1996 Ford Explorer XLT from North America - Comments

I have had a problem with the check engine light coming on since the day I bought it. Had it in to Ford 3 times. Couldn't figure a problem.

At 100,000 miles, had to have anti lock brakes replaced.

At 130,000, took it back in to see if Ford could figure out the problem with check engine light. 2 weeks & $800.00 later, still no answer.

This is a great vehicle. It drives and handles very well contrary to what has been said about Explorers.

In the winter it goes where ever I have to go, and I feel very safe when put in 4 wheel drive & I have driven in some pretty bad blizzards of Ohio & New York.

The engine management light kept coming on in my 1997 Explorer and I took it back to the dealers many times while it was under Ford's new vehicle warranty, but it never got fixed. When that warranty expired and it was under an extended new car warranty underwritten by an insurance company the dealer told me that the two oxygen sensors needed to be replaced at a cost of $800 (Australian) each. This was immediately done, charged to the insurance company, and the problem was resolved with no further instances since. The dealer obviously knew what the problem was all the time, but did not fix it because Ford would have to fork out that money.

My 96 Explorer has been virtually trouble free for over 120,000 miles. I have never had an engine light on, no failures whatsoever. It has had nothing more than regular maintence. NO REPAIRS! Never has failed to start. I did have it lowered 2 inches just for stability reasons and it helped tremendously!

There is a common problem with the 96 explorer (I have a 95) but have worked on my friends 96. Usually an egr valve they will tell you howver most of the time it is the dpfi sensor, or the evr valve a 14 dollar sylonoid. The code that had come up on my reader said egr flow insufficent so I replaced both of them. after that no problem at all. If you can geta diagnostic done and that is the code you can change these items yourself they charge a lot for labor, but each has 2 bolts aiece and is along side of the intake manifold very easy to change.