1998 Ford Expedition problems
The 1998 Ford Expedition has 1,022 complaints on file with NHTSA. The largest share (14%) concerns suspension. After that come engine (14%) and electrical system (12%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 1,022 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Suspension 15% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 54 and 80
- Injuries and deaths
- 44 and 1
- Typical mileage
- 110,000 miles 366 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 | 6 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 10 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 23 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 43 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 69 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 62 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 53 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 24 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 34 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 13 |
| 200k+ miles | 29 |
What the data shows
Among the 366 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 110,000 miles. For suspension specifically, the median reported mileage is about 96,000 miles (28 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 54 complaints mention a crash; 80 complaints mention a fire; 44 injuries reported; 1 death reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1998 ranks 4th most-complained-about out of 29 model years of the Ford Expedition with enough data (525 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 5 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.
The vehicle drove into a large dip on the roadway (with no traffic control device posted) causing the driver to loose control of the vehicle and drove off into the grass stricking a ditch which caused the vehicle to rollover on it's left side three times before coming to rest, one ocupant was killed the other was injured, the client believes this accident was as a result of faulty steering component similar to the one in recall 98v-116 (attorney for client). Nlm
Rear driver side lug nuts failed causing vehicle to fish tail, rolling over 4-5 times resting upside down. Two adult and three children ages 5,12 and 18 involved in the crash. One adult suffered broken neck in two places and crushed disc. One week hospital stay with surgery to remove crushed disc and fusion of two vertibrae. Other adult and two children suffered minor cuts and abraisions one child ejected from vehicle onto highway.
Vehicle parked approx 3 hours, flames front of dash at windshield, tried to put out vehicle fire himself --- injured ---- no problems with vehicle prior to vehicle fire
On june 21, 2003, I traveled to a grocery store just outside my subdivision. I was in the store about ten minutes when the store manager started to page the owner of a blue expedition. At the time I thought I had left my lights on. Unfortunately, I was notified that the vehicle was on fire in the store's parking lot. When I arrived outside, the entire front end of the expedition was in flames. The fire was so intense it burned through the hood of the vehicle.
Front windshield/wiper fluid dispenser: cross-country road trip - failure to dispense wiper fluid. Sporadic dispensing of wiper fluid on road trip and continues to this day. Pushing button hard & at different angles sometimes works.