2013 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #1914586
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STEERING:RACK AND PINION:RACK filed July 31, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1914586 (ODI reference 11535444) concerns a 2013 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on July 31, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 31, 2023. The vehicle had 135,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Maryland based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as steering:rack and pinion:rack, 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 EXPLORER cohort independently describe similar steering:rack and pinion:rack 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.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that when the vehicle was started, the power steering warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the steering wheel was firm. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that the steering rack needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but did not assist due to the vehicle not having unrepaired recalls associated with the VIN. The failure mileage was approximately 135,000. The VIN was not available.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1914586 |
| ODI Number | 11535444 |
| Date Filed | July 31, 2023 |
| Failure Date | July 31, 2023 |
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.