Complete transmission failure on the 2005 Ford Explorer
1 crash 1 of the 17 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.
When complete transmission failure gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Ford Explorer report complete transmission failure at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles, from 16 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 45,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 104,197 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45,803 miles | 48,183 miles | 64,500 miles | 115,500 miles | 150,000 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, 1 a crash is 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 $2,800–$8,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 286; the 2005 has 17. 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.
I purchased a new ford explorer xlt with just under 6,000 miles from my local ford dealer. It was considered "new" because it had under 6,500 miles (it was their demo car.) 5000 into my new purchase, at approximately 11,000 miles, I began experiencing transmission problems. The vehicle drifted back while in gear and would not shift into gear smoothly. I took it in for repair as a transmission complaint. 8,000 miles later (at approximately 19,000 miles), I was having more difficulty with a slipping transmission and took it to the ford dealer in my area. They found a leak within the transmission and found other transmission issues. At approximately 49,000 miles (current mileage), I was again experiencing transmission slips and a loud noise coming from the rear. I took it to my local ford dealer who said the rear needed replacement and basically the entire back end was falling apart. I could feel this was also related to the transmission. I, again, took it in for the 3rd time as a transmission complaint. The dealer called me and told me my car was repaired, but apparently, they only fixed what was wrong with the rear. I paid $1500 to…
2 days ago the transmission on my 2005 explorer began to hesitate between 2nd and 3rd gear. The next morning while on my way to a service station, it slipped out of 2nd and never found 3rd... The engine just revved up. I could shift on the column so I did that to get the vehicle to the dealership. After running some tests, the dealer told me that 3rd gear was "gone" and that I needed a new transmission. This is a 3 year old vehicle and I've spent 1.5 years of those three in the desert... There is no reason that the transmission should blow after 3 years regardless of the fact that for 1.5 years of it, it wasn't driven regularly. Ford needs to own up to this and take care of it's customers. This will be my last ford. *tr
We purchased a 2005 ford explorer in may '08 w/38000 mi. On it carfax, at that time, indicated a new transmission was installed on 2/9/07 @ 27643 mi. Lately the transmission has not been running good so we took it to our mechanic, who tells us it is a "ticking time bomb" and needs a new transmission asap. The car currently has 48953 mi on it. He encourages us to investigate recalls and warranty info. We called the dealership who installed the transmission in 2/07, they said it had not been replaced, but other parts (relating to the trans) were replaced. We requested a copy of the service order faxed to us. Once rec'd, codes and wording are very confusing but we believe it to indicate that the transmission was replaced. Also the service tech we spoke to told us the warranty was a 3 yr/36k mi so a replacement now would not be covered. We believe this transmission has a major defect if, in fact, it was replaced @ 27643 and the new one now has only 21000 mi on it. We called ford motor co service dept. Based on their records from the VIN #, they told us the transmission was replaced in 2/07. We were also told that the warranty was…
Also reported on the 2005 Ford Explorer
Other body or interior problem
Other powertrain problem
Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure
Other engine problem
Other fuel system problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 17 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 complete transmission failure happen on the 2005 Ford Explorer?
Across 16 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is complete transmission failure on the 2005 Ford Explorer?
17 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 98 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