Which parts fail
Components named in complaints (accelerator pedal, throttle, sudden acceleration, cruise control).
Mileage when the problem started
Owner reports
Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 1996 Ford Explorer owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).
On Wednesday December 29th, 2004, at approximately 3:30 pm I was traveling south on rt. 9w in my 1996 Ford Explorer xlt. The weather was clear, approximately 35-40f, and the roads were clear of snow and ice. I passed a car going 35mph in a 55 MPH area, and my Explorer stuck going at 3000r pms and accelerating. I tried to brake but my Explorer would not decelerate. I put on my hazards, put both of my feet on the brake pedals pushing as hard as I could and still could not control the vehicle. I ended up trying to pull into an empty parking lot, it still would not slow down so I turned the ignition off and ended up going through the parking lot and crashing down a 10 feet. Embankment. Both air bags deployed, vehicle was totaled. Transported to hospital by ambulance for observation and released.
Tl contact owns a 1996 Ford Explorer. While placing fuel in the vehicle, the contact noticed smoke underneath the hood. He opened the hood and noticed that the vehicle was on fire. The fire was doused with a fire extinguisher. The contact examined the damage and noticed that the wiring harness for the cruise control had melted, as well as the master cylinder. There were no warning signs prior to the failure. The vehicle has not been diagnosed by the dealer. The current and failure mileages were 127,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 1996 Ford Explorer. She stated the vehicle was left parked for approximately one hour. When the contact returned to the vehicle, she noticed the cruise control switch had overheated and melted. The contact was able to drive the vehicle home without incident. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing or repairs. The manufacturer would not provide any assistance. There was not a recall for the failure. The failure and current mileages were 91,309.
Dt*: the contact owns a 1996 Ford Explorer. It caught fire while parked, destroying the vehicle, the house, and another vehicle that was parked in the driveway. There is a NHTSA recall, # 05V388000, regarding the vehicle speed control. The vehicle had the same problems as indicated in the recall, however it is not included in the recall due to the VIN.
15 minutes after parking the vehicle and getting off the vehicle caught onfire under the hood in the drivers side. The fire expanded quickly caught drivers side front tire and moved on to the entire motor before the firefighters came and stopped the fire.
This vehicle experienced uncontrolled (runaway) acceleration after driving approximately 40 miles at highway speeds in 20 degree f temperature. Upon exiting the interstate highway, I proceeded through the first light (green) with out needing to brake or stop. The second (immediate) light was also green and I proceeded through it with slight acceleration (no braking). The next light was red with a line of cars waiting to proceed and I applied the brakes. At that point, the car started to slow and then began to accelerate and was at wide open throttle within a second or so. I braked as hard as I could and moved the shift lever to neutral as fast as possible, but the vehicle had enough momentum to crash into the rear car in line, which, in turn crashed into the vehicle ahead of it. Both other drivers were injured and taken to the hospital by ambulance. …
My 1996 Explorer is a 5.0 litre AWD eddie baur purchsed used. After driving using the cruise control without incident, I pulled into a parking lot. Coasting slowly into a parking slot applying the brakes, the engine appeared to increase power making it difficult to stop. The more I pressed the brake pedal the more the engine power increased preventing the vehicle from stopping until colliding with a vehicle in front. With the brake still applied, the engine raced when put in nuetral until switching the ignition off. The brake and accelerator operated normally after restarting. Damage resulted to the Explorer bumper. I did not observe the gas pedal position during the incident but assumed it could have been driven by the cruise control cable under uncommanded operation and severed the cruise cable before proceding. …
