general problems of the 2016 Ford Explorer - part 1

The transmission shifts with a harsh jerk for no apparent reason and is an intermittent not constant problem. Also when stopped at an intersection refuses to engage to power the vehicle forward for a short time 5+ second time period.

I experienced two failures associated with other model years. The first was the right side a-pillar trim. It pulled free on the highway. I noticed it fly off and was able to recover the majority of it. It smashed on impact and there is a large piece missing. The remaining piece is available for inspection upon request. The a-pillar exterior trim flew off on a one-lane section of divided highway, there would have been no place for anyone to go if it flew back and there was a car behind me. This problem is a known issue I found out about on this (NHTSA) website. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? no, it flew off on the highway and has not been reported yet. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? no warning at all that this was going to break loose. I also have an issue with the ptu. I was driving home from the airport and at a a stoplight, I noticed a ticking noise when I stopped at the exit of the parking lot. I noticed it again closer to home, after a fifty mile drive. When I stopped on the off ramp from the highway, I noticed smoke coming from under/behind my Explorer. It smelled like antifreeze, but when I arrived home, and checked under the vehicle, I found black residue on the ptu and what looked like leaks from the axle seals that were not there for the last five months I've owned the vehicle. The vehicle smoked heavily when I stopped on the exit ramp, and when I went to accelerate into the traffic round-about, the vehicle lagged before moving, with an audible clunk and a lurch when it finally moved. Any reasonably hard acceleration produces a noise and will usually lag before moving. It may make a ticking noise when at idle cold, but is more pronounced the hotter the drivetrain gets. I had an obd ii scan done with no codes produced.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while attempting to reverse, the accelerator pedal was depressed; however, the vehicle hesitated while responding. The contact stated that after several attempts of depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle responded as intended. The contact stated that a dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not taken to be diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but offered no assistance. The manufacturer referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline to report the failure. The contact related the failure to NHTSA campaign number: 20v692000 (power train); however, the VIN was not included in the recall. The approximate failure mileage was 168,000.

I have already filed a complaint about the transmission issues of my vehicle a few months ago. Ford will not take credit and help me so we had to keep driving it. Hard shifting, slipping, losing reverse, losing power and jerking into gear. Now not only has it nearly killed us twice when we went to pull into traffic, it has jerked into gear and locked up throwing the car into a guardrail and causing an accident while my fiancée was driving it. I reported it was unsafe and no one did anything, now I have a wreck vehicle, fighting with insurance about the safety of it and it’s sitting at a body shop. We are all afraid to drive it. It nearly killed my family and no one cared to help us. Plus we have no vehicle to drive now. Thank you Ford for nearly killing my family and making us feel unimportant in every way possible. Plus NHTSA did nothing when I filed my first complaint!.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the contact heard a loud sound coming from the engine compartment. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that the lower transmission and bolts had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline for further assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 57,770.

Ptu burnt out less than 53k miles. Molding on passenger side broke off while driving 60mph struck another vehicle causing to other vehicle to leave road. Thank god no one was injured. This thing could have killed a motorcycle driver. Checked online and there are thousands of reports of same molding breaking off while driving. Ford TN# does not recognize and disconnects call.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle vibrated, and there was an abnormal knocking sound coming from the transmission. In addition, the vehicle drove roughly while the transmission was downshifting, and the vehicle failed to accelerate as needed. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed with torque converter failure. The contact was informed that the torque converter needed to be replaced, or the transmission could be replaced. The vehicle remained at the dealer unrepaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and referred contact to the nhsta hotline for assistance. Upon further investigation, the contact related the failure to the technical service bulletin: 20b27. The failure mileage was approximately 100,000.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while driving 10 mph, the message to service the vehicle was displayed. The contact pulled over and turned off the vehicle, and waited for several minutes before restarting the vehicle and the message was no longer displayed. The contact stated that while depressing accelerator pedal, the vehicle failed to respond as needed. A dealer was contacted. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was inspected to see if there were any leaks coming from the transmission. The contact called the bob johnson auto group to schedule an appointment for a diagnostic test. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and opened a case. The manufacturer referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline to report the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 108,000.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that the vehicle jerked while shifting into gear. The contact stated that upon shifting to drive(d) on several occasions, the vehicle failed to respond. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where the transmission was replaced. Additionally, the contact stated while driving 25 mph, the vehicle shuddered, overheated, and stalled. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact was able to pull to the side of the road. The vehicle failed to restart and was towed to the residence, where a mobile independent mechanic diagnosed that the head gasket was blown. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was provided. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 50,000.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact’s spouse stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle lost motive power. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was not able to be restarted. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the link shaft bracket had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer was contacted. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and confirmed that the VIN was not included in NHTSA campaign number: 20v692000 (power train). The manufacturer referred the contact to the nhsta hotline for assistance. The approximate failure mileage was 157,627.

