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2013 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #1803798

Open-data reference.

NHTSA Complaint about STEERING:RACK AND PINION:MOUNTING BRACKET filed March 25, 2022

NHTSA complaint #1803798 (ODI reference 11458297) concerns a 2013 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on March 25, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 26, 2022. The vehicle had 147,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Arkansas based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as steering:rack and pinion:mounting bracket, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.

The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.

Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same FORD EXPLORER cohort independently describe similar steering:rack and pinion:mounting bracket failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2013 FORD EXPLORER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2013 FORD EXPLORER
Component
STEERING:RACK AND PINION:MOUNTING BRACKET
State
Arkansas
Mileage
147,000 mi

Complaint Description

The contact owns a 2013 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while reversing out the driveway at 5 MPH, the power steering rack light illuminated on the instrument panel. The contact continued to drive; however, while turning the steering wheel, the steering wheel seized and the contact slammed on the brake pedal to stop the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to a local mechanic and diagnosed with rack and pinion bracket failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 147,000.

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1803798
ODI Number 11458297
Date Filed March 25, 2022
Failure Date February 26, 2022
VIN 1FM5K7D85DG

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.