2021 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #2094614
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about FIRERELATED filed May 23, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2094614 (ODI reference 11662838) concerns a 2021 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on May 23, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 19, 2025. The vehicle had 75,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Virginia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as firerelated, 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: yes, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. 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 firerelated 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 2021 FORD EXPLORER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owned a 2021 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that the vehicle was parked in the driveway for over three hours before the vehicle caught on fire. The origin of the fire was unknown, however, the contact believes the fire originated from faulty electrical wiring. The vehicle was unoccupied during the fire. The location of the fire was the rear end of the vehicle. The fire department arrived to extinguish the fire. A fire department report was filed. A police report was not filed. The vehicle was destroyed. The local dealer was contacted, and the vehicle was not diagnosed as it was determined to be a complete loss. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 75,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2094614 |
| ODI Number | 11662838 |
| Date Filed | May 23, 2025 |
| Failure Date | January 19, 2025 |
| VIN | 1FMSK8DH4MG |
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.