My vehicles wrench sign would turn on do a little jerk then I would lose power to my car. Showed malfunction to power train. Took it to mechanic said there was a crack in the valve gasket and they fixed that and changed spark plugs. A month later car did the same thing. Has done it a total for 4 times very scary when on a high way and it does it and I have to pull over with traffic coming. Took it to another mechanic and he couldn't figure it out either because there are no codes but said he seem something similar and I needed to change all my coils. So I did that. Thousands of dollars later and no one can still figure out the problem. I don't know if it's some safety issue with the engine or transmission. But 3 certified mechanics can not figure out why my car continues to lose power.

Transfer case replacement. Open recall on 2016 4x2 Ford Explorera for faulty transfer case but not recalled on 4x4 models. This is bs as the transfer case used for both models are the exact same. Should be covered under already open recall for transfer case.

Transmission slips in and out of gear while driving causing loss of power. Many complaints online about this same issue from others.

Randomly whilst driving, my dash had multiple error messages pop up and my power steering went out completely. The error messages were as follows: service advancetrac, terrain management system fault, hill start assist not available, & power steering assit fault. This keeps happening intermittently, while I am driving. This causes a serious safety issue, for my steering wheel to lock up while I am driving! I did get the codes for the errors and they are as follows: u0420-41, c0051-67, u0151-00, u0131-00. My abs system failed check, as well. This is a known issue with Ford vehicles, as there have already been recalls for previous models. . Read more...

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that the vehicle was experiencing significantly rough idling while in drive(d) or while in reverse(r). Additionally, the contact stated that while accelerating from a complete stop, the vehicle jolted and hesitated to respond. The contact also stated that the vehicle shuddered while driving at various speeds. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed and determined that the failure was related to TSB number: 20-2271. The dealer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that the TSB was superseded and referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 102,000.

While driving vehicle down the road, steering locked up. Vehicle was taken to the dealer and diagnosed as a bad rack and pinion. This vehicle has 84,000 miles and should not already have issues with the rack and pinion. This incident, could have put my family and many other people's lives/vehicles at risk.

The torque converter failed in my Explorer while driving, making it act like it was in neutral. Luckily I was on a small road with little traffic, and able to pull over to a side street before my car was complete undrivable. If this happened on the highway or while turning, it probably would have cause a major issue or accident. No warning lights on my dash and no problem codes reported on obd scanner tool. Ford has put out their own csp for this issue a while ago and when I asked about it they told me it was expired. How can something they know is an issue expire? dealership repair confirmed it was the torque converter and has to rebuild the transmission. I even found a service bulletin Ford release about this problem, so they know about it.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while at a red light, the vehicle was shaking abnormally. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was drivable and was driven to a dealer. The dealer replaced the motor mounts and informed the contact that the torque converter and transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure reoccurred. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that the VIN was not under recall for the failure. No further assistance was provided. The contact was referred to the NHTSA hotline to report the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 97,393.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while driving 50 mph, the vehicle made an abnormally loud grinding sound. The contact stated that the front end of the vehicle seized, and the vehicle started rolling. The contact was able to pull to the side of the road and noticed that the gear box had blown out. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that the gear box had fractured and damaged the transmission front assembly. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 156,000.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while driving 25 mph, the vehicle failed to exceed 25 mph or shift out of 1st gear. Additionally, the contact stated that while shifting to reverse(r), the vehicle failed to respond as needed. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the failure had been recurring. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that the transmission had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was approximately 56,000.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while driving 55 mph, the contact heard a loud clanking noise coming the transmission. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent however, the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The vehicle was taken to the dealer to be diagnosed. The contact was informed that the flex plate was cracked, causing transmission failure. The contact was informed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacture was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 90,060.

The power transfer unit is broken. Symptoms are vehicle shuddering, vehicle sounds like it is going to stall. This could cause a major accident at any moment.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while driving 55 mph, he was alerted to smoke emanating from underneath the vehicle by another driver. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who diagnosed a failure with the power transfer unit, after observing that the unit was leaking fluid onto the exhaust, resulting in a brief fire. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but provided no assistance. The failure mileage was 98,000. The VIN was not available.

My car has 84000 miles on it. The car recently over heated, I checked the coolant level, and it was low. I filled it to the required level and the warning went away. 2 weeks later it came back, I brought it to the mechanic and was told that the engine needs to be replaced. That it is recycling exhaust from the engine back through the coolant system and that cylinder 3 is misfiring. I spent over an hour on the phone with Ford who repeatedly stiff armed me on any sort of assistance with the issue or information on expected or estimated failure rates for these issues. The car is currently at the mechanic where I have an estimate with a $12,000 price tag on it. To make this worse, in October of last year I was driving down highway 75 in southwest florida and when I went to exit the highway, there was a loud clunk and the car revved up real high before it started to move. This put me and all the drivers exiting this very busy off ramp in danger. At 74,000 miles I needed a new transmission because that loud clunk was me losing actual gears in the transmission. That repair cost right around $10,000 and again, Ford does not care. There were no warning lights with this issue, it just happened and left me in a very precarious predicament at a very busy intersection. The transmission has since been replaced for roughly a $10,000 price tag and now I am looking at another $12,000. All I want is Ford to do what is right. I could have been killed in that intersection or my car could have caught on fire recently with the engine issue. The financial strain of having to do 2 major repairs on a car that is relatively new and only had 74,000 for the transmission and 84,000 for the engine is unbelievable and unacceptable. Through research I feel that this transmission issue should be covered under an extension of the customer satisfaction program #20b27 or #20n07 as the transmission issue fits the descriptions nearly perfectly. Built "Ford tough" is apparently just a sales pitch.

