2017 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #1962648
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STRUCTURE:BODY:ROOF AND PILLARS filed January 29, 2024
NHTSA complaint #1962648 (ODI reference 11568624) concerns a 2017 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on January 29, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 12, 2023. The vehicle had 69,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Arizona based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as structure:body:roof and pillars, 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:body:roof and pillars 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 2017 FORD EXPLORER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2017 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the roof rail fractured. The contact stated that two years ago a recall notification for the failure was received, and the recall repair was completed. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed with fractured roof rail assembly. The contact was informed that the roof rail assembly needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 69,000. The contact stated the roof rail detached and flew off of the car on the freeway. The piece that is attached to the vehicle remains on the car. Also, the contact is requesting an update on the complaint.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1962648 |
| ODI Number | 11568624 |
| Date Filed | January 29, 2024 |
| Failure Date | December 12, 2023 |
| VIN | 1FM5K8GT7HG |
Similar STRUCTURE:BODY:ROOF AND PILLARS Complaints for 2017 FORD EXPLORER
The contact owns a 2017 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the contact became aware that the roof rails were inoperable. The contact stated that the roof rail on
My husband was driving on the highway on a windy day and the Apillar Trim blew off the car. It got stuck in one of the side mirrors and was bashing against the window until my husband could pull over
- The weather stripping around my front windshield failed and caused the molding around the windshield to also fail. - This failure occurred while driving at highway speeds. The flying debris alarmed
I was driving in the highway and one of the roof racks went off flying and almost hit the car behind me. After I stopped I checked the other rack and it is also lose and coming off.
IN JANUARY 2021 I had a recall for the roof rails on my 2017 Ford Explorer - it took them a year to get the parts due to covid but they finally fixed the roof rails. About one month ago the roof rail
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.