1995 Ford Explorer XLT review from North America

This is a truck owned by a mother of one which has been used off-road (slowly and gently) every now and again in Arizona for some trips into the desert for cross country hang gliding competition. The factory roof rack is not trustworthy enough to hold the weight of two or three 70-pound hang gliders over bumpy roads. Hubby's F250 was used most often for hang gliding activities.

The Explorer was trouble-free up until the 60,000 mile mark. The most significant an recurrent problem has to do with the 5-speed manual transmission. Difficulty in shifting was caused by the clutch slave cylinder failing. While we were in there, we decided to replace the pressure plate, clutch and other sundry internals just for the heck of it.

At 90,000 miles the pressure plate degenerated to the point were it was difficult to shift gears. It was replaced and the problem appeared to be fixed. However, we now often have difficulty shifting from neutral into any gear without a little bit of coaxing and body English. Once on the move the tranny shifts fine. Our mechanic has replaced the shifter bushings, but this helped only marginally. He suggests that the synchronizers are a little warn.

The Explorer requires somewhat frequent front-end alignments given the low amount of off-road time.

The 4x4 selector switch had to be replaced at low cost.

Now at 128,000 miles we would like the truck to last us another two to three years (saving to pay cash for the next minivan) but are getting concerned that the repairs might happen more often than we can justify. The engine light came on last week. It was just a thermostat keeping the engine from getting warm enough, but our mechanic said that his engine analyzer showed that both oxygen sensors are showing signs of age. One is slow and the other is erratic. He suggested putting off replacing them for now.

The truck has also developed a vibration at 65-70 mph which our mechanic says is due to the drive shaft.

Amazingly, the original catalytic converter is still going strong. Every Ford and every other vehicle I have had has fried the cat in 60,000 miles. I am waiting for it to plug shut.

Around town mileage has dropped from 18-19 mpg to 15-17 mpg.

The engine is its strong suit.

If we were to buy another SUV, we would consider another Explorer, but likely in 2WD instead.