2021 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #2178063
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION filed February 18, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2178063 (ODI reference 11718811) concerns a 2021 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on February 18, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 28, 2026. The report was geocoded to Georgia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension, 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 suspension 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
For full details please refer to complaint 11715221. Since the initial complaint, repairs have been completed and I will attach a list of parts that were replaced. The repair confirmed the rear axle bolt sheared and there were significant metal shavings in the rear differential. When the bolt broke, numerous other components were damaged as detailed in the repair documentation. Ford has refused to accept any responsibility for this repair even though the safety implications for this type of incident are alarming.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2178063 |
| ODI Number | 11718811 |
| Date Filed | February 18, 2026 |
| Failure Date | January 28, 2026 |
| VIN | 1FM5K8ABXMG |
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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.