2012 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #2097562
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING:TURN SIGNAL filed June 4, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2097562 (ODI reference 11664869) concerns a 2012 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on June 4, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 5, 2025. The vehicle had 237,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Minnesota based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting:turn signal, 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 exterior lighting:turn signal 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 2012 FORD EXPLORER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2012 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while driving 3 MPH, the power steering fault, the turn signal, advance-trac alert, and power train warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the steering wheel became inoperable. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who determined that the control modules were inoperable. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 237,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2097562 |
| ODI Number | 11664869 |
| Date Filed | June 4, 2025 |
| Failure Date | May 5, 2025 |
| VIN | 1FMHK8B81CG |
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.