1998 Ford Expedition
Safety record from NHTSA: recalls, owner complaints, investigations and service bulletins.
Vehicles › Ford › Expedition › 1998
Safety record from NHTSA: recalls, owner complaints, investigations and service bulletins.
These records cover every 1998 Ford Expedition. To see whether one car still needs a recall repair, decode its VIN or check it with NHTSA.
7 recalls name the 1998 Ford Expedition. Newest first.
Certain maxzone headlight assemblies, depo brand, p/nos. 331-1129L-asn and 331-1129r-asn, sold for use as aftermarket equipment for the above listed passenger vehicles. these headlamps fail to conform to the photometric requirements of federal motor vehicle safety standard no. 108, lamps, reflective devices, and associated equipment.
Decreased lighting visibility may result in a vehicle crash.
Maxzone will notify owners and offer reimbursement for any noncompliant headlights. the recall began on july 28, 2006. owners may contact maxzone at 909-822-3288.
Certain aai motorsports combination lamps sold as replacement lamps for use on the above list passenger vehicles. combination lamps not equipped with amber side reflectors fail to conform with the requirements of federal motor vehicle safety standard no. 108, "lamps, reflective devices, and associated equipment."
Lack of amber side reflectors in the lamps will decrease lighting visibility to other drivers and may possibly result in a vehicle crash
Aai motorsports will notify owners and replace the lamps free of charge. the recall began on august 1, 2006. owners may contact aai motorsports at 909-923-9188.
On certain pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles equipped with speed control, the speed control deactivation switch may overheat, smoke, or burn.
A fire at the switch could occur.
By letter dated september 12, 2005, owners were instructed to return their vehicles to their dealers to have the speed control deactivation switch disconnected. owners who have had their speed control deactivated are being notified that parts will be available and advised to make an appointment to reconnect the speed control beginning in february 2006. owners who did not have their speed control deactivated are being notified to have their system remedied beginning in february 2006. owners are urged to avail themselves of the free disconnect service as soon as possible because of the significant risk of fire. Owners may contact ford at 1-800-392-3673. (note: also see recalls 05v017 and 06v286)
Vehicle description: MINI vans, light pickup trucks, and sport utility vehicles. off lease canadian vehicles equipped with daytime running lights which meet canadian requirements and not the photometric requirements of fmvss 108, "lamps, reflective devices, and associated equipment." according to ford, the vehicles were imported into the u.s. Erroneously.
The light given off from the daytime running lights IS brighter than allowed by u.s. Standards.
Dealers will be advised to deactivate the running light function and to complete any outstanding safety recalls on these vehicles.
Vehicle description: multi-purpose vehicles. the trailer hitch assembly to the frame attaching bolts could lose the clamp load.
The trailer hitch could then separate from the vehicle.
Dealers will replace the trailer hitch mounting bolts and nut plates.
Vehicle description: multi-purpose vehicles and light duty pickup trucks. the lug nuts on these vehicles may not create sufficient clamp load allowing wheel movement in relation to the hub/rotor mounting surface.
This can result in the loosening of lug nuts, stud fatigue failure, and the potential for a wheel separation from the vehicle, increasing the risk of a vehicle crash.
Owners of these vehicles will be receiving two notifications. the first notification, which began in may 1998, will provide an interim repair procedure until parts become available. this interim procedure can be completed by owners or their dealers. it specifies that the lug nut torque must be verified to be 100 lbs. then the lug nuts need to be tightened an additional 1/8 to 1/4 turn more. there will be a second owner notification, which IS expected to begin july 20, 1998, under which dealers will inspect the wheel studs and replace the wheel lug nuts.
Vehicle description: light duty pickup trucks and multi-purpose passenger vehicles. if the automatic transmission shift cable assembly was not fully attached to the steering column bracket, the shift cable assembly can come out of the bracket. the vehicle operator would then not be able to shift the transmission from one of the drive gear positions into…
The condition would not allow a disengagement of the transmission from the park position or affect proper neutral start switch operation. unintended vehicle movement could occur if the parking brake was not set.
Dealers will make the proper attachment of the transmission shift control cable to the steering column bracket and add a tie strap to that connection.
Bought replacement brake pads from RockAuto 07/08/2023 9:06PM order 244457897 that are supposed to be Bosch BSH BC702 ceramic. What arrived is unbranded, unnumbered tag torn off the box with no identifiers at all. All brake pads used should have numbers to identify street legal for use but these have NOTHING on them, the box, anything. Unsafe if cannot identify use. RockAuto wants me to pay for return for their mistake, but bigger problem is that unknown pads are being sent out by RockAuto. I still have unopened set if interested.
