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2002 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #507916

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NHTSA Complaint about SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:FOUNDATION COMPONENTS:DIFFERENTIAL PROPORTIONAL VALVE filed November 23, 2004

NHTSA complaint #507916 (ODI reference 10101559) concerns a 2002 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on November 23, 2004. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 2, 2003. The vehicle had 40,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Georgia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as service brakes, hydraulic:foundation components:differential proportional valve, 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 service brakes, hydraulic:foundation components:differential proportional valve 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 2002 FORD EXPLORER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2002 FORD EXPLORER
Component
SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:FOUNDATION COMPONENTS:DIFFERENTIAL PROPORTIONAL VALVE
State
Georgia
Mileage
40,000 mi

Complaint Description

WHILE DRIVING AT A SLOW SPEED THE REAR LEFT AXLE STARTED SMOKING AND BECAME RED HOT. THE PAINT ALSO PEELED OFF. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO THE DEALERSHIP WHO INDICATED THAT THE REAR LEFT BRAKE HAD LOCKED UP. THE BRAKE WAS REPLACED. THE REAR DIFFERENTIAL SEAL WAS LEAKING ALSO. THE SEAL AND FLUID WAS REPLACED. SINCE THE BRAKE FAILURE THERE WAS A WHINING NOISE IN THE REAR AXLE AT SPEEDS OFF 50-55 MPH. *JB

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 507916
ODI Number 10101559
Date Filed November 23, 2004
Failure Date March 2, 2003
VIN 1FMZU63E32U

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