Top 5 Problems Ford Explorer SUV 4th Generation 2006-10

Hey, friends. It's Len from 1A Auto. So we've got another top problems for you. This time, it's going to be on a fourth-generation Ford Explorer. I want to get into some of the problems that we've come to find, so let's get started.

Now the first problem I want to talk about on these trucks is the passenger compartment temperature control. Now in the center of the dash, what you're probably going to notice is this gauge right along here, and essentially what this is, is if you turn it towards this, it's going to be cold, it's going to gradually get warmer, warmer, warmer until the point it gets hot. Well, that's great and everything. You can go ahead and set it where you want. If you want to be nice and warm, go ahead and set it so it's warm. It's a little hot in the summertime, you want to be nice and cool, set it so it's cool. But unfortunately on these trucks, there's a common issue where the temperature just doesn't want to change the way that you ask it to. Typically this could come down to one of two things.

There's going to be an actuator that's supposed to actuate the blend door that makes it essentially move from either the hot or the cold side. So as your blower motor is sucking or drawing air through the system, it's going to either go through the heater core to warm up the air, or it's going to get diverted past the heater core and not go through the heater core and stay nice and cool. If the actuator isn't functioning the way that it's supposed to, more than likely you're going to have an issue where it's either stuck in the hot or even the cold, sometimes in the middle, but usually it's going to be one side or the other. So for symptoms for this, maybe you take your temperature control and you go from cold to hot, but for some reason it still feels as though cold air is coming out through all of your vents.

Obviously, that's an issue. For some reason when you went ahead and tried to switch from cold to hot and you happened to hear like a clunking or a thumping coming from inside your dash someplace, typically that means that your blend door is bound up for some reason. And also since I mentioned the blend doors, there's another possible issue with those as well. Typically what can happen with those is the casing that's around them can either crack or break or basically the blend door just kind of gets bound up in some way. So even if the actuator is trying to do its job and tell that blend door to go ahead and switch from one side to the other, the blend door itself is stuck.

So common reasons why either of these might happen is of course with the actuator, it's an electrical component. Every electrical component over time is going to break down. That's just what's bound to happen. Unfortunately, it's not necessarily the easiest thing to get to on these, but it is definitely something that's doable. As for the blend door with that binding up like I said, you could have a cracked case someplace, or even in other cases, maybe somebody went ahead and they put something in the vents that wasn't supposed to be there, such as a penny, a nickel, a pencil or whatever type of debris that you might have floating around on your dash or even in the front here.

Now for our second problem, I want to talk about a plastic thermostat housing. Now for your thermostat housing, you're just going to follow the upper radiator hose till where it looks like it connects onto the engine. This entire area along here is considered your thermostat housing and this is where it's going to house your thermostat for your engine. It's going to be super common if you happen to have a sweet smell in the air after your vehicle has been running, or even if you happen to see drips on the ground of coolant, look up along this area, more than likely you're going to see a puddle that looks a lot like this. It's very common for it to leak, especially along the seam in between the upper thermostat housing and the lower thermostat housing.

So for common symptoms for this, we've got a couple of things that I mentioned, the sweet smell in the air, or even drips of coolant on the ground, or of course, maybe you happen to have your heat on and for some reason, there just isn't much hot air coming out. You get under the hood, you check your coolant level and the coolant level is low. Why is that? Well, because you got a leak and more than likely it's from the coolant thermostat housing. Now, if you want to know a fix for this, I would go ahead and flush the cooling system, replace the housing, and of course the thermostat at the same time.

Now for problem number three, we're going to talk about intake manifold gasket leaks. Now we should probably talk about where your intake manifold gaskets are. Of course, this entire plastic area up along the top is your air intake system. If you were to follow it down to its mating area where of course it connects onto the engine, in between the intake and the engine itself, there should be a gasket on each side, which overall will look a little bit like this but this isn't the one for this particular application. What tends to go bad on these gaskets a lot of times is along the rubber areas where the gasket is supposed to meet. If of course the gasket gets worn down, crushed, or even hardened over time, it's going to cause an issue. Or of course, if you were to look down at this side, you could tell that there's not anything that's going to really seal up, and of course you could potentially have an air intake issue.

