8th Oct 2006, 07:45

I purchased a used 2002 Explorer (55,000 miles) with all hopes of reducing the amount of maintenance that I was performing on my previous '94. Problems from day one. Ford said they performed a multiple point safety inspection prior to selling it to me. Only a few weeks into owning it, the entire steering rack had to be replaced and the power driver's seat failed. I went back and forth to Ford four times before they finally figured out both problems. I brought it to another dealership to diagnose a humming from the front end. They suspected a bad wheel bearing. They also found both rear springs broken and a leaking axle shaft seal. I replaced the bearing myself and have since done all the brakes and rotors. I haven't done anything about the seal or springs yet. Now the transmission is shot. I drained some of the fluid and it came out looking like brown metallic paint. I've only put 15,000 miles on it since I bought it and I am tired of putting so much of my own time into it. I can't wait to get rid of this Explorer and I'll never buy another. I should have done more research before I bought this nightmare.

14th Oct 2006, 20:09

I have a 2002 Mercury Mountaineer I purchased in 2004. It had 36,000 miles on it when purchased. Now a little over 2 years later and at 50,000 miles, I have a blown head gasket. The vehicle started to overheat so we replaced the thermostat. Two days later, it was overheating and upon acceleration, the vehicle would hesitate really bad. I overheated so bad I needed to be towed home. When our mechanic friend looked at it he told us that the head gasket was blown and it all started in the cooling system. The freeze plug has been leaking for sometime and it caused many other severe problems. We were told that this engine has 4 timing chains and just to replace a head gasket, would be about $5000.00 in labor. It would be cheaper to get a new engine. How ridiculous is this. I am so frustrated right now I don't know what to do with this lemon...

16th Oct 2006, 15:03

I've just purchased the 2002 Mountaineer used here in Canada (BTW it is not sold in Canada), it orginated in florida. It has 100k.

Less than a week after picking it up, transmission problems occurred. After speaking to a former Ford master mechanic, he says this is a common/known problem (at least in Canada) on these vehicles and that replacing the trans. valve body/solenoid pack is the proper repair and not the transmission or fluid replacement.

12th Nov 2006, 14:38

My sob sorry... We purchased a used 2002 Mountaineer in Dec '03 and it has had more than 3 years worth of problems compared to other vehicles I've owned.

Jan '04: Front end alignment, $90

Aug '04: Front and rear brakes replaced, not covered by extended warranty. Rear blower not working, replaced. $550

Feb '05: Lift gate hinge replace under recall notice. Key stuck in ignition. $50 under extended warranty.

Aug '05: Check engine light on. 2 sensors replaced + fuel system cleaning. $284

Oct '05: ABS light on, brakes pulsing. Rt rear window regulator broken. $450

Nov '05: Transaxle pinion seal leaking. Replaced speed sensor. $266

Nov '05: Battery dead, brakes mushy - flushed. $195

Apr '06: Front & rear brakes gone at 75k miles. $570

Nov '06: Tranny won't shift out of 1st. At the Nov '05 service, the mechanic suggested a new tranny for $3000 or so, to solve the shudder. I decided it wasn't that annoying and would wait until the tranny really died. Now it seems to have gone.

One problem I have not addressed yet is the valve clatter. Seems worse when cold and on regular gas, so we've started putting premium in, which seems to help.

Thankfully, I didn't pay a lot for this truck. But, now what? Sink another $3k into this beast or go for a quick fix and trade it in on Asian metal?

17th Dec 2006, 03:45

I had own an 02 mountaineer it's a great SUV until it breaks down. From reading all of the maintenance issues concerning this vehile. Glad to have gotten rid of the thing.

One problem was the rear window on the tailgate fell off while I was driving. Lucky there was a recall on it. Next I noticed the paint had started to peel and fade. Next I took it to a mechanic for transmission check and to my surprise they could not find the dipstick. I took it to the dealer and it cost me $400 to replace the fluid in it. I recommend if you have a 02 -06 mountaineer at 15000 get the rear diff checked. The last time I had the vehicle in for maintenance they inform of my axle seals leaking. Mind you the vehicle is only 4yrs old with 37,000 miles on it. I was outraged, it cost another $400 to repair, also at the same time my rack and pinion was bad. Finally after a month or two later I noticed a weird noise coming from underneath the vehicle. I took back to the dealer and what do you know! My rear diff, axles, and hubs needed to be replaced costing $4,000. Well I'll be, called Ford they gave me the run around warranty no good cause, I brought with 18000 miles on it 12,000 miles warranty used. I figured since it was a brand new vehicle I didn't need a 5yr warranty, well I guessed wrong! They asked me, "did I go off roading cuase I had sad in everthing"?

21st Dec 2006, 07:42

I own a 2002 Mountaineer AWD/V8 and have about 62,000 miles on it. Recently I began experiencing the infamous transmission shudder everyone talks about.

The shudder would only occur after the vehicle was driven at highway speeds for an hour or so. I was experiencing the shudder when it would shift from 2-3 and 3-4 gears. I took it to a dealer, a local repair shop and finally a transmission specialist.

Dealer told me that a flash upgrade to the computer would fix it. This was performed by the Mercury dealer and it did nothing to fix the problem.

The repair shop told me I needed a new transmission, without even looking at it, at a cost of $3500.

The transmission specialist I went to ran a number of tests over a period of a couple of days. Turned out to be the transmission solenoid. This was replaced at a cost of around $600 and the transmission has been shifting smooth and running fine since.

Hope this helps anyone else out there experiencing the same problem.