2018 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #2178097
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING filed February 18, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2178097 (ODI reference 11718838) concerns a 2018 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on February 18, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 15, 2025. The vehicle had 118,000 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 engine and engine cooling, 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 engine and engine cooling 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.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2018 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the check engine warning light illuminated. Prior to the failure, when the vehicle was started, there was an abnormal sound coming from the engine. After several minutes, the sound ceased. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who diagnosed the vehicle with a misfire in cylinder #3. The contact was informed that the spark plug was stuck, and the independent mechanic was unable to remove the spark plug. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken back to the independent mechanic. The vehicle was diagnosed with a misfire in cylinder #3, and the spark plug and ignition coil were replaced. The contact was unsure if the stuck spark plug was removed the second time the vehicle was repaired. Most recently, the contact noticed that while the vehicle was in park(P) and left running, the vehicle was i
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2178097 |
| ODI Number | 11718838 |
| Date Filed | February 18, 2026 |
| Failure Date | August 15, 2025 |
| VIN | 1FM5K8DH7JG |
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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.