Owners have filed 582 complaints on the Ford Explorer Sport Trac, covering 1997–2010. The system named most often is Power Train (102 reports). Worst years by volume: 2001, 2002, 2007; cleanest: 2000, 1998, 2006. 47 reports describe a crash, 26 a fire. On average the car was 5.7 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Ford Explorer Sport Trac
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 582 Explorer Sport Trac complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Power Train 102 Read
The contact owns a 2007 ford explorer sport trac. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to go in reverse on the first attempt. When the vehicle eventually went in reverse, the RPM's began to rev. The vehicle experienced low brake pressure. The emergency brake was applied in order to stop the vehicle. There were…
2007 sporttrac, started downshifting very rough when coming to a stop, took to freeport, il dealer who adjusted parts of the transmission, this made the downshifting much better for a few months, it is back now and worse than ever. You have to have your foot hard on the brake and don't stop very close to any vehicle…
2007 ford explorer sport trac (2wd) at complete stop. Rear ended by a ford focus at about 40mph. Impact caused the sport trac seats to recline from an upright position to 45 degrees backwards/reclining), went into "park" and engine "shut off" automatically!
Electrical System 58 Read
Traveling on the nys thruway passing a car at approximately 75mph and my engine goes dead. No power or gas no power steering nothing. I manage to get to the shoulder of the road and I can smell something burning. I was towed to the nearest ford dealership to find that my fuel pump control module and wiring harness are…
The contact owned a 2008 ford explorer sport trac. The contact stated that while driving 15 mph on the sand in a beach area that there was a failure of which a strong burning odor started, excess heat was felt by the driver, front passenger and 3 rear passengers. The vehicle was pulled over as they exited the vehicle.…
The contact owns a 2007 ford explorer sport trac. On march 7, 2007, the contact discovered the vehicle engulfed in flames. He noticed the flames originating from the hood of the vehicle. The fire department diagnosed the cause of failure to be electrical. The dealer declined to retrieve the vehicle and stated that the…
Vehicle Speed Control 54 Read
The contact owns 2001 ford explorer sport trac. The contact stated that while driving approximately 40 mph, the brake pedal traveled to the floorboard upon engagement and the vehicle continued to accelerate. In addition, smoke emitted from the air vents and from under hood. The contact immediately jumped from the…
2007 ford 4door xlt gas pedal stuck while driver was pulling through fast food drive through. Basically, the car was in a stopped position. But when driver moved forward to leave, the gas pedal hesitated and then stuck, lunged forward out of control; startled the driver and car hit a pole. Driver received head…
Dt: contact stated that while pressing the brake pedal the vehicle accelerated. The service dealer has not been able to duplicate the problem. *ak
Engine And Engine Cooling 54 Read
I have a 2010 ford explorer sport trac with approximately 26000 miles. I was driving down the interstate and I saw smoke coming from between the cab and the bed. I pulled off the freeway, onto an exit ramp to a frontage road. I called 911. Before the fire department arrived, the vehicle was on fire. It is a total…
I was going back home to miami and my car 2003 ford explorer sport trac caught on fire at the exit of the midtown tunnel in new york city. The fire started in the front motor at the passenger side. The police used 3 fire extinguishers but all the effort they did was not enough. My car was completely on fire. The…
Vehicle experienced multiply problems. Consumer noticed that while driving vehicle vibrated uncontrollably. All tires had stress marks located in the inner side of the tires. Goodyear, wrangler rts p255/70r16. Also, coolant was leaking from underneath the vehicle . Consumer drove vehicle to the dealer, and mechanic…
Structure 50 Read
The consumer was involved in an accident, the vehicle rolled over and the entire roof collapsed. The consumer stated the vehicles body was weak
The contact owns a 2010 ford explorer sport trac. The contact stated that when the rear windows were open and the front windows were closed, the vehicle would vibrate excessively. The dealer advised that the failure was normal. The contact believed the defect to be safety related because he was unable to drive with…
When temp is below freezing drivers door will not close
Service Brakes 39 Read
Brake or transmission is malfunctioning, truck was parked on a flat surface in the driveway and not running, in park, locked and after a bout an hour the truck began rolling, an was stopped my a piece of wrought iron fence, damaging the front bumper. It could have been worse had the fence not been there
I was at the yield sign at the feeder lane approaching the nasa bypass in webster, texas when I applied my brakes as another car was ahead of me and had stopped. Instead of braking, my vehicle accelerated and I run into the rear of the car ahead. The cause of the problem is the design in the vehicle. The brake pedal…
October 28, 2004, motor vehicle accident, chain reaction 3 vehicle, I was at full stop with foot on brake. Vehicle behind me stopped, next vehicle did not stop, pushed vehicle behind me into and under the driver side rear of my vehicle. Bumper damage, truck bed twisted several inches, etc. My seat belt did not…
Suspension 39 Read
The contact owned a 2007 Ford Explorer Sport Trac. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 10 MPH, the vehicle made an abnormal sound, and the driver's side rear tire had seized due to a fractured rear axle and bolt. Another vehicle then crashed into the contact's driver's side rear tire causing the…
While driving approximately 60 mph front of vehicle suddenly dipped. This caused vehicle to skid and crash into a ditch. Vehicle was totaled. The cause of this was undetermined
2004 ford explorer sport trac ran into guardrail twice on two different occasions during inclement weather. *mr while driving 70 km a cross wind blew the rear of the truck causing the vehicle to hit a guardrail. Another time the consumer was driving 55 km with the 4wd on when the consumer lost control an hit a…
Air Bags 35 Read
While driving the 2001 ford explorer sport trac, driver suffered a seizure. Vehicle hit the post, then vehicle shot across 2 lanes of traffic at approximately 30 mph hitting a tree head on. The air bags did not deploy. Vehicle burst into flames. If passer bys did not pull driver from vehicle, driver would have died.…
On the oct 6th 2003 I was driving the ford sport-trac and suffered a seizure. I then lost control of the truck and crashed into a wall of a home in the area. The truck caught fire and I was fortunate enough to have 2 people pull me from the truck before it exploded. The airbags in the truck did not deploy and I broke…
When the brakes are engaged, that accelerator also engages causing the vehicle to not stop. Which caused a serious wreck. This has been checked out by the ford dealer on multiple occasions. Several others have also reported this issue. Truck is totaled and airbags did not deploy with direct front end…
Explorer Sport Trac years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Air Bags | 2 | 2 | |
| 2009 | Electrical System,air Bags | — | — | |
| 2008 | Air Bags | 1 | 1 | |
| 2007 | Air Bags | 8 | 2 | |
| 2006 | Power Train | — | — | |
| 2005 | Air Bags | 3 | 1 | |
| 2004 | Air Bags | 13 | — | |
| 2003 | Air Bags | 4 | 6 | |
| 2002 | Air Bags | 6 | 3 | |
| 2001 | Air Bags | 10 | 9 | |
| 2000 | Electrical System | — | — | |
| 1998 | Electrical System,electronic Stability Control (esc),service Brakes | — | 1 | |
| 1997 | Power Train | — | 1 |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 250 |
| Average complaints per series | 2.3 |
| Worst single series | 11 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 5.7 years |
A model average of 2.3 hides a worst series at 11. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
- The original window sticker and factory options
- Full research report as a PDF for the pre-purchase inspection
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- No ads, no tracking — and much more
How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the Explorer Sport Trac?
By complaint volume, 2001, 2002, 2007 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which Explorer Sport Trac years are the cleanest?
2000, 1998, 2006 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Ford Explorer Sport Trac have?
582 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 1997–2010. Of those, 47 describe a crash and 26 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.