2020 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #2024297
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:REAR:SHOCK ABSORBER filed September 12, 2024
NHTSA complaint #2024297 (ODI reference 11614173) concerns a 2020 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on September 12, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 12, 2024. The vehicle had 43,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Wisconsin based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:rear:shock absorber, 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 suspension:rear:shock absorber 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 while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle drove over a pothole and made a metallic clunking sound. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and diagnosed with a failed driverâs side rear shock absorber. The contact was informed that the rear shocks needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and a case was filed. The failure mileage was approximately 43,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2024297 |
| ODI Number | 11614173 |
| Date Filed | September 12, 2024 |
| Failure Date | August 12, 2024 |
| VIN | 1FM5K8GCXLG |
Similar SUSPENSION:REAR:SHOCK ABSORBER 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.