Parking on the street in IS gone
TL* the contact owns a 1998 ford expedition. The contact stated that the vehicle accelerated and surged at a high rate of speed without warning. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.
Takata recall: the spark plugs have blown out of the engine block. They have been repaired 3 times. Each time, it smells of an electrical line IS burning, the instrument cluster goes erratic and they zeros out and doesn't move. This has happened while driving on city and highways.
5.4L gas engine. Spark plugs have blown out of 2 different cylinders in 2 months. I have found only that this IS a known issue for several models with this engine including the F-150. Ford had done nothing to address this faulty engine design. both times my plugs blew out I was accelerating from a stop while turning left.
TL* the contact owns a 1998 ford expedition equipped with goodyear wrangler trailmark tires, size: p265/65/r18 (na). The contact purchased the brand new tires from walmart. While driving 35 mph on the highway, the rear driver's side wheel detached from the vehicle. A police report was filed that stated that the lug nuts were completely gone. The vehicle was towed to the contact's residence. Walmart filed a claim with their insurance company, which stated that walmart followed procedures when they installed the tires and were not liable. The dealer and manufacturer had not been contacted. The contact spoke with her state's attorney general's office. The tire failure mileage was unavailable. The failure mileage was 246,233.
Takata recall my truck has a burning spell and was some smoke it was park I was about to pull off on my street where I live
When we bought the vehicle it had 22 inch chrome wheels and tires. It also wandered all over the road. We bought new stock sized rims and new stock sized tires. it still wanders all over the road. We had it aligned. It still wanders all over the road. Google shows many, many complaints regarding these vehicles' suspension, blaming rusting rear lower trailing arms and in one case a left stabilizer link broke. I have not crawled under the car as it IS my sister's and she lives a ways away, but she wants to sell it and IS worried if it IS something major someone may get hurt. We can be driving straight down the road from 25mph to 60mph and the vehicle just sort of feels like the back end IS not in line with the front or something and it just tries to change lanes on its own.
The spark plug blew out for the second time IN2 months. It sounded like the motor was knocking . Ford only put 3 threads in the cylinder head to hold the spark plug but the spark plugs have 10 threads. I called ford and they acted like they never heard of this before. There are forums going back to 2002 that I was reading yesterday about this issue so clearly they were lying. Owners report engine fires when the plug blows out. My vehicle didn't catch fire .they refuse to fix this defect and deny its their fault.
(Takata recall) I have purchased my truck from a legal car dealership in reno NV had 135000 miles wen bought ive had to replace fuel pump had to buy different rims/tires due to wear of stock rims .. Exhaust problems replaced fuel injector. . Wear of thing causing water damage when raining outside. Spark plug ejected from engine was in motion 45 mph stationary moving problems also n wen turning.
I got in my 1997 expedition and the brake went to the floor when having the back brakes installed the mechanics noticed the lower on troll arm was rusted out. He the looked at my 1998 and it IS the same way. He said I cannot drive them like this. I drive on the interstate daily.
I have a ford 1998 expedition, eddie bauer edition. It has a 5.4 liter engine with aluminum heads. Three times I've had a helicoil blown out leaving me stranded. Now a spark plug has blown out breaking two coils. Ford has made this vehicle for years with this engine. All with the same problems of components blowing out of the engine. I feel it IS ford's responsibility to start a recall and fix this defect.
He brake pedal IS loated too close to the accelerator and when depressed goes down below the accelerator so when the extreme right side of the brake IS depressed by a bruad shoe the accelerator IS also depressed causing the car to accelerate rather than braking. This can and did result in an accident in which I rear ended the car stopped in front of me. This occurred on a city street when I was moving in traffic below the posted 30mph limit.
#2 spark plug blew out of 5.4L 2 v V8. was on highway at time. Had to immediately pull over and disconnect fuel and spark for that cylinder. was over 100km from home, couldnt afford to tow veicle so I had to drive it the remainder of the distance home. inspected today, there IS no threads left. Now need to drill and tap head, install helicoil/timesert and hope for the best.
While driving down the road at approx 35 mph, the vehicle in front of me stopped hard. I immediately stepped hard on my brakes. the brakes initially applied and then failed. I swerved into a parking lot and applied my brakes again with no success. my brake pedal went to the floor. I then put the gear selector in park while moving at a fairly high rate of speed in order to stop. the vehicle ground to a halt. the vehicle was towed to a repair facility and I was notified that the brake line was rusted and due to the pressure of attempting to stop hard, the line ruptured and the entire braking system failed.
