2011 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #1971729
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:GEAR POSITION INDICATION (PRNDL) filed March 1, 2024
NHTSA complaint #1971729 (ODI reference 11574904) concerns a 2011 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on March 1, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 1, 2024. The vehicle had 104,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Iowa based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train:automatic transmission:gear position indication (prndl), 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 power train:automatic transmission:gear position indication (prndl) 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 2011 FORD EXPLORER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2011 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that while the windshield wipers were in the on position, the wipers went off the vehicle and had to be pushed back into place. There was an unknown yellow warning light illuminated. The contact stated that while making a turn, the driver's and passenger's front wheels detached on two occasions. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic and the vehicle received an unstated repair. There was an abnormal sound while driving at various speeds. While shifting gear, the vehicle jumped. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer however, the result of the diagnostic test was unknown. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 104,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1971729 |
| ODI Number | 11574904 |
| Date Filed | March 1, 2024 |
| Failure Date | March 1, 2024 |
| VIN | 1FMHK8D80BG |
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.