2020 FORD EXPEDITION Complaints

The contact owns a 2020 Ford Expedition. While the contact's wife was driving at an undisclosed speed, the front passenger’s side air bag deployed unexpectedly. The contact stated that his twelve-year-old daughter was seated in the front passenger’s side seat during the failure. The daughter sustained a seat belt injury to the neck. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the unintended deployment of the passenger’s side air bag was confirmed. The contact was informed that the air bag needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact was informed that there was no recall coverage for the repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 73,682.

We own a Ford Expedition 2020. In 2023, we started noticing jerky, harsh, and aggressive “slips” when the vehicle was trying to change gears - upon multiple occasions. But, in 2024, we experienced three, major, different instances - all were extremely scary and it was miraculous they didn’t cause accidents, car pile ups, or worse! The first instance, the vehicle jerked and sputtered just as I was pulling out into a busy intersection. I thought it was going to die in the middle of the road. The second instance, several weeks later, it happened, again, as our family was driving in pouring rain down the interstate; it jerked so hard it felt like we hit a small wall. The third and final instance, we were on our way to vacation - 9 hours away with our family. It sputtered, jerked, and laid in 1st gear. Thank God, we were right at a hotel and able to pull in. We found a local mechanic to take the Expedition in and begin work on it. He was so kind to loan us his car to take on to PA to the Sight & Sound Theater so we wouldn’t lose our money on the tickets. We ended up losing 2 full days of our 4 day vacation; had to rent a vehicle to drive back home; and left our Expedition in VA for 6 weeks while they rebuilt a transmission and cleaned the catalytic converter. $12,160 to the mechanic + $1000 in car rentals. Here we are, now in August 2025, and there’s been a recall on the Powertrain Control Module and that’s being replaced. Lo, and behold, what does the PCM do? It acts as the vehicle’s main computer, managing and controlling various engine and TRANSMISSION functions (adjusting engine parameters like fuel injection, ignition timing, and transmission shift points) - imagine that!

The contact owns a 2020 Ford Expedition. The contact stated that while depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle failed to respond as intended and the vehicle lost power. A dealer was contacted. The vehicle was taken to a dealer to be diagnosed; however, the diagnostic result was not provided. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified on the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 106,000.

The contact owns a 2020 Ford Expedition. The contact stated while driving 40 MPH and attempting to accelerate, the vehicle went into LIMP Mode and the vehicle lost motive power. The contact was able to pull over to the shoulder of the roadway and turned off the vehicle. After restarting the vehicle, the vehicle returned to normal functionality, but the failure became a regular occurrence. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer or an independent mechanic. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was 55,000.

Driving and transmission gear bumping hard when shifting gears. Have pulled out twice to pass and transmission made hard bump and I could not go anywhere. The last time this happened was 7/29/25 and it made a lot of clanking noise and the faulty light came on. I let off the gas and it went back in gear and I made it home and have not drove it since. Ford dealership said there was no recall on transmission but I have read alot of complaints from other 2020 Expedition owners about this problem I have 70,000. plus miles and have taken extreme care of this vehicle.

Info sent to Ford in working with cust service w/o action: Our 2020 Expedition had 4 separate instances of slipping out of gear during a road trip (2 instances on 7/11 and 2 on 7/19). During each incident, the vehicle slipped gear at highway speed, RPMs maxed out on the dial, lost all acceleration and significant speed, and the vehicle remained unresponsive for several (3-5) seconds until finally accelerating after the unresponsive period. It goes without saying that completely losing gear at highway speed while navigating traffic is a serious life and safety issue. Having that occur four times on a single round trip presents unreasonable risk. We documented the mileage and engine conditions by taking a picture of the dash after recovering from each occurrence. Those details were shared with the Krieger Ford service center on 7/22. That Ford service team was not able to recover fault codes from this information. Without being able to identify a root cause based on lack of fault codes, Ford Service performed a transmission relearn on 7/22. The service team confirmed this step is an initial measure due to lack of codes and not being able to see inside the sealed transmission. Abandoning further assessment in favor of a potential but unlikely quick-fix may be appropriate with an inconvenience issue, but not acceptable on one with such serious consequences. I recognize that further assessment will require additional cost. The assessment cost relative to the risk associated with not properly addressing the root cause of this dangerous issue is clearly justified. I’ve previously communicated this same situation to Ford when it occurred on a road trip in July of 2024. We contacted the dealership (Germain Ford of Dublin) and were deferred multiple months due to Ford's transmission tech backlog. The codes were not available by the time a service appointment was open. Without error codes and a single occurrence at that time, Ford service was unable to investigate further.

Just about every time we get in the vehicle the center screen won’t light up and requires a power and fast forward button to reset. Sometimes this needs to be done twice in one drive.

The contact owns a 2020 Ford Expedition. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle failed to accelerate properly while depressing the accelerator pedal. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a dealer; however, the dealer failed to duplicate the failure. The contact stated that after several visits to the dealer, the dealer acknowledged the failure, and a valve body replacement was performed. The contact stated that the failure returned, and the failure became more frequent. The vehicle was taken to a dealer, and the ignition coils and spark plugs were replaced. The vehicle was valeted back to the residence, and the valet informed the contact that the failure was still present. The valet brought the vehicle back to the dealer, where it remained. The vehicle was diagnosed with a defective transmission, and the contact was informed that the vehicle was no longer covered under warranty. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline to report the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 60,000.

The contact owns a 2020 Ford Expedition The contact stated while depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle failed to respond as intended. The contact stated that the gear shifter operated independently. A dealer was contacted. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer or an independent mechanic to be diagnosed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified on the failure and transferred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline to report the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 127,000.

On several occasions the engine has slipped/stalled. Vehicle has only 27k miles on it, single owner. When moving from a stoplight the engine "slipped", all lights came on "service alert" or something similar. Vehicle recovered but I am very uneasy as I am a [XXX] female usually [XXX] and often on a very busy section of [XXX]. (This has occurred multiple times) When increasing speed, as to pass a vehicle or otherwise, vehicle is unresponsive or lags. To be clear this happens at speeds of 40-50 mph. It is unpredictable when this will occur nor why. I will likely sell this vehicle due to this safety issue. I spoke with a service rep at the local ford dealership who was able to look into the vehicle computer remotely but there was no record of the "Alert" or otherwise. I took the vehicle to my local mechanic who drove it and was able to replicate the danger/slipping. I was advised to do "zip code" driving only. I believe this "engine slipping" is related to the Recall just issued except the 2020 Ford Expedition is not included in this recall. Others have noted this issue as well with NHTSA. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)