2003 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #615142
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:REAR WINDOW WIPER/WASHER:SWITCH/WIRING filed March 2, 2007
NHTSA complaint #615142 (ODI reference 10183996) concerns a 2003 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on March 2, 2007. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 2, 2007. The vehicle had 114,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Maryland based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:rear window wiper/washer:switch/wiring, 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 visibility:rear window wiper/washer:switch/wiring 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 2003 FORD EXPLORER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* - THE CONTACT CALLED ABOUT THE 2003 FORD EXPLORER XLT. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE AIR BAG LIGHT STAYED ON, AND WHEN IT WAS ON, THE AIRBAG DEACTIVATED WHICH WAS A SAFETY PROBLEM. IT HAPPENED ALL THE TIME. THE FUSES HAVE BEEN CHANGED UNDER WARRANTY, AND NOW THAT IT WAS NOT UNDER WARRANTY, IT WAS NO LONGER REPAIRED FREE OF CHARGE. THE CONTACT STATED THAT SHE WAS TOLD BY ONE SERVICE STATION THAT IT WAS STANDARD FOR THE FUSES TO BLOW BECAUSE OF THE FUSE BOX LOCATION. ANOTHER SERVICE STATION TOLD THE CONTACT THAT THIS WAS NOT TRUE THAT THE FUSE BOX WAS TO HIGH IN THE CAR FOR PEBBLES TO BE ABLE TO GET INTO THE FUSE BOX. ALSO, THE WINDSHIELD WIPERS WON'T TURN OFF BY THEM SELVES, EVEN WHEN THE KEYS WERE OUT OF THE IGNITION. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE AIRBAG LIGHT AND THE DOOR AJAR LIGHT WERE CONSISTENTLY ON. MOREOVER, THE ELECTRONIC SEAT WOULD NOT MOVE FORWARD OR BACKWARD. SHE HAD THE SEAT REPAIRED TWICE AND IT FAILED AGAIN. FINALLY, CONTACT STATED THAT THE VEHICLE WAS
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 615142 |
| ODI Number | 10183996 |
| Date Filed | March 2, 2007 |
| Failure Date | March 2, 2007 |
| VIN | 1FMZU73K53U |
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.