Hello All from VA

[Old Coot 46]

Hey there all. Glad to find this forum.

I bought a used 2018 XLT 4X4 about a month ago. 85,000 miles. It's 13 years newer than any car/truck I've owned. So you can imagine how much I'm enjoying the whistles and bells. My 2000 F150 7700 has a cassette deck if that tells you anything. Yeah, I'm an Old Coot.

Absolutely love driving the Explorer. It does have a few things that I'd like to fix. I'll post a bit here. Any wisdom/experience is appreciated.

*:Admin please let me know if these need to be posted somewhere other than "New Member".

The easy stuff first.

1 The driver side sun visor (lighted and garage door opener) will not stay in the full forward position. It drops to mid way. So either it blocks my view partially or the sun blinds me. I have a new (used) one. Installing it is easy, getting to the power connector...not so much. I'd rather not have to drop the headliner. Even then the connector is taped/secured to the headliner and not sure I could get to it by just dropping the front left. I'm actually thinkin of cutting and attaching the wires. Before I do that, I wanted to see if I was missing anything on getting to the connector.

2 The passenger side rear door will not open from the inside. (It's not a former Police vehicle). There are no child safety locks that I can find and the drivers side works fine. How difficult is it to pull the panel and what am I looking for once I pull it?

Now the not so easy I'm guessing.

When accelerating hard and especially when it drops a couple gears on the interstate, I feel the dreaded "rumble strip" vibe. Had the transmission serviced and still doing it. Is this a drive shaft universal issue? According to Dorman it's likely the case. What's been y'alls experience and what am I looking for?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[dvdswan]

Welcome to the site.

 

[Mike65]

Welcome from southwestern Va. Nice looking Explorer. Have you tried to remove the driver's side Sunvisor & see if the connector is by the hole in the headliner? Open the passenger's side rear door & operate the inside door handle & see if you can hear the linkage in the door operating. Look at the edge of the door near the latch for the child safety switch. I would have a transmission tech drive it & see what they think. Did you take it back to the dealer you bought it from & ask them about your issues you describe?

where is the child safety switch on a 2018 ford explorer located - Google Search

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum!

 

[Old Coot 46]

Welcome from southwestern Va. Nice looking Explorer. Have you tried to remove the driver's side Sunvisor & see if the connector is by the hole in the headliner? Open the passenger's side rear door & operate the inside door handle & see if you can hear the linkage in the door operating. Look at the edge of the door near the latch for the child safety switch. I would have a transmission tech drive it & see what they think. Did you take it back to the dealer you bought it from & ask them about your issues you describe?

where is the child safety switch on a 2018 ford explorer located - Google Search

Thanks for the answer. Apologies for the late reply. I could not get back into the site for some reason.

I replaced the sun visor with a used one. Had to splice the wiring to keep from pulling the headliner but it's GTG now.

I don't think mine has child safety locks. I have looked everywhere.

I did have the trans serviced and they said it was working fine. I may need to get a 2nd opinion. I had read that often times it's the U joints in the driver shaft. Not sure which way to go next

 

[peterk9]

Thanks for the answer. Apologies for the late reply. I could not get back into the site for some reason.

I replaced the sun visor with a used one. Had to splice the wiring to keep from pulling the headliner but it's GTG now.

I don't think mine has child safety locks. I have looked everywhere.

I did have the trans serviced and they said it was working fine. I may need to get a 2nd opinion. I had read that often times it's the U joints in the driver shaft. Not sure which way to go next

Welcome to the Forum.
Your Explorer does have child safety locks on both rear doors. Check the manual.

Peter

 

[Old Coot 46]

Welcome to the Forum.
Your Explorer does have child safety locks on both rear doors. Check the manual.
View attachment 451880

Peter

Thanks so much Peter. The door opens now!

I had looked and looked at the door edges, never caught the key slot. Frankly I didn't even know I had a key LOL.....

Thanks so much!

Any ideas on the vibration?

 

[peterk9]

I don't know if the PTU (Power Transfer Unit) could cause that. The vehicle is FWD biased and only goes into AWD when needed, It is referred to as Intelligent AWD. It isn't really a 4X4.

Peter

 

[texsn95]

There's a dog bone looking transmission mount that goes bad after a while. There have been posts about it in the recent past I think.

 

[Old Coot 46]

I don't know if the PTU (Power Transfer Unit) could cause that. The vehicle is FWD biased and only goes into AWD when needed, It is referred to as Intelligent AWD. It isn't really a 4X4.

Peter

I had the PTU replaced. It went out on me 2 weeks after I bought it. Yes I went back to the dealer. I didn't purchase any extra warranty and never have. It came with a 30 day 50/50 powertrain warranty.
The mild rumble strip vibration on hard acceleration was there before I put the PTU in.