2004 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #549488
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:AXLE ASSEMBLY:BANJO HOUSING filed August 14, 2005
NHTSA complaint #549488 (ODI reference 10132755) concerns a 2004 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on August 14, 2005. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 12, 2005. The report was geocoded to Missouri based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train:axle assembly:banjo housing, 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. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.
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 power train:axle assembly:banjo housing 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 2004 FORD EXPLORER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THERE IS A WHINE OR "HOWL" COMING FROM THE REAR AXLE OF OUR 2004 FORD EXPLORER WITH LESS THAN 9000 MILES ON IT. WE BROUGHT IT BACK TO THE FORD DEALER IN CAMDENTON, MO WHERE IT WAS PURCHASED AND EXPLAINED THE PROBLEM THAT THERE IS A LOUD WHINE COMING FROM THE REAR AXLE AT SPEEDS BETWEEN 50 AND PEAKS AT 62. THEY SAID THAT THEY WERE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH THOSE AND SAID SOMETHING ABOUT THAT IT WOULD PROBABLY NEED A REAR PINION SEAL. AFTER HAVING THE VEHICLE FOR TWO DAYS AND HAVING GIVEN US THE IMPRESSION THAT IT WAS GOING TO BE FIXED, THEY SAID THAT THE PROBLEM ISN'T BAD ENOUGH TO WARRANT REPAIR AND THAT IT NEEDS TO BE BROKEN IN LONGER. I WAS TOLD THAT TWICE, ONCE ON THE PHONE AND ONCE IN PERSON WHEN I GOT THERE TO PICK IT UP. I TOLD THE MAN THAT I DIDN'T BELIEVE THAT AND THAT THE WHINE IS GETTING WORSE, NOT BETTER. *NM
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 549488 |
| ODI Number | 10132755 |
| Date Filed | August 14, 2005 |
| Failure Date | August 12, 2005 |
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.