Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEAT BELTS | |||
| 11/23/2007 | 110000 | 1 | |
| Front driver and passenger seat belts do not retract properly and must be fed manually to retract. subsequent damage to seat belt webbing causing possible failure upon impact. *tr | |||
| 12/05/2003 | 1 | ||
| Vehicle hit a telephone head on while traveling at 25 mph and air bags did not deploy. *mr the seat belt did not prevent the consumer's contact with the sun visor. *sc | |||
| 10/06/2003 | 1 | ||
| Seat belt locked around child's waist, consumer had to cut child out . as a result, seat belt left a bruise. *ak | |||
| When consumer gets out of driver's or passenger's seats and releases seatbelt, seatbelt will not retract back into system, it will just hang out. please provide further information. *ak | |||
| 08/25/1998 | |||
| Front shoulder belt tightened up so much that it pinned consumer when driving on rough surfaces. consumer lived were there were majority of rough roads. dealer said there were no problem with seat belt, it was doing what it was suppose to do. *ak | |||
| 11/11/1998 | |||
| Rear seatbelts will not lock at all. consumer can use the retractor, but cannot use the seat belt. *ak | |||
| 06/01/1998 | 1 | 06/01/1998 | |
| Rear seat belt failed. *yc | |||
| 02/10/1998 | 1 | ||
| Rear seat belts are not functioning properly. they jam in the retractor. they cannot be released to be used. sometimes fail to retract to original position. will be taking vehicle to dealer to check & repair. *ak | |||
| SEAT BELTS - FRONT | |||
| 08/26/2004 | 103650 | 1 | 09/15/2003 |
| Drivers side front seat belt gives around the waist causing the seat belt to lose with no restraint while driving. *ak | |||
| SEAT BELTS - FRONT - ANCHORAGE | |||
| 11/01/1999 | |||
| I own one of the above mentioned vehicle. i saw in the news recently a vehicle like mine involved in a motor vehicle accident. one of the occupans (a female just married) got ejected form the vehicle and died while wering her 3 point seatbelt. obviously the restraint equipment failed. i would like to request any information available to the public on this matter. thanks in advanced for your prompt respond, ruiz. | |||
| 04/20/1999 | |||
| Took seat belt to be repaired 3 or 4 times and ended up being ordered and wrecked before getting it replaced. tire on right rear shredded and front right and left rear blewout. it was a rollover accident front to rear and side rollover and airbags didn't come out. my 5 1/2 year old daughter was thrown and killed in the wreck.( dot number: ) | |||
| No summary listed for above vehicle. *ak | |||
| 02/01/1998 | |||
| No injury, yet. buckles are solidly mounted, protrud above seat surface and hurt passengers back/spine when entering vehicle. | |||
| 08/10/1998 | 5 | 12/01/1997 | |
| Throttle pedal continually sticks when initially engaged in either drive or reverse. causes lunge in direction of travel if driver unaware of defect. submitted to dealer twice, still not repaired. poor seatbelt design has driver's seatbelt continually stuck in drivers door upon exit from vehicle. rear passenger window scrapes and makes noise during operation. dealer did not fix when initially brought up after initial purchase. abs light intermittently appears during driving. dealer noted code of 1924 but had no response for problem. not resolved. dissapointed with quality of vehicle for $$ paid. | |||
| 1 | |||
| Seat belts continually get stuck in the door due to design. | |||
| 05/31/1998 | 2 | 03/20/1998 | |
| Rear seat belts locked up. | |||
| SEAT BELTS - FRONT - BUCKLE ASSEMBLY | |||
| 43000 | 1 | ||
| Consumer was complaining about seat belt problem on driver's side. when belt was latched into the buckle, it didn't hold. *ak | |||
| 02/17/2002 | 3 | 02/01/2002 | |
| When making turns, especially right turns, vehicle slides and almost turns over.*ak. consumer states vehicle is experiencing acceleration problems,and there was a humming noise coming from the engine, signals are not working, dealer replaced a defective connector and multi-function switch, firestone tires have experienced tread separation, which were replaced in july 2001, the rear seats move/bounce when driving, the rear seat belts were inoperative, the dealer replaced the buckles, there was smoke coming from the steering column, dealer replaced the multi-function switch, the windshield was chipped, the alarm would not chut off at times, dealer replaced a bad loose wire.*jb | |||
| 01/29/2001 | |||
| All of seat belt buckle assemblies failed to lock and hold restraints in place. please provide any additional information/attachments.*ak | |||
| 04/01/2001 | 1 | 12/01/1998 | |
| Left rear seat belt won't stay hooked in it's buckle in the seat. can't place anyone in that seat for fear of accident.*ak | |||
| 01/19/2001 | 1 | 01/01/1998 | |
| While driving under winter conditions, traveling at approximately 65 to 70 mph, vehicle began to lose control. right driver's side tire went into a ditch, and vehicle rolled 1 1/2 times. driver's seat belt failed to lock up and preventing injury to driver. please provide any additional information/attachments.*ak air bags failed to deploy during accident. nlm | |||
| 03/26/1999 | 10 | 05/01/1998 | |
