2003 FORD EXPLORER — Complaint #719520
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SEAT BELTS:INTEGRATED CHILD SEAT filed May 11, 2009
NHTSA complaint #719520 (ODI reference 10268363) concerns a 2003 FORD EXPLORER and was filed on May 11, 2009. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 11, 2009. The vehicle had 125,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Massachusetts based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as seat belts:integrated child seat, 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 seat belts:integrated child seat 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 OWNS A 2003 FORD EXPLORER. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE SECOND ROW MIDDLE SEAT BELT WAS NOT WORKING. THE SEAT BELT CANNOT BE PULLED OUT TO HOOK INTO THE CHILD SEAT. THE MANUFACTURER STATED THAT THE SEAT BELT WAS NOT UNDER WARRANTY; THEREFORE, THE CONTACT WOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR A DIAGNOSTIC. THE VEHICLE WILL BE TAKEN TO A CHILD SEAT TECHNICIAN AND THE DEALER. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 125,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 719520 |
| ODI Number | 10268363 |
| Date Filed | May 11, 2009 |
| Failure Date | March 11, 2009 |
| VIN | 1FMDU73K93U |
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.