2008 Ford EXPLORER SPORT TRAC - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

The 2008 Ford Explorer Sport Trac receives a high rating for frontal and side crash protection, with a score of 5 for both the front driver side and front passenger side crashes as well as the side driver side and side passenger side crashes. The rollover rating is also solid at 4 out of 5. This vehicle is equipped with electronic stability control, which is a great safety feature that helps the driver maintain control in challenging road conditions. However, it does not have forward collision warning or lane departure warning systems.

In terms of complaints and recalls, there have been 23 complaints reported and 2 recalls issued for the 2008 Ford Explorer Sport Trac. It is important for owners to address any recalls promptly to ensure the safety and performance of their vehicle. Overall, based on the safety ratings and features available, the 2008 Ford Explorer Sport Trac can be considered a relatively safe vehicle on the road.

Top stats at a glance

Complaint Count

23

Recall Count

2

Investigation Count

1

Safety Rating

Not Rated

Search Vehicle Details

Advanced Search

The advanced search lets you search by safety ratings and features. This will return a list of vehicles that match your search criteria.

Safety Features

2008 Ford Explorer Sport Trac 4-DR. w/SAB Safety Features

Here are the safety features that come as standard on the 2008 Ford Explorer Sport Trac 4-DR. w/SAB

Electronic Stability Control (ESC)

ESC is an advanced safety feature in vehicles designed to help drivers maintain control during challenging driving conditions. By continuously monitoring various factors such as steering angle, vehicle speed, and individual wheel speeds, ESC can detect and reduce the risk of skidding or loss of control. It achieves this by automatically applying brakes to specific wheels to stabilize the vehicle.

Standard
Forward Collision Warning (FCW)

Forward Collision Warning (FCW) is a safety feature in vehicles that helps prevent frontal collisions by alerting the driver of an imminent collision with a vehicle or obstacle ahead. Using sensors such as radar or cameras, FCW monitors the distance and speed of vehicles in front, and if it detects a potential collision, it provides visual and/or auditory warnings to prompt the driver to take evasive action.

No
Lane Departure Warning (LDW)

Lane Departure Warning (LDW) is a safety feature in vehicles that alerts drivers when their vehicle unintentionally drifts out of its lane without signaling. Utilizing cameras or sensors to monitor lane markings on the road, LDW detects when the vehicle crosses these lines and triggers visual, auditory, or haptic alerts to notify the driver of potential lane departure.

No

2008 Ford Explorer Sport Trac 4-DR. w/SAB Safety Ratings

Here we have the crash and rollover ratings for the 2008 Ford Explorer Sport Trac 4-DR. w/SAB Where possible we've included the ratings for the oldest and latest models of this car so you can compare how the safety ratings have changed over time.

Frontal Crash Ratings

Combines Driver and Passenger star ratings into a single frontal rating. The frontal barrier test simulates a head-on collision between two similar vehicles, each moving at 35 mph.

Test 2005 Score 2008 Score 2010 Score
Overall Front Crash Rating Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated
Front Crash Driver Side Rating Not Rated 5 5
Front Crash Passenger Side Rating Not Rated 5 5

Side Crash Ratings

Combines Side Barrier and Side Pole Star Ratings into a single side rating.

Test 2005 Score 2008 Score 2010 Score
Overall Side Crash Rating Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated
Side Crash Drivers Side Rating Not Rated 5 5
Side Crash Passenger Side Rating Not Rated 5 5
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Front Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Rear Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated
Overall Side Barrier Rating Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated

Rollover Ratings

The Rollover Resistance test measures the risk of rollover in a single-vehicle, loss-of-control scenario.

Test 2005 Score 2008 Score 2010 Score
Rollover Rating 3 4 4
Rollover Possibility % 0% 0% 0%
Dynamic Tip Result No Tip No Tip No Tip
Side Pole Crash Rating Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated

Complaints for the 2008 Ford EXPLORER SPORT TRAC

This chart show the number of complaints for each car component. A Higher number of complaints could indicate that this car might have a common fault. Something to look out for when purchasing one.

Component Complaints

Choose a component to see what complaints people have made about them.

Complaint:
"tl* the contact owns a 2008 ford explorer. the contact stated that the check engine light and wrench icon illuminated. the contact took the vehicle to the dealer for a diagnostic test, who stated that the torque converter would need to be replaced. the vehicle was repaired. the manufacturer was made aware of the failure. the failure mileage was 80,000. the current mileage was 92,000."
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2014-03-05

Complaint:
"tl* the contact owns a 2008 ford explorer sport trac. the contact stated that the vehicle would lunge forward when attempting to shift gears. the vehicle would also stall, shift out of neutral, shift out of over drive or would shift into various gears erratically. a local mechanic replaced the transmission, but the failure recurred. the manufacturer requested to receive information from the dealer before assisting the contact with the failure. the dealer was notified but denied any assistance with repair to the failure. the failure mileage was 75,000 and the current mileage was 80,000."
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2013-01-02

Complaint:
"2008 ford explorer sport trac, 5 speed automatic, v6. transmission fails to engage; truck has difficulty accelerating from a stop and will roll backwards from a stop if on an incline. transmission also 'slams' gears and feels like the vehicle has been hit from behind. dealership has failed to repair and has worked on the vehicle for over four weeks with no permanent resolution. fixes last a couple weeks and then it fails again. transmission has been removed and many parts replaced, but it still does not work properly. vehicle does not feel safe from a stop and i am in fear of an accident due to the transmission failing. ford technician has been working with dealership, but has been only applying 'band-aid' solutions. *tr"
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2010-01-07

