Why Were They Called EXPLODERS?

[dcckaiser]

I've been calling my 92 an Exploder since I bought it new. Nothing more than an affectionate nick name for a great ride. IMHO

 

[blueka]

I thought you guys might get a kick outta this

Si

 

[mr cribb]

I grew up hearing the term. I have called mine an exploder since day one of my ownership so that if it ever does "EXPLODE" I won't be disappointed

But on another note it does sound cool to say.

 

[Vapocalyptic]

My father's exploder actually blew a tire on the free way that ripped a gas line or some ****. It burnt to the ground before his eyes.

 

[ron0429]

my buddy had a 02 or 03 expedition(dubbed the EXPLODITION) the 5.4 triton engines were notorious for blowing spark plugs through the hood haha

 

[Wolfie_85]

Wow! Old thread. Oh well, my two-cents: Never had any fire issues. Dad had a '92 and it ended up with 500,000 miles on it. He only got rid of it because 3rd gear went. He replaced it with a '94. He passed, now I have it. Exploder is just a silly nickname. There was the cruise switch thing, but it was a free fix.

 

[Redneckfordf250]

I only call my explorer "exploder" when she lets me down. I get so ticked off at it I start curing and calling it a damn exploder. Other then that she goes by Blizzard or explorer because she is being reliable.

Heck my dad calls my mom's 97 Expedition Green snot everytime he finds something that needs repaired. LOL Other wise it is Expy or Beast II.
Trav

 

[vq5speed]

I like like the nickname Exploder. I've often called mine the name on occasion. Mines Exploded 3 times and its still rolling!

 

[Roadrunner777]

I had a gas station attendant use that term the other day. As I'm sure was mentioned, this was fairly controversial in it's early years. People were not used to the higher center of gravity in a family-marketed vehicle, and it had a worse than average record for rollover problems with over-steering.

Then there were the tires. In the day, Firestone developed a bad record for low-inflation blowouts due to overheating. This was most infamous on their commercial tire line and there were injuries (if not fatalities, I forget) with blowouts on passenger buses. I myself still have the Firestone spare tire, and just had a new valve stem put in due to age. I talked to the shop owner, he looked it over and had a chuckle over the age of the tire, but he pronounced it serviceable, even with a 1987 date code.

I have called my truck worse than 'Exploder'... no biggie. Heck, my first car was a Pinto... but that is a different story.

 

[vq5speed]

Roadrunner,
Recently I seen on the news them talking again about age of tires that some people are trying to push lawmakers to make tires older then 5 years mandatory replacement no matter how much tread is still on the tire. My tires on my X right now are 11 years old and they still have 70% of tread on them.

 

[whistlewing]

1998 6 cyl 4L Ford Explorer or a Ford Exploder ???

Ford Explorer is called Exploder because on my 1998, the rear back timing chain tensioner, that is made out of plastic which in an oil environment ,will breakdown in time and fail. My time happened at 171,000 km. The cost to repair and labour, with a new engine from the dealer was quoted at $7,200. It should be noted that Ford or the Department of Transport, that regulates safety on our highways, does not classify this as safety! Now isn't that interesting! So if someone is driving on the outside lane of a highway and they suddenly lose their timing on the 3 cylinders, with a sudden power loss and they try to cut over to get off the road, does the Department of Transport not thing that this condition is a case for a big accident just waiting to happen? I see on the internet that this is also happening to many Explorer owners around that year. So if you happen o have a plastic chain tensioner on your vehicle and your vehicle is still on the road, your time is coming and I hope you don't cause an accident that cases loss of life! And for The Ford Motor Company that does absolutely nothing to take responsibility for issuing a recall, I say...Bad business practice that will turn future customers away for ignoring this serious problem. If you have had a similar experience with this problem, feel free to contact me at: whistlewing123@gmail.com Thank You :exp::thumbdwn:

 

[2stroke]

I always thought the term more applied to the second gens. The plastic intake manifold would warp and leak, coupled with the garbage vacuum operated air/heater controls that would also start to leak, and BOOM. I would never say these trucks are super reliable, no maintenance. They require a lot of maintenance compared to new vehicles. What I like about them is #1 they are dirt cheap, and #2 you can get dirt cheap parts for them EVERYWHERE. If you know how to maintain them, then they will be reliable. Ford mentality, "if it doesn't work, add a part to make it work." Chevy mentality, "if it doesn't work, re design it." Which one is better? I don't know. Which one is more fun to work on, its pretty easy to tell.

 

[larrydd999]

I also had a '92 - purchased new - with the tire problem. Unfortunately I had just replaced them when the recall came out so didn't get any benefit from it. The tires were starting to come apart from normal driving, so I replaced them with Michelin and have been using that brand ever since without any issues.
For me, the Explorers are 'right sized', have all of the features I like, and are relatively easy to work on. If they were inherently dangerous they would have been gone a long time ago.