| Passenger front safety belt locking up and tightening. passenger must remove belt and wait for mechanism to return to normal. belt locks up 85% of time even after disengaging and rebuckling. dealer notified - still under warranty for repair. repair arrangements have been made. *ak | |||
| 09/21/1998 | |||
| Passenger's shoulder and lap belt got locked up into the housing and will not come out. ford cannot repair because parts are on national recall. *ak | |||
| SEAT BELTS - FRONT - RETRACTOR | |||
| 1 | 04/01/1998 | ||
| Consumer stated the rear seat belt behind drivers seat becomes jammed and will not release from retracting mechanism, causing the seat belt to become inoperable.*aa *yh | |||
| Rear sear belt behind driver's seat does not release from retracking mechanism. *ak | |||
| 01/17/2000 | 1 | 03/01/1999 | |
| Seatbelt retractor allowed excessive slack to be released during vehicle rollover. occupant was partially ejected from vehicle, resulting in loss of right leg. *ak | |||
| 06/01/1998 | |||
| Thank you for your article confirming repeated seatbelt failure with fords. my 98 ford explorer sport has been to the original dealer twice with seatbelts that do not retract correctly. they hang out the door. the dealership told me it is because of the seating position. (upright!) i have contacted ford directly and was referred back to the dealer. i'm a car seat technician through nhtsa and am familiar with how seat belts work. these work when they want to. i constantly have to guide them back into the retractor. please help because i'm sure i'm not the only one. thank you. *ak | |||
| 09/01/1999 | |||
| When getting into vehicle and starting it up, throttle sticks. consumer has to press the gas pedal real hard to stop the throttle from sticking. also, passenger's side seat belt won't come out, and front passenger's seat keeps sliding forward whenever consumer is driving. *ak | |||
| 12/01/1998 | 1 | ||
| Passenger side seatbelt began to tighten on passenger, the seat belt would not loosen and had to be cut off. vehicle taken to the dealer where there were no part available to repair the seatbelt. | |||
| SEAT BELTS - FRONT - WEBBING | |||
| 06/25/2000 | 01/01/1998 | ||
| Severe blowout, rollover 4 times resulted in paralized back seat occupant, shoulder belt did not deploy, only lap then released at 3 rollover( dot number: ) | |||
| SEAT BELTS - REAR | |||
| 07/13/2005 | 92000 | 2 | 07/13/2005 |
| Dt: the contact purchased a used vehicle on a warranty. she discovered the rear seat belt buckle assemblies were broken. also, the front seats did not recline properly. she took the vehicle to a dealer. no repairs have been made at this time. *ak | |||
| 05/01/2005 | 150000 | 2 | 03/24/2001 |
| Dt: driver's side back seat belt latch broke. on june 1, 2005. caller said the other two seat belt latches broke about a year ago and caller had them fixed. also, she low beam iwasnot working . she had it checked at a repair shop and was told they could not find what was wrong with it. dealer and manufacturer have not been contacted yet.*ak | |||
| 04/08/2004 | 76522 | 1 | |
| Consumer noticed two rear seat belts didn't hold the passengers in the seats. dealer notified. *ak dealer said that the continued pressure from the child seat caused the damage. *la | |||
| 06/23/2003 | 78100 | 1 | 09/07/2002 |
| 1998 ford explorer left rear passenger safety belt release device that you put the seat belt into broke. i had my 1 year old daughter in her childseat correctly belted behind me in the left rear seat. i came to a normal stop, the heard belt click and turn around noticed it had come out of the buckle assembly. i pulled over and put the childseat and my daughter into the right rear seat. if i had come to a harder stop, or even a crash, my one and only daughter could have been killed. as of today, capital city ford has not received my new buckle assemby. they called me in once sayinf the part was in. after 1 1/2 hours in the waiting room, i was told that they ordered the wrong part and that they needed to order the new one. i was then told that it would take some time because of the holidays. i called on monday, july 07, 2003 and was told that the part was not in that i will be called when in it comes in. this means that no one can safely sit and ride in my 1998 ford exlporer in the left rear passenger seat. as you can tell i am perturbbed with this situation and would like it resolved asap. and to make things worse, my time and money are not going to be compensated. question? are 1998 ford explorer left rear passenger seat belt buckle assembly parts designed to fail after 78000 miles????*ak | |||
| 04/01/2003 | 08/01/1999 | ||
| 1998 ford explorer. the rear passenger side seat belt won't retract. it has already been replaced once, while under warranty, and now the replacement is doing the same thing. of course it is no longer under warranty and the cost will be around $300. also, cd exchanger has already been replaced once and is broken again. *nlm | |||
| 02/01/1999 | |||
| The consumer state's the rear seat belt's are broken and the dealer is aware of the problem. | |||
| 03/15/1999 | 4 | ||
| Back seat belt continues to twist, causing seabelt to get stuck inside seat belt mechanism. replacing the seat belt mechanism will ultimately result in same problem due to design failure. apparently, plastic holder too large which allows seat belt to twist. *ak | |||