Complaint:
"2008 sport trac v8 4 wheel drive. i must wait approximately 30 seconds before backing truck out of my garage...any sooner and the engine just revs but will slowly move after reaching 6,000 rpm. truck also advances slowly from a stop. 1st dealer advised me it actually was 21 seconds and that i should just wait the 21 seconds before shifting to reverse. 2nd dealer cannot duplicate problem because it is intermittent and seems worse when weather is warm and humid. 1st dealer indicated they did a reflash of transmission but 2nd dealer confirmed they did not and accomplished it and shifting improved. truck still does not downshift correctly to first gear upon coming to a stop or near stop and truck will remain in higher gear unless full stop and one second both occur. found plenty of same type complaints online from 2007 and 2008 sport trac owners but ford and their dealers try and convince me that there is no problem and they are not aware of others with same issues. reflash so far seems to have fixed problem of hard down and upshifting but created the slow down shifting to first gear. numerous close calls when truck is slow to accelerate into traffic because it does not down shift to first gear after slowing to 3 miles per hour or lower like ever other vehicle i have owned. *tr"
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2009-01-10

Complaint:
"2008 ford sport trac has a problem with the transmission. *nj the consumer noticed that after coming to a stop, the vehicle was not making a smooth stop, but rather lurching several times in stopping. the dealer performed a program on the transmission, however the continued. *jb"
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2008-03-11

Recalls for the 2008 Ford EXPLORER SPORT TRAC

Component Recalls

Choose a component to see what recalls people have made about them.

Recall:
"on certain sport utility vehicles equipped with the 4.6l engine and 6r transmission, the bolt securing the transmission oil cooler line fittings at the transmission may not have been sufficiently torqued during vehicle assembly. as a result, the bolt may loosen and the transmission oil cooler lines may disengage from the transmission, causing a transmission fluid leak."
Consequence:
IF LEAKING TRANSMISSION FLUID CONTACTS THE CATALYTIC CONVERTER, IT MAY POSE A RISK OF FIRE.
Remedy:

DEALERS WILL INSPECT AND HAVE THE TRANSMISSION COOLER LINE ATTACHMENT BOLT TIGHTENED FREE OF CHARGE. THE RECALL BEGAN ON AUGUST 30, 2007. OWNERS MAY CONTACT FORD AT 1-800-392-3673.

Component(s) Involved: POWER TRAIN > AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION > COOLING UNIT AND LINES
Date of incident: 2007-09-26

FORD Overall Complaint Ranking

This table shows the ranking of car manufacturers when it comes to most complaints and recalls. The manufacturer with the most complaints is at the top. However this doesn't necassarily mean they should be avoided. Some manufacturers might just have more popular or affordable cars which a lot of people have bought. Which means there's more scope for a complaint to be made. Use the ranking table below as a part your wider research into buying a car.

FORD ranks 1 out of 44 in the complaints ranking table.

Manufacturer Complaint Count Recall Count Ranking
FORD 208,358 3,259 1
CHEVROLET 111,306 2,082 2
TOYOTA 81,019 1,852 3
HONDA 61,937 1,268 4
NISSAN 56,226 930 5
DODGE 45,756 827 6
HYUNDAI 44,150 649 7
GMC 34,441 1,410 8
KIA 29,832 501 9
CHRYSLER 27,698 254 10
TESLA 26,230 730 11
BMW 24,890 1,877 12
VOLKSWAGEN 23,125 829 13
MERCEDES-BENZ 19,066 2,925 14
SUBARU 18,513 703 15
MAZDA 10,599 364 16
PONTIAC 10,430 138 17
CADILLAC 9,434 444 18
AUDI 7,865 1,093 19
BUICK 7,851 279 20
SATURN 7,672 84 21
MERCURY 7,374 135 22
LEXUS 6,373 408 23
LINCOLN 5,897 423 24
ACURA 5,722 382 25
MINI 5,585 366 26
INFINITI 4,000 187 27
MITSUBISHI 3,912 397 28
VOLVO 3,875 727 29
PORSCHE 2,646 1,231 30
SUZUKI 2,272 123 31
FIAT 2,205 80 32
SAAB 1,536 76 33
JAGUAR 1,195 198 34
SMART 528 17 35
GENESIS 436 42 36
ISUZU 249 37 37
ALFA ROMEO 161 37 38
MASERATI 76 46 39
BENTLEY 46 159 40
POLESTAR 42 2 41
LUCID 14 6 42
CODA 4 2 43
MAYBACH 0 0 44

Related Vehicles

Why not check out other FORD vehicles?

2014 FUSION
FORD
  • Overall Safety Rating: 5
  • Complaints Count: 1213
  • Recall Count: 19
View Car
2015 TRANSIT CONNECT
FORD
  • Overall Safety Rating: 5
  • Complaints Count: 56
  • Recall Count: 9
View Car
2016 F-250 SUPERCAB
FORD
  • Overall Safety Rating: 4
  • Complaints Count: 223
  • Recall Count: 3
View Car
2022 MAVERICK
FORD
  • Overall Safety Rating: 4
  • Complaints Count: 242
  • Recall Count: 8
View Car