2011 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #1848488
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STEERING:STEERING CONTROL MODULE filed October 19, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1848488 (ODI reference 11489944) concerns a 2011 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on October 19, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on October 8, 2022. The vehicle had 196,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as steering:steering control module, 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:steering control module 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 2011 FORD EXPLORER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2011 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that while his wife was driving at various speeds, the power steering assist failure warning light illuminated on multiple occasions. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where a diagnostic code reader was used to retrieve fault codes for the steering torque sensor and control module. The mechanic made the contact aware of NHTSA Campaign Number: 14V286000 (Steering) however, the VIN was not included in the recall. The vehicle was then taken to a local dealer and it was confirmed that the VIN was not included in the recall. The vehicle remained at the dealer awaiting a diagnostic test and the repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 196,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1848488 |
| ODI Number | 11489944 |
| Date Filed | October 19, 2022 |
| Failure Date | October 8, 2022 |
| VIN | 1FMHK7F85BG |
Similar STEERING:STEERING CONTROL MODULE Complaints for 2011 FORD EXPLORER
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.