Four problems related to power train have been reported for the 2002 Ford Explorer Sport. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2002 Ford Explorer Sport based on all problems reported for the 2002 Explorer Sport.
Started my vehicle it made a clunking noise then died. The timing chain broke and broke all the vavles off the motor.
When trying to shift car from drive into park, the gear shit lever broke off inside the steering column and fell of in my hand. The car was still in drive and I turned off the ignition. The key could not be removed and the car was towed to the dealership. To repair this linkage part, the entire steering column had to be replaced, at a cost of over $1800. I called Ford to report the incident and was told that they have no record of something like this ever happening before. They said they would add the incident to their database. I told them that I felt this was a serious safety issue and that this needs to be referred to engineering or quality assurance for investigation before someone gets injured or killed. I got the impression that Ford was not going to do anything with this information.
The transmission of our 2002 explorer started slipping, jumping, jerking' surging, refusing to shift, shifting slowly and other associated things approximately 4 years ago. There is no consistency, it does it whenever it wants, regardless of the speed, outside temperature, driving distance. I feel Ford owes me a new, redesigned transmission with installation. I would like to know what Ford is doing about the problem with the transmission which was installed in this model and year explorers.
Consumer was unaware of how to check transmission fluid level or how to add transmission fluid.