I own a 2016 Ford Explorer. My wife and I bought the car in Jan. 2016. On April 20th 2024, I was on my way to work when a warning came on the dash that said "check manual" and displayed an open end wrench. The car hesitated and then continued on. I was not far from the Ford dealership where I bought the car so I went there. The service writer was working that day so I left the car at the dealership and called for a ride. On 4/23/24, the service writer called me and said the transmission was shot and would need to be replaced. My bill would be approx $5954. 81.

I filed a complaint yesterday 5/4/24. The complaint number is #11586924. Yesterday I gave you the details of what happened with my transmission and when it happened. Today I want to give you the manufacturer comm. Number. From Ford motor CO. The service number is ssm46069. It states that Ford knew there could be a problem with some 2015/2016 vehicles equipped with 6f50/6f55 transmissions built on 11/02/2015 and through 2/01 2016 may exhibit no reverse, 3rd and 5th gear. The service bulletin goes on to explain what would cause the transmission to fail and how to repair the damage. This tells me Ford should be responsible to the consumer. My safety concern is this; I was traveling at 30 - 35 mph when the tranny failed and , not knowing at the time, I lost 3rd, 5th and reverse gears. There was a noticeable decrease in my cars speed. At that speed, I was able to control my car and get stopped. Picture if I was on a 5 or 6 lane highway traveling at 60 - 65 mph and the tranny failed. The results could be deadly. I am sure I'm not the only owner that has had this safety issue. Kindly investigate this safety issue ASAP. Thank you.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds the check engine light had activated and the vehicle did not properly accelerate when pressing the accelerator pedal. The vehicle was taken to the local mechanic who diagnosed that oil from the turbo booster had leaked onto the catalytic converter and both the turbo booster and catalytic converter needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not yet repaired. The contact indicated that previously the power take off unit was faulty causing the vehicle to suddenly loose acceleration power and also the front control arms and ball joints were replaced. The manufacturer and local dealer were notified of the failures but no assistance was offered. The failure mileage was 85,000.

I was driving and everything felt and looked normal. Out of the blue a pop noise, car was smoking. Had to have it towed. Mechanic said the transfer case blew like a grenade. It nicked my transmission as well. I was broke down in an intersection. No warning signs.

While traveling at highway speed (55mph), the transfer case "exploded" resulting in catastrophic failure and fluctuating power and impaired driveability. Defect has been confrimed by independent local repair center.

I was driving and stopped in the left turn lane and the car wouldn't move. Had to have the vehicle towed and now I have to replace the transmission on a car that has 72,000 miles on it. There was no advance notice that there was a problem. I have the vehicle serviced regularly.

The transmission began slipping causing poor control at higher speeds using the cruise control or passing gear. Only about 42,000 miles on the vehicle and no financial help from Ford. Service for a new transmission was $7667. 11at dave sinclair Ford, 7466 south lindbergh, st. Louis missouri, 63125. 314-892-2600.

The Explorer started having issues with the heater not working when stopped. After some research it recommended that we check the coolant level. The coolant was low. Then we refilled it and then it happened again 3 weeks later and the coolant was low. This made us believe there was a coolant leak. After removing the bottom cover under the car it was saturated with coolant with drops coming from various areas on the passenger side. We took it to a mechanic and then transferred to a dealer and both confirmed it was the water pump. Ford negligently designed the water pump within the engine with the timing chain. If enough of the coolant mixes with oil it will cause the engine to seize and the car to shut off. I have two little kids that are in the car with me. This negligent placement can lead to cars seizing in unsafe areas. It was confirmed by a private mechanic and a Ford dealer and there were no warning lights. Other than the heat not functioning properly there we no other signs or lights of water pump failure.

While driving on the interstate my transmission decided to stop working. I was not able to safely get off the interstate because this happened going up an incline. My Explorer will not shift into any gear and the cost to replace the transmission is $5300. Ford stated that the recall #20b27 was completed on my car in 2020 but when I called after the transmission died they stated that my VIN was not eligible for the #20b27 recall. So, how was it completed if they are now saying the recall wasn’t for my car? my Explorer is a 2016/2. 3l/6f35 transmission code/built in chicago. Ford needs to recall and replace every transmission in these Explorers. With so many complaints and transmission failures/problems I’m floored that nothing has been done to remedy this situation that many Explorer owners are experiencing. Do better Ford.

The transmission suddenly downshifts causing rapid deceleration, if on the freeway could have caused an accident, the Ford garage could not duplicate the problem, there were no warning lights and no computer codes.

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while driving approximately 55 mph, there was smoke coming from the engine compartment. Additionally, the "ptu failure" message was displayed before the vehicle stalled. The vehicle was towed to the local dealer who diagnosed the vehicle and determined that the transmission had failed due to the faulty "ptu". The contact was informed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not yet repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was offered. The failure mileage was 15,000.