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2018 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #1890429

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NHTSA Complaint about STRUCTURE:INTERIOR PANELS:DASHBOARD filed April 25, 2023

NHTSA complaint #1890429 (ODI reference 11518931) concerns a 2018 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on April 25, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 25, 2023. The vehicle had 50,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Louisiana based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as structure:interior panels:dashboard, 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 structure:interior panels:dashboard 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 2018 FORD EXPLORER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2018 FORD EXPLORER
Component
STRUCTURE:INTERIOR PANELS:DASHBOARD
State
Louisiana
Mileage
50,000 mi

Complaint Description

The contact’s wife owns a 2018 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that the dashboard had started to peel. The contact also noticed that bubbles had started to form on the passenger’s side dashboard to the driver’s side dashboard above the air bag housing. The contact also stated that he noticed that the leather had started to peel. No warning light was illuminated. The contact stated that he was concerned that the failure could cause the air bag to deploy erroneously. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the dashboard needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and the contact was advised to call the NHTSA Hotline. The failure mileage approximately 50,000.

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1890429
ODI Number 11518931
Date Filed April 25, 2023
Failure Date January 25, 2023
VIN 1FM5K8HT0JG

Similar STRUCTURE:INTERIOR PANELS:DASHBOARD Complaints for 2018 FORD EXPLORER

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