2003 FORD EXPEDITION — Complaint #1850108
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:IGNITION:COIL filed October 26, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1850108 (ODI reference 11491056) concerns a 2003 FORD EXPEDITION and was filed on October 26, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 26, 2017. The vehicle had 196,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Washington based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:ignition:coil, 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. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.
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 EXPEDITION cohort independently describe similar electrical system:ignition:coil 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 2003 FORD EXPEDITION shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Expedition. The contact stated while driving 45 MPH, the engine was misfiring, and the contact smelled a burning odor inside the vehicle. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The contact was able to drive to his residence. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring while driving. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic on five occasions where it was diagnosed that water was leaking into the ignition coil. The independent mechanic installed silicon around the boot to prevent water from leaking into the coils; however, the failure persisted. The dealer was notified of the failure and informed the contact it was not a known failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 196,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1850108 |
| ODI Number | 11491056 |
| Date Filed | October 26, 2022 |
| Failure Date | December 26, 2017 |
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.