2020 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #2073956
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES:HATCHBACK/LIFTGATE:LOCK filed March 14, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2073956 (ODI reference 11648341) concerns a 2020 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on March 14, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 14, 2024. The vehicle had 40,000 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 latches/locks/linkages:hatchback/liftgate:lock, 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 latches/locks/linkages:hatchback/liftgate:lock 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 the vehicle was parked, the contact discovered that the rear hatch had failed to open. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed and determined that the latch needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline to report the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 40,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2073956 |
| ODI Number | 11648341 |
| Date Filed | March 14, 2025 |
| Failure Date | June 14, 2024 |
| VIN | 1FMSK8DH6LG |
Similar LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES:HATCHBACK/LIFTGATE:LOCK Complaints for 2020 FORD EXPLORER
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The contact owns a 2022 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that the rear hatch closed without driver input. The contact stated that the buttons were inoperable and failed to open the hatch as needed. W
The rear hatch opens unexpectedly with no command given. It happened twice while in Drive pulling out of my garage. There was no audible or visual warnings the hatch was opening. The hatch impacted th
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.