Four problems related to rear suspension have been reported for the 2004 Ford Explorer. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2004 Ford Explorer based on all problems reported for the 2004 Explorer.
The contact owns a 2004 Ford Explorer. The contact placed the gear shifter into reverse to drive and noticed that the transmission would hesitate before engaging. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the technicians replaced the solenoid in the transmission. After the repairs were performed, the contact continued to experience the failure. There was also an abnormal grinding from the rear of the vehicle. The dealer replaced the rear end bearing, three rear axles, the pinion bar and seals and a shaft kit was installed. The dealer also advised that the failure was caused by an over torque by the manufacturer. In addition, the contact stated that the driver and passenger side sun visor joints were failing sporadically and causing the visors to obstruct the contact's vision of the roadway. The sun visors were not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 49,000.
Rear differential failure-I think this should be looked into as I have searched the internet and there are too many complaints about this. Maybe it was not the tires causing all the crashes but the bad rear ends that Ford is aware of. Rear whining noise and grinding from all SUV models.
The contact owns a 2004 Ford Explorer. The contact was driving approximately 25 to 55 mph when he noticed an abnormal howling from the rear of the vehicle. The vehicle was inspected by a dealer and they advised that they would shim the pinion and ring gears to silence them. The vehicle was repaired but the failure recurred twice after the repairs. The manufacturer was contacted and they offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 29,700.
The contact owns a 2004 Ford Explorer. While accelerating from a stop or attempting to make a right or left turn at various speeds, the vehicle vibrated as if something was rubbing in the rear. The vehicle has been taken to the dealer twice regarding this failure. The dealer is currently stating that the vehicle has rear suspension failure in the clutch pack. The vehicle has a TSB 06-4-4 for this failure. The current mileage was 79,900 and failure mileage was 23.