general problems of the 2011 Ford Explorer - part 2

Referencing previous complaint for same issue see tcn jen28-49151 traveling to dinner at 7:00pm again powertrain warning light came on, engine ran rough and speed dropped to approx. 1 mph. Pulled off side of road, turned off car. Restarted and continued on my way. Same thing occurred again this morning 11/14/14 at approx. 7:15 am on way to work. This time thankfully I was not on the causeway where traffic moves at app 50 - 60 mph as I was the first time this occurred. When this happened twice in October I took my car to the dealership both times and they could find nothing wrong. This continues to happen and I am afraid that one day my car will malfunction like this on a busy road at a higher speed. I was lucky the first time on the causeway that I made it up the bridge to coast down on to the grass without causing an accident.

I was driving my 2011 Ford Explorer on the causeway- heavy traffic moving at about 50 - 55 mph. Approaching first bridge incline, speed dropped to approx 1 mph creeping along, accelerator pressed to floorboard. Orange wrench icon appeared on instrument panel. Put on hazards to notify traffic. Cars pulling around trying to avoid hitting my vehicle. Not enough room on emergency lane of bridge to pull completely out of traffic lane - made it to top of bridge - coasted down half way in emergency lane and left lane until reached bottom of bridge and could pull over to grassy side of road. Turned vehicle off. Waited, then restarted vehicle. Drove directly to Ford dealer who hooked it up to computer and found nothing wrong. They test drove it, then called to say they could find nothing. I asked them to service the car as it was time. They kept the car over the weekend to service it on Monday 10/27/14 and tested the system one more time- still found nothing wrong. I picked the car up 10/27/14 and left dealership at about 1230 and by about 1245 the same thing happened again- no acceleration - just about 1 mile an hour and vehicle running slightly rough- wrench appeared again. I pulled over in to a parking lot, turned the engine off; restarted and drove back to the dealership. This time they ran a different computer check and got a code that suggested brakes and accelerator depressed at same time. No, I do not try to brake and accelerate at the same time. The service department drove my car for about 30 miles trying to recreate the incident. They still can find nothing wrong with the vehicle. I pick up my vehicle after work today. My car receives regular service at the dealership and is not driven roughly. I am concerned that this could happen again. Wrench icon indicates power train issue.

My daughter and I were driving about 55 mph on a highway, and all of a sudden the truck lost power. All of a sudden an orange wrench symbol appeared on my instrument panel, but I had no idea what it meant. Very scared, I put on my hazard lights and had to move to the right in 3 lanes of traffic!! I was so terrified a car or truck was going to smash into the back of our vehicle. The truck was only able to go about 5 mph even though I was pushing the gas pedal as far down as possible. When we finally were able to pull over, I turned off the truck. I then looked through the Ford manual to try and identify the orange wrench symbol, which was lit up in my instrument panel. It indicated that the vehicle had a power train malfunction. After waiting 15 minutes I then started the truck up, with success. The truck seemed to be working again and oddly enough the orange warning symbol had disappeared. There were no warning symbols at all anymore. I drove it immediately to our Ford dealership. I had to get a rental because they were so busy and told me they wouldn't be able to look at it until Thursday. This afternoon (24 hrs. Later) Ford called and told me we needed a new throttle body part ($650). This truck is only 3 years old!! we could have been seriously injured. I thank god we weren't as this is a very active highway.

The vehicle when shifted into park would not shut off, with the vehicle not seeing the shifter in park. On inspection in September 2014, it was determined that the shift lever was failing, which can cause the vehicle to slip out of park and move unexpectedly. Ford indicated there was not a recall on this at this time and would not cover any repair work for this serious safety issue.

I was driving on a major street during heavy afternoon traffic. The steering became extremely difficult and I could barely turn the wheel. The warning lights for advanced traction failure and power steering assist fault came on. I also noticed the terrain management control was no longer illuminated. I tried to turn off the road into the driveway but it was extremely difficult. I am a reasonably strong adult woman and had to use all my strength to turn the wheel even slightly while slowly moving. When I managed to get the car into a safe place I put the car in park and turned it off. When the car was started again, it returned to normal and I was able to drive it. Three days later, the same thing happened with another driver while I was a passenger. The older male driver had similar difficulty steering and turning the vehicle. I took the vehicle to the Ford dealership for service. They repaired the rack and pinion steering for an estimated cost of over $2000. The mileage on the vehicle was approximately 36,400 miles so about 400 miles past the warranty. We were able to get Ford to reduce the cost to approximately $750, some of which was for the alignment that was necessary following the repair. This incident could have been far worse with devastating results. I am a mom and girl scout leader and transport children frequently throughout the day. At the time of the incident I had 4 children in my vehicle.

Tl-the contact owns a 2011 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that when the vehicle was in park, the shift to park warning light would illuminate. The dealer diagnosed that the shift to park sensor had failed. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the issue. The VIN was unavailable. The approximate failure mileage was 27,000. Ne.

Lost steering assist during turn into driveway. It was extremely difficult to manually steer the vehicle, which I was able to stop due to the low speed. The next morning it was again very difficult to steer the vehicle when I backed out of the garage, however, after stopping and starting the vehicle 2-3 times the power steering begin working again allowing me to drive the vehicle to the Ford dealership. While driving the vehicle forward in their maintenance bay the steering assist failed again, at which time two computer failure codes where present, which I read and then showed to their maintenance representative. The code listed on the receipt was c200d. The second issue involves erratic shifts and loss of power when accelerating from a stop up to 35 mph. A Ford dealership has completed two-three computer software upgrades. The most serious shifting problem occurs when pulling out or turning onto a roadway and there is minimal acceleration when the accelerator pedal is pressed down, and the vehicle is unable to adjust as expected to the traffic flow. This problem was first reported 02/2013 and most recently during 09/2013.

