jerked violently. The consumer lost control of the vehicle and the engine would stall when the steering oscillated.