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2018 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #2144422

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NHTSA Complaint about STRUCTURE:INTERIOR PANELS:DASHBOARD filed October 30, 2025

NHTSA complaint #2144422 (ODI reference 11696552) concerns a 2018 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on October 30, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on October 30, 2023. The vehicle had 45,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as structure:interior panels:dashboard, 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:interior panels:dashboard 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 2018 FORD EXPLORER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2018 FORD EXPLORER
Component
STRUCTURE:INTERIOR PANELS:DASHBOARD
State
Florida
Mileage
45,000 mi

Complaint Description

The contact owns a 2018 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that due to sunlight exposure, the outer layer of the dashboard peeled off and continued to expand near the location of the air bags. The contact was concerned that the defect might cause an air bag deployment malfunction in the event of a crash. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, and the contact was informed that the entire dashboard needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was offered. The failure mileage was 45,000.

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 2144422
ODI Number 11696552
Date Filed October 30, 2025
Failure Date October 30, 2023
VIN 1FM5K8HT8JG

Similar STRUCTURE:INTERIOR PANELS:DASHBOARD Complaints for 2018 FORD EXPLORER

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.