Went to store, came out battery dead, car wouldn't start. Had not left lights or any accessories on. Got a jump, drove to auto parts store. They checked alternator and battery and said battery dead, needed an overnight charge. Let them charge battery, put back in car, horn started blowing and would not stop despite my using both the key and key fob. Horn blew for 5 hours before I found out how to disconnect from google. Got horn to stop, and car wouldn't start. Ford dealer said anti-theft system had to be reprogrammed at cost of $250 plus tow to dealer. I never armed the system and it should not have shut my truck down and prevented me from driving it. I don't have $250 and then I found out the repair IS only $100 at most. But this according to my dealer happens to any ford anytime the battery goes dead and IS replaced, anti-theft system IS making people pay $250 to ford to reprogram what should not have to be reprogrammed. Please help me. Thank you. [Xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(B)(6). *tr
TL* the contact owned a 1998 ford expedition. While driving 55 mph in inclement weather, the contact lost control of the vehicle and it rolled over multiple times. The air bags failed to deploy. The contact sustained head, shoulder, and hip injuries that required medical attention. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed from the crash scene and was deemed destroyed. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 198,000. The vin was unavailable.
TL* the contact owned a 1998 ford expedition. While the vehicle was parked, the engine caught fire. The fire was extinguished by the fire department. The vehicle was deemed destroyed. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. A police report was not filed. The approximate failure mileage was 160,000.
My husband was parked in our driveway. He switched the truck from park to reverse as he does to slowly back up, without accelerating, the truck accelerated at full force in reverse and he went clear through our garage door which bent, crushed and de-hinged, the garage door was then pushed back into his motorcycles and into the framing of the house causing mass destruction. The car would not stop, the gear would not switch into park and the breaks would not work. The vehicle could not be stopped from accelerating at top speed in reverse into my home. There IS burn out marks in my garage from where the wheels were spinning full speed, there IS a tailpipe burn mark where the truck was launched into the garage door. The vehicle clearly failed mechanically and in the process of that there IS mass destruction to my home, our vehicle, our bikes and a ton of stuff in the garage. Thank god my husbands injuries did not result in death and thank god my children were not in the garage as they usually are when we are outside. There IS no way my little 3 year old would have survived this. I feel very unsafe and will never drive this car again. *tr
While I was diving around 35 mph to 45 mph a horrible violent shake starts to occur. And IS very difficult to accelerate especially once you hit the freeway very unsafe to drive at such speeds. It starts with a violent shake with loud noises coming from the exhaust. It has blown 2 coils already. *tr
TL* the contact owns a 1998 ford expedition. The contact stated that when the shift lever was placed into the park position, the vehicle would reverse and failed to move back into the park position. The failure recurred multiple times. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 211,096.
TL* the contact owns a 1998 ford expedition. The contact stated that the gear shift failed to switch into the park position. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and stated that the vin was not included in nhtsa campaign number: 97v171000 (power train). The failure mileage was 130,000.
I stopped the vehicle at my garage and placed it in park so I could unload groceries. I left the car ignition on and exited the vehicle to put the groceries in the garage. I unloaded one bag and returned to the vehicle for the second bag and as I walked up to it, the vehicle started moving backwards slowly I panicked. I attempted to get into the auto to apply the brake, the vehicle then started moving quicker before I was securely in it. As the auto increased speed I lost my footing and fell out and was run over by the expedition, and neighbors called the ambulance and I was taken to the hospital and treated by the trauma team in the emergency room and admitted for my injuries a right broken ankle, 9 broken ribs, and a broken wrist. *tr
Blew a spark plug, stripped the threads right out of the aluminum heads (horrible design). not an issue for newer vehicles until they reach 140-190,000 miles, and now I see online that it IS a huge issue for thousands of owners of the 4.6 & 5.4L engines. breaching the heads exposes fuel to the spark and could create dangerous fires. the fixes are either temporary or very costly, this shoddy design should be corrected by ford now that all of these vehicles are reaching higher mileages and still on the road. for ford to save a few bucks by using aluminum heads IS not worth the safety of thousands of loyal customers who have always stood by ford. my confidence IS definitely shaken by their willingness to compromise quality and safety for profit. *tr
I have a 1998 ford expedition the spark plugs number 3 and 4 keep going out I have done everything I can own my budget to try and fix but the problem keep happen. I smell gas and see smoke this IS the only vehicle I have to get me and my daughter around I need this problem fix permanently don't wont nothing to happen to me and my kid as far as truck fire or gas fumes. So please can you get with ford to fix before something bad happens to us.thank you. *tr
NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation opened these reviews into vehicles including this one.
