Overheating on the 2002 Ford Explorer
2 fires 1 injury 3 of the 9 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 5 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When overheating gets reported
There are 9 reports of overheating on the 2002 Ford Explorer, 5 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 102,000 miles. It is the 48th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 63,000 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 2 a fire and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $400–$3,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2019 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 21; the 2002 has 9. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
2002 4x4 explorer limited with v8. At 7390 miles (3/12/03, invoice # w40836) two issues; the transmission never shifted properly and it started leaking fluid everywhere. Two weeks later the dealer admitted they didn''t know the cause and replaced the transmission with a new one. Engine severely overheated (invoice 3w47852). At 20k miles the truck will once in a while stop (as if I hit something) as I start to back out of the garage - problem discovered at 31k brake job - rear shoes on parking brake broke loose on drivers side (both) and only one on passenger side. Loose shoe on pass. Side would wedge with good one and lock up wheels when moving slow. Lot's of arguments and ford finally replaced shoes (4/25/05 invoice # 99323). At 26k (11/05, no invoice) one tire went flat and upon inspection by a tire shop, that tire and a second tire had tread separation - running goodyear''s. Ford quickly replaced both tires without any questions. At 29k, my family and I moved from mi to ga. Each time I stopped for gas the explorer sounded like the front end was grinding metal to metal on the gears. The 4x4 was in auto for the trip and once I…
Transmission overheating and not shifting correctly while on highway at 65 MPH 63000 miles on 2002 ford explorer xlt complete overhaul needed on transmission approx cost $2600.00 to repair. *jb
Tl*the contact owns a 2002 ford explorer. The contact stated while driving approximately 70 MPH, the temperature gauge displayed signs that the vehicle was overheating. The contact shut the vehicle off, and restarted it but the failure persisted. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic for diagnostic testing. The technician diagnosed that there was a crack on the intake manifold. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure was 191,000.
Also reported on the 2002 Ford Explorer
Other powertrain problem
Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure
Complete transmission failure
Differential or transfer case failure
Other suspension problem
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 9 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 9 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does overheating happen on the 2002 Ford Explorer?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is overheating on the 2002 Ford Explorer?
9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed