Ten problems related to engine and engine cooling have been reported for the 2008 Ford Explorer. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2008 Ford Explorer based on all problems reported for the 2008 Explorer.
I got the car from my landlord, my husband never checked the oil or fluids even though I was on him, it died 2 months after we got it, the guy said before we purchased it that it still was under warranty for transmission, so when it died I thought ok it's covered, so the landlord said it was the motor it seized he said had no coolant and was 2qts of oil over I said well he never added anything & I said it never overheated, he said I don't know how it was done but it will cost $3800 to fix, so I was hoping that there might be a recall that can fix this or also he puts new rear in the car a week after I got it, does any of this sound like it is his side that is reliable to fix it?.
Report #1 - my grandma brought this 08' Explorer back in 2014, and after she passed, my mom drove it for the next 2 years. It started having general maintenance issues, then the cats were stolen, but then, one night my mother was coming home from a relative's house, when she was trying to keep up with the flow of traffic on michigan highway m-8 (davidson fwy), and she noticed that the vehicle was not accelerating at all and the vehicle stalled out. She had it towed home and it sat on the streetside for some time. After digging through the internet, I figured that Ford designed the throttle-body wiring to settle next to the cooling hoses, and after time, the wires rot from the hot temperatures of the hoses and crack/snap causing the vehicle to either stall, or possibly have unintended acceleration. Ford never recalled this issue! also, it had a massive coolant leak, from which was believed to be the cheap plastic t-stat housings that Ford never recalled, and to top it all off: the right rear turn-indicator failed from the faulty wiring harnesses. . . As a result, we ended up having it scrapped/junked. It was sad to see her go, but obviously Ford doesn't care about their customers safety and will find any loophole to avoid recalling a vehicle. . . Ford needs to get their stuff together or they need to be shut down!. . .
Engine light and traction control light and wrench light all came on and car went to idle and would not rev up like it was stuck om idle--this happened while driving 60 miles per hour in heavy traffic and I was almost rearended over it.
My friend let me use his vehicle but he altered it and it is malfunctioning . He explains as if when I don't "behave" I have repercussions. He has altered the vehicle tremendously. If we get an argument he will tell me I have x amount of days and in those exact x amount of days the car ends up messing up and stopping. I was driving from the hospital one day and all of a sudden the vehicle started smoking and he told me because its his vehicle that he will fix it him self. He is a chemical engineer not a licensed mechanic to touch the obd on the car. He claims he is better than general motors.
I smelled a strong odor of coolant while driving my vehicle during my work day. Suddenly, steam came pouring out of the engine compartment, and I stopped and let the vehicle cool off. Upon inspection, I found that the seam on the plastic thermostat housing had split, pouring coolant all over the center of the engine. Parts needing to be replaced were the thermostat, rubber gaskets and the entire thermostat housing, upper and lower. I replaced this part myself, as I used to be a Ford mechanic. I did this repair myself, and it cost approximately 200. 00 with the coolant replacement cost. Again, this can create a hazardous condition, and should not be happening on a car with 80k and only 7 years old.
Transmision problems going into gears slipping poping noise when put into park Ford is aware of problems with there transmisions and no care to help 1 bet they need the gov to step in now so help us Explorer owners.
While driving, the driver power seat starts to move backwards and forward ,dome lights came on like if when I turn off the car . But the car is on and moving . And then two occasions while on the freeway driving the vehicle turned off. Pulled over and restarted the car and it turned on like if nothing happened. I had taken the vehicle to the dealer several times they have run diagnostic test and are not able to find any thing wrong. Done some research on line and found more people with same issue. Extremely dangerous!!! do not feel safe driving especially in traffic. Its an accident waiting to happen.
My vehicle, a 2008 Ford Explorer with a 4. 6l 3v v8 engine, went into vehicle safe mode while in rush hour traffic on a major interstate (I-83). The vehicle was experiencing periodic misfire, which triggered a loss of communication with the transmission computer module (tcm). The vehicle engine began shuddering, all the dashboard lights lit up with a warning to service vehicle immediately and vehicle speed would not exceed 20mph. I was in heavy stop & go traffic in the passing lane at time of incident. I shut down the vehicle & attempted to troubleshoot the problem with a code reader. I received two codes, misfire on cyl 8 and loss of comm with tcm. I pulled the tcm fuse to reset the tcm and continued on my way without further incident. I immediately replaced all the cop's & then took the vehicle to a Ford dealership to have the sparkplugs replaced. I was aware of the issue with this particular model Ford engine and the 2-piece sparkplug/cylinder head issue and suspected the plugs to be the culprit. I paid the Ford dealership $420 to replace the eight sparkplugs in my vehicle. Only two plugs broke during the extraction and the cylinder head did not have to be removed. Ford is well aware of this issue as they replaced the poorly designed 3v engine midyear. They also produced a 13-page TSB, special extraction tool to replace sparkplugs. Ford refuses to acknowledge a design flaw & instead blames mechanic error for broken plugs. Ford mechanics broke two of my plugs, yet I still had to pay for their error! the vehicle runs like new again but will be put up for sale shortly. This was my first and last Ford as I'm very disappointed with Ford's response to this obviously poor design flaw. Most importantly, contrary to Ford's lame response, it is a safety issue when your vehicle suddenly goes into emergence safe mode on a 65mph interstate!.
2008 Ford Explorer accelerated out of control backwards on 1/11/10.
There is a suspect driving a sea green Ford Explorer in buxton, north carolina for several years now without a registered vehicle identification number inside the dashboards of her vehicle and therefore it is obviously a threat to other vehicle on the highway and could incur long time damages to another vehicle or pedestrian on the road at any given time plus the space where it is supposed to read the VIN it is painted yellow and reads in big white letters air bag.