While driving the car dies and the yellow wrench light appears. This occurred twice in one day. The first time it occurred I was just beginning to accelerate. I was able to pull over and restart the car. The second incident occurred while driving down the highway. I was able to pull over and restart the car. I immediately brought it to a Ford dealer who has had the car for three days and cannot find out what is wrong.

While driving in town, traction control lights came on and vehicle lost all power steering. Steering rack assembly had to be replaced.

This is the second time this issue has occurred. The first time I was able to restart the vehicle and it corrected itself. Currently I cannot physically steer the vehicle and will have to have it towed. We were in the mountains last weekend so this is a very serious issue. I happen to be a male with the capability and capacity to handle extreme situations and I doubt that I could avoid an accident if this were to happen while driving. I was searching for fixes and saw that a few cases had been reported. Make this a priority as the electronics in this vehicle are severely flawed and someone will get killed soon.

Please reference previous complaint confirmation number 10475098, September 11, 2012. The problem is a complete loss of power steering assist that occurs instantaneously, without warning. This problem was supposedly repaired by my Ford dealer last fall (September, 2012) by reprogramming a control unit. The problem has now been recurring again, almost weekly (three times in four weeks). I feel this is a very serious safety issue. During the most recent incident, my wife was driving by herself. She does not have the strength to drive this car without power steering assist. Luckily she was traveling in a straight line and could bring the car to a stop. If she had been turning a corner or rounding a curve, she would have gone off the road. I have seen on the internet that other drivers have had the same problem. I will take the car back to the dealer, but Ford needs to own up to this problem and figure out a permanent fix.

I was in a parking lot when my steering wheel locked up and a service power steering light came on. I turned the car off and it fixed itself however I was driving on the 12th on the highway and it happened again.

Engine overheats when idle, or in slow stop and go traffic. I had this addressed once by Ford due to a bulletin, but it seems to be doing it again.

I was taking my kids to school and was accelerating after a stop. The power steering went out and I lost all power. The powertrain malfunction light came on with the wrench symbol. I was able to get into a driveway and turn the car off. When I restarted it everything was back to normal. Five days later I was again driving with kids. This time I was going about 35 mph on a road with no shoulder. The car lost power. I was able to get the hazard lights on and restart it before I was rear ended. This could have caused a serious wreck. The dealership service department said they could not duplicate the issue and there was no hard fault detected by the car's computer. So I just get to keep on driving and hoping for the best.

After stopping at a stop sign, I began to accelerate through an intersection. Approximately half way through the intersection, the power steering was lost and a chime sounded with a message stating"power assist failure" and then another message of "service advancetrac" were shown in the dashboard display. I was able to continue through the intersection and pull over to the side of the road. I turned the vehicle off and when I restarted it, the power steering was working again. This is the second time it has happened in this vehicle. The first time was in June of 2012, but I wasn't aware of this website to report the problem. I also did not make an appointment at the dealership for it to be looked at as it seemed like a rare event.

While I was driving my 11 year old son and his friend, I lost all power steering. Which made it very difficult to keep control of the vehicle. I managed to get to the shoulder thru traffic. This could of caused a serious accident and harmed alot of people not just the people in my car! I got the Explorer to the dealer ship and it has been there ever since, this is now 7 weeks and counting. Ford states the part is on back order. I am number 560 and last count 2 weeks ago there were over 800 of this part on back order. This is obvious a recall issue if that many consumers are having this same problem. The dealership told me it was unsafe to drive! why has this not be put into recall yet. Does someone have to get seriously hurt before the safety of the consumers is handled. I have been in a rental car for 7 weeks and I am concerned that when they put the new part in that this will only happen again because Ford does not know how to fix this issue. Please look after our safety and the safety of others on the road and force Ford to make this recall.

The steering failed while driving the vehicle on 4 occasions in my brand new XLT. The first three times it happened I returned it to the dealer to check it out and fix the problem. Each time (three total) the Ford dealer service department returned it to me and told me it was fixed. While driving the vehicle in normal driving conditions the steering would suddenly stop working, warning chimes and lights on the dashboard "service advance trac", "power steering assist fault", "terrain management system fault" and traction control failure and traction control off lights glowing while in motion. Almost crashed the vehicle each time it happened. The vehicle would also slow down even though my gas pedal position never changed. When it happened the 4th time, I almost was in a fatal accident with a tractor trailer and realized Ford motor corporation is not interested in fixing this problem or addressing this life safety issue all late model Explorer owners are faced with. Ford claimed they know nothing but same issue all over internet. They claimed the fix was they replaced an angle sensor in the steering column, another time it was the computer needed to be refreshed and another said there was no record in the onboard computer, nothing to fix. As I am not an expert, it seems like the computer is faulty because the sync and navigation never worked properly. Was there a crash? was there an injury or fatality? I believe if it has not happened yet, it will. The head of customer service operations manager told me I had two options "call the better business bureau", or "call an attorney". I will be doing both. I will never buy another Ford because of their inability and unwillingness to help me in this. Ford customer service from the dealer level through the toll free corporate hotline was absolutely horrifying. Search online for others unreported here.

Purchased this vehicle for my wife a little over a year ago. At first everything was fine but then at about four months we started having issues with the window not rolling up. The dealer took care of that issue with no problems. Then we take it in for the scheduled maintenance (oil change/tire rotation) & our tires had inside cupping in which the dealer does nothing about & still have not. At around 22k miles my wife notices the vehicle starting to jerk when stopped or moving. Over the past 8k miles this gets worse & gets to where the vehicle has stalled out numerous times (still or moving). I have made an appointment with the dealer to resolve this issue. Not sure the cause yet.