Front Clip Explorer - Sport Trac Cross Reference

[Doug Menkhaus]

Well. This sucks. My daughter was driving my '02 Sporttrac and rear-ended another car. She's OK. Rather be talking to the insurance agent instead of the funeral agent.



Air bags both deployed, but minor front end damage. The tow hooks took most of the brunt. OK, so I 've located both air bags and the control module. ?: Do I need to replace the control module, or just the air bags? The control module is under the center console, so I'd rather not have to go there unless I have to. I will if I need to.



Next, need a front bumper cover. (Red preferred!nline Searching and searching. What is the Explorer Cross Reference to that cover? The 2 Door Sport? Is there one?



Lastly, anyone have an '02 near Cincinnati Ohio (Again, Red preferred!) they know being parted out? I need the Front bumper cover and a left fender would be great (but not absolutely needed)



Doogie

 

[Duane Foster]

'01-03 2 door Explorer Sport and '01-05 Sport Tracs share the same front end.



Regarding the airbags, from what I've read you either need to have the dealer reset the module or possibly replace it. Either way, I don't think you can just replace the airbags. I don't know if you can take a good control module from another truck and put it in yours without doing anything else.

 

[Doug Menkhaus]

Thanks Duane. I have the control module and both Air bags from an Explorer Sport (bumper cover was already removed :cry:



I'll most likely go ahead and replace the module since I have plenty of time while I'll search for a Front bumper cover in Red. Now that I know an '01-'03 Sport will work I can expand my search.



Thanks again! I appreciate it.



Doogie

 

[Richard L]

Doogie,

If your truck was insured, or not, I recommend you take it to a certified shop to get the airbags replaced.



I recently read an article discussing whether body shops should be replacing airbags because of the possible liability if they fail in a future accident. Body shops and even dealer service techs require some extensive and expensive training and certification to qualify them to install airbags. Most body shops send the vehicles to certified dealers or shops to replace airbags.



If you already have the airbags, you need to be aware that there are a lot of scammers selling airbags that are not certified and may be of questionable quality...because they can make a quick profit, and if the bag fails down the road they will be long gone with your money and don't care if anyone was killed or injured do to the garbage they sold you. Even if you can locate them, if the airbag was not installed by a certified airbag installer, they will just claim that was the reason for the failure. And certified airbag installers will never install airbags that you purchased...they will not risk a lawsuit by installing an airbag from an unknown or questionable source.



I can appreciate that your daughter was not injured...possibly because the airbags deployed successfully. I would never risk the life of anyone in my family or a friend's life with airbags that I installed. I have a 2008 Mercedes that was recalled over a year ago for those defective driver side and passenger side Takata airbags. The Mercedes has been sitting in the garage for over a year waiting for Mercedes Benz to get the replacement airbags. I will not risk my life or my passenger's lives by driving the vehicle, even though Mercedes Benz claims that none of their vehicles has experienced a failure of their Takata airbags (explodes sending shrapnel into the persons face/neck causing 12 deaths and over 800 serious injuries).

The latest death was a 17 year old girl in early April 2017 !!



...Rich