2017 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #2064975
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STEERING:LINKAGES:TIE ROD ASSEMBLY filed February 12, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2064975 (ODI reference 11642289) concerns a 2017 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on February 12, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 10, 2025. The vehicle had 37,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Mississippi based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as steering:linkages:tie rod assembly, 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 steering:linkages:tie rod assembly 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 various speeds on uneven terrain or roads, the rear of the vehicle was pulling to the left or the right. There was no warning illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local independent mechanic where it was diagnosed and determined that the rear of the vehicle was misaligned from the front end. In addition, the local independent mechanic advised the contact that the rear tie rod needed to be replaced. The local dealer was contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 37,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2064975 |
| ODI Number | 11642289 |
| Date Filed | February 12, 2025 |
| Failure Date | February 10, 2025 |
| VIN | 1FM5K7D8XHG |
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.