1996 Ford Econoline problems
Owners have filed 96 complaints with NHTSA about the 1996 Ford Econoline. Brakes is the most reported problem area, at 22% of complaints. Next are tires (14%) and cruise control (12%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 96 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Brakes 22% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 8 and 13
- Injuries and deaths
- 9 and 1
- Typical mileage
- 88,000 miles 22 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 0 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 5 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 3 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 2 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 3 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 3 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 3 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 2 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 1 |
What the data shows
Of the 22 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 88,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 8 complaints mention a crash; 13 complaints mention a fire; 9 injuries reported; 1 death reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 92% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1996 ranks 6th most-complained-about out of 14 model years of the Ford Econoline with enough data (51 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 3 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
3-year old son went into vehicle without knowledge of his parents. He wa sfollowed by the 2-year old son. 3-year old son went to rear of van, and was in between the fa rstationary bench and the automatic reclining sofa bench. The automatic sofa bench was activated, inning the three-year old against the stationaty bench. He suffocated before help arrived.
While traveling at 45 MPH, I lost the ability to steer the vehicle. This truck was a 4wd conversion which was done by a company called quigley, in manchester, pa. This conversion was approved by ford and the truck was purchased with the conversion. After the steering fell apart, I was unable to control truck and had an accident. Approximately six months later, the truck, again, went out of control after hitting a slight dip in the road.
While driving down the highway a vehicle pulled out in front of the consumer's vehicle, and the consumer broadsided the vehicle. Consumer's airbag deployed but didn't stay up, causing injuries to the driver. Consumer has contacted the dealer about the incident.
On sunday morning at about 6 am the alarm of our van went off. It woke us up. The engine of the van was on fire. We called the 911 and the fire department came. My husband tried to use the fire extinguisher but he could not open the hood. The fire department put out the fire.the last time I drove the van was about 8:30 pm on saturday night. It was fine then while it was burning it sounded like it was trying to start. One fireman said that sound was from the wires burning or something like that.
Without any warning the vehicle stalled on the highway while driving 60 MPH. The incident occurred four times since the consumer has owned the vehicle. Vehicle has been towed to the dealer, who informed the consumer that the injector driver module was the problem. This module was positioned in a way that moisture could seep in, causing the ipm module to fail. Response from dealer and manufacturer was poor.