2011 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #2009858
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STRUCTURE:INTERIOR PANELS:DOOR filed July 23, 2024
NHTSA complaint #2009858 (ODI reference 11603970) concerns a 2011 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on July 23, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 24, 2018. The vehicle had 147,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Colorado based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as structure:interior panels:door, 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:door 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 observed that the door panel was separating from the door frame on the driver's side. The contact stated that the panel was separating from the middle of the panel and was creating a gap from left to right. The contact stated that the gap had trapped his left arm shirt sleeve and was more noticeable while wearing a coat. The contact stated that the failure impeding drivability. The contact had taken the vehicle to a local dealer and the contact was forwarded to an auto body shop for the repair. The contact stated that the passengerâs side door panel was also separating from the center top. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 147,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2009858 |
| ODI Number | 11603970 |
| Date Filed | July 23, 2024 |
| Failure Date | July 24, 2018 |
| VIN | 1FMHK8D87BG |
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.