On september 6, 2005, odi received a petition requesting that the agency investigate allegations of engine spark plug ejection in certain model year 1997 through 2004 ford vehicles with triton V-8 and V-10 engines.odi received a total of 474 non-duplicative complaints on the subject vehicles where the complainant, or the dealer repairing the vehicle, reported that a spark plug detached from the cylinder and/or ejected from the engine.as of december 8, 2005, odi IS not aware of any allegations where the alleged defect resulted in a loss of vehicle control, a crash, an injury, or a fatality in any of the 10,319,810 subject vehicles.in addition, odi IS aware of only two incidents where the vehicle stalled without restart.information contained in the odi consumer complaints and obtained from 72 telephone interviews with complainants showed the following:(1) 99% of the complaints were on my 1997 to 2002 subject vehicles.(2) most the complainants reported hearing a loud pop while driving or upon starting up the vehicle followed by a loud, repetitive clicking or popping sound.(3) many of the complainants reported that the popping sound was accompanied by some loss of vehicle power; however, in 99% of the incidents reported, the vehicle did not stall.in the very few incidents where the vehicle did stall, most vehicles could be restarted.(4) only a small percentage of the complainants cited that they smelled gas or a slight burning smell when the incident occurred.(5) in all but a very few incidents, vehicle damage was limited to the engine.in one incident, the complaint reported that the fuel rail was damaged and replaced after one of the spark plugs ejected from the engine; however, the complainant reported that the damage did not result in any type of fuel leak or fire.in another incident, the only incident where a fire was alleged, the complainant reported that no fluid leak was observed, but that a fire resulted after the spark plug had ejected from the engine and he had restarted the vehicle and driven to another location.none of the complainants reported any damage to the vehicle hood.(6) only two complainants reported that they observed what appeared to be some drops of fuel coming from the cylinder where the spark plug had failed or on the spark plug itself; however, each of these complainants reported that there was no smoke or flames as a result of his incident.as the petitioner noted, and odi?s analysis showed, it IS possible for a spark plug to detach from the engine cylinder threads in the subject vehicles.however, odi?s analysis of 474 complaints describing such incidents found only a very few alleged any safety-related consequences.none of these showed any evidence of a serious safety consequence.given the large population and relatively long exposure time of the subject vehicles, the complaint analysis indicates that the risk to motor vehicle safety from the alleged defect IS very low.in view of the foregoing, it IS unlikely that nhtsa would issue an order for the notification and remedy of the alleged defect at the conclusion of the investigation requested in the petition.therefore, in view of the need to allocate and prioritize nhtsa?s limited resources to best accomplish the agency?s safety mission, the petition IS denied.
Ea05-005 IS closed with ford?s actions in recalls 05v-017, 05v-388, and 06v-286, recalling approximately 6.7 million vehicles equipped with texas instruments speed control deactivation switches (scds).the brake systems in these recalled vehicles generate a vacuum that can potentially cause the scds to fail and, in certain switch installation orientations, catch fire.ford IS also including the entire population of 1998 explorers.ford has informed odi that testing to determine the cause of failures in the 1998 explorers will continue after this investigation IS closed.odi believes that the vehicles exhibiting the factors causing scds failure described in this report correlate well with the observed failure rates on these vehicles by model and model year.the closing of this investigation does not constitute a finding by nhtsa that a safety-related defect does not exist in the non-recalled vehicles manufactured with scds that are not included in ford?s recalls.odi will continue to monitor the non-recalled population for incidence of engine compartment fires.the agency reserves the right to take further action if warranted by the circumstances.see attached closing report for details.
This investigation was opened on september 27, 1999 based on five consumer reports alleging that some of the eight hitch mounting bolts either became loose or came completely out of its retaining plate.one of the complaints indicated that while towig a trailer the hitch actually separated from the frame on the passenger's side of the vehicle when the four mounting bolts on that side came completely out. This allowed the hitch and trailer to contact the road surface.in its response to the agency, ford provided information regarding nine additional reports of loose or missing bolts, two of those alleging separation of the hitch on one side.there were no reports of vehicle crshes, injuries, or a complete separation of a hitch assembly.scope:1997 throurgh 2000 model year expeditions and 1998 through 2000 model year navigators built at michigan truch assemblly plant from july 22,1 996 through december 9, 1999.defect: loss of clamping load of hitch attachment bolts.remedy:the hitch mounting bolts and nut plates will be replace with higher strength bolts and plates.additionally , the torque value for the mounting bolts will be increased and an adhesive will be added to the bolts.
There is no summary currently available
Technical service bulletins and other communications the manufacturer sent dealers about this vehicle. Ask a dealer for the full document by its number.
Bars are owner complaints, dots mark years with recalls. Select a year to open its report.