2002 Ford Explorer drivetrain & axles problems

614 complaints about drivetrain & axles have been filed for the 2002 Ford Explorer, which is 15% of all its NHTSA complaints. It is the 2nd most reported problem area for this model year.

Complaints: 614 15% of this year's complaints
Typical mileage: 80,000 miles 506 complaints with mileage
Crashes and fires: 8 and 1
Injuries and deaths: 6 and 0

Source: NHTSA owner complaints

When drivetrain & axles problems show up

Based on 506 complaints that include mileage. 32% were reported before 60,000 miles. The amber marker shows the median: half of these complaints happened before that mileage.

View the numbers

Mileage	Complaints
0k to 20k miles	21
20k to 40k miles	53
40k to 60k miles	88
60k to 80k miles	86
80k to 100k miles	73
100k to 120k miles	49
120k to 140k miles	51
140k to 160k miles	46
160k to 180k miles	20
180k to 200k miles	9
200k+ miles	10

What the data shows

Of the 506 drivetrain & axles complaints that report mileage, the median is about 80,000 miles, and 32% were reported before 60,000 miles.

These complaints mention 8 crashes, 1 fire, 6 injuries.

What owners wrote

I have a 2002 ford explorer that have at least 66,000 mileage on this car . I have a very weird accident on september 24,2008. I was on my way home from work when the accident happen. I was in the parking lot of the va medical center in east orange nj. At around 5:45 pm I came to my car and found my car have dead battery so va police gave a jump start and the car start. So after 2 minutes the car running I started to change the gear from park to reverse with my foot on the brake.

September 2008 CrashInjury

Transmission (5r55) solenoid pack and servo both went out at same time servo is terrible design. There should be a recall from ford on these problems on this transmission.

Reported at 138,000 miles, October 2011

Drivetrain & axles problems in other years

Drivetrain & axles problems across all Ford models