 

[Wolfie_85]

Interestingly enough, I've been doing some reading out of boredom about the Explorer. All of the bad luck I've read about people having with them tends to be the result of unrealistic expectations of an SUV. Maybe some poor maintenance, too. There was the tire issue, that was a combination of a bad tire not properly inflated. Most people don't put as much thought into their tires as they should. Some talk about rollovers, but after driving MANY different SUV's, I really can't say any Explorer I've driven feels any more prone to rolling than any other SUV in it's class.

This is where we really get into the "unrealistic expectations" part: It's no wonder the Explorer got attention enough to earn a nickname, it sold incredibly well, and some first time SUV buyers who chose the Ex didn't realize that SUV's handled -far- differently than cars, nor did they even think about it. So, when bad things happened, they blamed the vehicle.

Of course, there is the cruise control issue, too. But didn't the F-150 have that, too? I've just never had bad luck with an Explorer. And you see way more first gen Explorers than you do Jimmys/Blazers of the same era.

Just the results of some boredom enduced reading and personal observation. I love my Exploder. It never explodes.

 

[Darth5oh]

So if someone is driving on the outside lane of a highway and they suddenly lose their timing on the 3 cylinders, with a sudden power loss and they try to cut over to get off the road, does the Department of Transport not thing that this condition is a case for a big accident just waiting to happen? I see on the internet that this is also happening to many Explorer owners around that year. So if you happen o have a plastic chain tensioner on your vehicle and your vehicle is still on the road, your time is coming and I hope you don't cause an accident that cases loss of life! And for The Ford Motor Company that does absolutely nothing to take responsibility for issuing a recall, I say...Bad business practice that will turn future customers away for ignoring this serious problem.

I’m not going to defend a bad design (if this is the case), but EVERY vehicle on the road has the POSSIBILTY of some type of failure that could stop the engine from running. (Look at all the cars with rubber timing-belts that have a 100,000-mile service life.)

[soapbox]
As a pilot – you always anticipate an engine-failure that would force you to land somewhere other than on a 5000-foot runway. Honestly – if you’re cruising in the left lane on a busy highway and your engine quits, and your first-instinct is to “cut over to get off the road” without looking – you need to evaluate your driving habits. You can mentally prepare for this. Know where your emergency-flasher button is… be prepared to put the car in neutral to aid in coasting if needed. Wave your hand to warn people behind you – LOOK – make no sudden moves, signal and smoothly pull the car off the left shoulder or off to the right (across lanes) if you’re clear to get over. One last thing – it seems about 80% of all drivers (in the US) immediately get over to the left lane and cruise there… I don't get it. (Plus it’s illegal in most states.) Ironically on long trips I take – the right lane is many time “the fast lane” as everyone is trying to get left...
[/soapbox]

 

[whistlewing]

As a pilot, I am aware of what to do in an emergency in the air. And we have excellent training to handle most in flight emergencies. There is no training given to people driving cars on what to do in case of engine failure on a super highway. But this happened to my wife and no one can assume what someone with limited knowledge will do during a sudden engine failure! I am sure that when there will be loss of life due to this chain tensioner problem, only then will the Department of Transport begin to take notice and issue a recall. But Ford will do everything to not make the condition public because it is not a simple and cheap thing to fix. Thanks for your input.

 

[natenkiki2004]

Regardless of the cause, this video gave me chills when I first saw it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2ItrwJ1zuc

It looks like a 2nd gen, at least from the dash. Could be underinflated tires, overloaded, combination of both... who knows.

I think a lot of the issue came from the fact that this was a lighter SUV that people treated like a sports car due to it's size. You don't see this happening with Suburbans or large trucks. The Explorer feels more like a car than a truck. The tire pressures were definitely too low and putting passenger rated tires on probably didn't help when people overloaded them.

It has to have some blame with the drivers & the tires because a lot of the handling characteristics and geometry were made with the earlier Rangers & Broncos that came many years before the Explorer did. Granted, those were 2-door but still, if it was a major inherent problem in design, these issues would have come up sooner.

Living in a rural area, it's shocking to see how many people just don't care about their vehicles. Balding tires and low air pressure, leaks & suspension issues. I'm fully aware that vehicles, especially older ones, take money to fix, often more than you want to invest but it's really hard to put a price on reliability or better yet, your life. I went through the whole tire thing myself. My Explorer came with 8 year old balding chinese tires that were dry rotted and had splits in them and I drove it that way for a year until this winter came. Something had to be done because they didn't have enough tread to do anything in the snow. I got some used mis-matched tires of varying tread and age and had them mounted. One went flat a week later, another started showing sidewall bubbling. I broke down and bought a new set of Coopers. I didn't want to fork over that $500 but now I have reliability and safety. They handle so much better and in 4x4, it crawls over anything. Looking back on it now, I feel stupid for not doing it sooner. You just cannot cheap out on critical things like this. The entire performance of the vehicle depends on the tires.


Another reason Explorers were called Exploders, and I think it might be the primary reason, was that the 2nd gens had an issue with the cruise control switch in the brake system. It was submerged in brake fluid, in the reservoir if I recall right. The switches were faulty and started fires. This was a problem on a lot of Fords though, it was the design of the circuit itself. The sensor was live 24/7, even with the engine off and key removed.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/16/ford.vehicles/index.html