Those gaskets are essentially supposed to make sure that no unmetered air or dirty air gets drawn into the engine before it actually goes through that air filter in the air intake system. If, of course, the gasket is in poor condition like the one that I just showed you, of course, there might potentially be an issue where unmetered and unfiltered air is getting drawn into the engine. If, of course this was to happen, you might notice that you have a rough idle, loss of power, engine stalling, or even misfires. You might also happen to notice that you got a check engine light on the dash there. Now obviously you're going to want to diagnose to see if you're actually having an issue with the intake gasket, or if it's something else. This can typically be easily diagnosed with something as simple as maybe carb cleaner or even a little spray bottle with a little bit of rubbing alcohol in it.

Typically what you would want to do is just come right over to where the intake connects onto the engine here and go ahead and give it a little mist while the engine's running. If you happen to notice that the engine idle fluctuates up or even down, more than likely you found where you happen to have a vacuum leak. If you have a vacuum leak in this area, it's probably because of the gasket. All right. So the fourth problem I want to talk about is exhaust manifolds. Now, this isn't the manifold for this truck, but it is one that I can have in my hand so you can get a clear view. If you were to look right down along this area right here, you're going to see something that looks like a crack. This is going to be something that's very common on exhaust manifolds, pretty much with any make and model, but it's especially prevalent to have an issue on these explorers.

Now, the exhaust manifolds on this truck are going to be located on each side of the engine. You're going to have one for each side and essentially it's going to lead down to where your catalytic converter is and then out the tailpipe. Common issues that you might happen to have if you're having an issue with your exhaust manifolds might be a little ticking noise that you happen to hear as you're walking around the sides of the truck. More than likely, you're going to hear these as you get along the front of the wheel-well right across here, that's going to sound like a little [vocalization].

Usually, that ticking noise is going to happen as you first start up the truck, but then as things start to warm up a little bit, the ticking noise is going to go away. The reason why that is is because when metal is cold, everything's contracted so of course, it's going to go ahead and bring out that crack a little bit and then as metal starts to expand and heat up, it's going to seal up that crack a little bit. So not as much exhaust is going to get pushed out through there and you're not really going to hear the noise anymore. But another symptom that you might happen to have in either case hot or cold, might be the smell of exhaust fumes coming from underneath your hood area, or even getting pushed into your passenger compartment. Exhaust fumes making their way into the passenger compartment is no good for anybody.

That's the reason why your exhaust system is completely sealed all the way down to the tailpipe, and it's going to be as far away from the passenger compartment as possible. If you happen to notice that you're starting to get headaches or even dizzy in any way while you're driving, it could potentially be an issue where you're having an issue with the actual exhaust system and more than likely it's the manifolds. And if this is the case, you need to go ahead and diagnose to make sure which manifold is actually the issue. If you happen to find that there's a crack on one of them, typically you can go ahead and replace just the one, you don't necessarily have to replace the pair unless of course you happen to find an issue with both. Other than that, when you go ahead and try to replace the manifold, what you might tend to find is that some of the mounting studs or even bolts that hold the manifold to the engine tend to break off in the engine. If this is the case, you're going to want to go ahead and try to drill those out and then of course tap the hole.

Okay, friends, so you stuck around this long, so let's do it a little bit longer. Problem number five, we're going to talk about your rear wiper motor. So as far as symptoms for this, there's really only one symptom. The wiper arm just doesn't move when you go ahead and switch it on, and the wiper arm could eventually cut out at any point. Now for fixes for this, obviously you're going to want to be able to access that, that's inside your tailgate and then the next thing we're going to want to do is go ahead and grab onto the wiring harnesses, relieve them from the motor itself and inspect them. If you see any funny colors in there, it's more than likely corrosion and it's something that needs to be dealt with. Go ahead and remove the pair of those and inspect them.

Now, if of course, the wiring harness looked good, you would want to go ahead and check to see if you have power going to where it needs to be. So go ahead and get yourself a wiring diagram and then a little test light and you're going to test to make sure you have power and ground exactly where it needs to go. If for some reason you don't have power coming to it, then obviously that's going to be an issue why this wouldn't work. If that was the case, you're going to want to go ahead and inspect the wiring and make sure that you don't have a fuse blown or anything. Now let's go with the assumption that you do have power and ground going where it needs to go. Essentially, what it's going to come down to at that point is you need to go ahead and replace your wiper motor.

Okay, friends, so that's pretty much what I've got for you for some of our top problems that we've come to find on a second-generation Ford Explorer. Of course, every car has its issues, maybe your car has a couple of its own, maybe you just got something you want to talk about. Either way, leave it in the comment section below because I always love to hear from you. If you liked the video, smash on the like button for me, it would mean the world. While you're at it, go ahead and subscribe and ring the bell. That way there you can be kept up with all of our latest content. Thanks.