2002 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #616161
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:DRIVELINE:CENTER SUPPORT BEARING filed March 10, 2007
NHTSA complaint #616161 (ODI reference 10184708) concerns a 2002 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on March 10, 2007. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 15, 2007. The vehicle had 47,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to North Carolina based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train:driveline:center support bearing, 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 power train:driveline:center support bearing 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.
Complaint Description
I JUST HAD TO REPLACE THE GEAR AND PINION ASSEMBLY, AXLE DIFFERENTIAL GEAR ON MY 02 EXPLORER, A VERY COSTLY REPAIR ON A 02, 47K MILES VEHICLE. BUT THE REASON WHY I'M MAKING A COMPLAINT IS BECAUSE I FOUND OVER 100 COMPLAINTS OVER THE INTERNET FOR THE SAME YEAR/MAKE VEHICLE. I TALKED TO A COUPLE OF DIFFERENT MECHANICS THAT TOLD ME THAT IF I DIDN'T NOTICE THE NOISE AND REPLACED THE PARTS, MY REAR WHEELS COULD LOCK WHILE DRIVING AND I COULD HAVE FOUND MYSELF IN A VERY DANGEROUS ACCIDENT. SO I CONTACTED FORD ABOUT IT, THEY RESPONDED THAT THEY WERE AWARE OF THE PROBLEM, BUT SINCE THE NHTSA DIDN'T FIND THIS TO BE A LIFE THREATENING PROBLEM FORD DECIDED NOT TO ISSUE A RECALL. POSSIBLY LOCKING THE REAR WHEELS ON A 4X4 VEHICLE IS NOT LIFE THREATENING???? HUNDREDS OF CONSUMERS WITH THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM AND NOTHING IS BEING DONE? IF THERE ARE NO FATAL ACCIDENTS FROM THIS PROBLEM YET IS BECAUSE PEOPLE LIKE MYSELF WILL SPEND THE $1100 TO REPAIR THE PROBLEM BEFORE THEY RISK THEIR FAMILIES...I
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 616161 |
| ODI Number | 10184708 |
| Date Filed | March 10, 2007 |
| Failure Date | February 15, 2007 |
| VIN | 1FMZU74E32U |
Similar POWER TRAIN:DRIVELINE:CENTER SUPPORT BEARING Complaints for 2002 FORD EXPLORER
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.