2013 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #2048892
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STRUCTURE:BODY:HATCHBACK/LIFTGATE filed December 17, 2024
NHTSA complaint #2048892 (ODI reference 11631204) concerns a 2013 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on December 17, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 1, 2022. The vehicle had 80,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Pennsylvania based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as structure:body:hatchback/liftgate, 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:hatchback/liftgate 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 2013 FORD EXPLORER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that there was water on the rear carpet and the floor was wet. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer, where it was diagnosed that the failure was due to the sunroof. The sunroof of the motor was disconnected, and valves and drainage pipes were cleaned. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure recurred. The contact stated that the rear seats were wet, and the seat belt was wet. Additionally, there was water in the tire well. There was rust located in the vehicle. The contact discovered that water had entered through the liftgate. The manufacturer was contacted and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 80,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2048892 |
| ODI Number | 11631204 |
| Date Filed | December 17, 2024 |
| Failure Date | May 1, 2022 |
| VIN | 1FM5K8D83DG |
Similar STRUCTURE:BODY:HATCHBACK/LIFTGATE Complaints for 2013 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.