I was driving my 96 Ford Explorer sport, traveling 65 MPH on a freeway, when the car rpms suddenly went up to 5500 without me doing anything. The cruise control was not on. As the car accelerated I depressed the brakes and was only able to slow down slightly, I then reached down to check if something was contacting the accelerator and I also pulled the floor mat back. The car continued to accelerate past 80 MPH. Pumping the accelerator did not change anything. I have a manual transmission so I pushed down the clutch and the car slowed, however, the RPM stayed at 5500. I made it to the side of the freeway and turned off the car. I restarted it after the engine stopped and the RPM went back up to 5500. I then stopped the engine again and waited 5 minutes and then restarted and the car was then running normally. …
Searching by VIN: [redacted] number of open recalls: 0 but searching by make, model, and model year I found this recall: http://www-odi.NHTSA.dot.gov/owners/searchresults;jsessionid=sj1qww1gvddycs6xggchztlty2tn4kjkbpxv1gcs9vg9xl8b1zt5!857755995?prodtype=v&searchtype=prod&targetcategory=a&searchcriteria.model=Explorer&stats=215181%2c11%2c3%2c1611%2c236%2cexplorer&makestats=&jsonbaseurl=%2fdownloads%2ffolders%2f&searchcriteria.model_yr=1996&searchcriteria.make=Ford&searchcriteria.prod_ids=215181 report receipt date: oct 13, 2009 NHTSA campaign number: 09V399000 component(s): vehicle speed control the dealership shop and with your chat representative tried to convince me that the recalls are only by VIN even tough in your web-site it says: "besides the VIN search tool you just used, NHTSA offers additional safety information based on a vehicle's make, model, and model year and not tied to …
Safety recall 09s09 - scds (speed control deactivation switch) on Ford models made after 95 with a texas made deactivation switch that was made poorly. I purchased a 1996 Ford Explorer eddie bauer edition 4x4 truck in December of 2016, from a private party in nevada.the vehicle was purchased mainly so I could deliver as part of my job description and needed something with 4x4 since I live in snow. Did a test drive, everything seemed to work properly and drive nicely, drove it from reno, nv to portola, ca about 62 miles, everything still fine. The next day I got into the vehicle, was heading to the gas station when I realized the speedometer was not working properly, the arm went to 20mph and dropped to 0 and the vehicle began shifted bad from low to high gears on the automatic transmission. …
Related recalls
Vehicle speed control
Ford is recalling model years 1995-2003 windstar, 2000-2003 excursion diesel, 1993-1997 and 1999-2003 f-250 sd through f-550 sd diesel, 1992-2003 e-150 through e-550, 1995-2002 explorer, 1997 and 2002 Mercury mountaineer, 1995-1997 and 2001-2003 ranger, and 1994 f53 vehicles equipped with the texas instruments speed control…
Remedy: Ford will notify owners that dealers will install a fused wiring harness in line with the scds. On 1999-2003 windstar vehicles with a leaking scds, dealers will also inspect the ABS control module connector and repair…
Vehicle speed control
Vehicle description: multi-purpose passenger vehicles equipped with 5.0l engines originally sold or currently registered in the states of alaska, idaho, iowa, maine, michigan (upper peninsula only), minnesota, montana, nebraska, new hampshire, new york, north dakota, south dakota, vermont, wisconsin, and wyoming.
Remedy: Dealers will install a revised pcv system with water heated vacuum source.
Acceleration complaints in other Explorer years
Frequently asked questions
How common are acceleration problems on the 1996 Ford Explorer?
NHTSA has 148 complaints about the speed control & acceleration of the 1996 Ford Explorer, 10% of the model year's 1,450 complaints. The component named most often is accelerator pedal (39 mentions).
Is there a recall for 1996 Ford Explorer acceleration problems?
Yes — NHTSA recall 09V-399 (vehicle speed control, Oct 13, 2009); NHTSA recall 97V-074 (vehicle speed control, Apr 30, 1997). Recall repairs are free at authorized dealers.
At what mileage do 1996 Ford Explorer acceleration problems start?
Half of the complaints with a recorded mileage happened before about 139,000 miles, and 3% before 25,000 miles.
Is it dangerous?
Owners linked 19 crashes, 7 fires and 19 injuries and 1 death to speed control & acceleration problems on this model year. If you notice symptoms, have the car checked before driving further.
Source: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) — owner complaints through October 20, 2026, recalls and defect investigations; fuel economy from the EPA. Complaints are unverified reports and are not proof of a defect. How we rate model years.