2018 Ford Expedition
Complaints about this year name cam far more often than the other years of this generation — 21% of them, about 51× the usual rate of 0.4%.
First year of a new generation. The Ford Expedition was redesigned for 2018. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 369 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 118 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 14 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 19.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- timing — 6.2% of this year's complaints, against 0.4% across the other years of this generation (16×). Owners wrote it as: timing, chain, timing chain.
- powertrain — 6.2% of this year's complaints, against 1.7% across the other years of this generation (3.7×). Owners wrote it as: powertrain, pcm, control module, reprogram.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
Also unusual this year
- transmission — 31% of complaints, 3× usual
- engine — 27% of complaints, 4× usual
- gear — 17% of complaints, 11× usual
What owners wrote
With only 53500 miles the gears stopped working. The gear shift pulls and hesitates when changing gears. The engine pulls when excelerating even at low speeds while struggling to shift. The Cam is also causing issues with loud start up sounds.
Door locks don’t unlock on 3 out of 4 doors. Transmission jerks and acts like losing power frequently. Engine tries to die at idle when stopping. Timing chains failed along with cam phasers yet symptoms still continue. Heater hoses leak to heater core. This ca…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V392000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 18V805000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V775000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V213000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 18V058000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 18V214000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 23V420000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 24V099000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 14. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Expedition was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2018 Ford Expedition? What happened to yours?
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