2020 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #1950433
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SEATS:MID/REAR ASSEMBLY:HEAD RESTRAINT filed December 15, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1950433 (ODI reference 11560235) concerns a 2020 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on December 15, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 15, 2023. The vehicle had 70,000 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 seats:mid/rear assembly:head restraint, 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 seats:mid/rear assembly:head restraint 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 2020 FORD EXPLORER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2020 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that the rear seat headrests failed to remain in the upright position. The contact stated that while attempting to adjust the headrest, the headrest failed to lock into the selected position. The contact had not taken the vehicle to a local dealer or independent mechanic. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 70,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1950433 |
| ODI Number | 11560235 |
| Date Filed | December 15, 2023 |
| Failure Date | May 15, 2023 |
| VIN | 1FM5K8GC3LG |
Similar SEATS:MID/REAR ASSEMBLY:HEAD RESTRAINT Complaints for 2020 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.