2005 Ford Explorer
This year drew an ordinary 568 complaints for a Ford Explorer — the model's median is 416. What they were about is the unusual part: 24.1% of them mention crack, against 4.7% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 568 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 416 |
| Involving a crash | 27 |
| Involving a fire | 7 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| EPA combined | 15 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- crack — 24.1% of this year's complaints, against 4.7% across the model's other years (5.1×). Owners wrote it as: crack, emblem, hatch, lift.
- panel — 19.9% of this year's complaints, against 5.6% across the model's other years (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: panel, cracked, below, fracture.
- gauge — 15.5% of this year's complaints, against 4.6% across the model's other years (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: gauge, tank, empty, fuel gauge.
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.
What owners wrote
FUEL GAUGE DROPS TO EMPTY AFTER FILLING THE TANK UP AND STARTING IT. THE FUEL GAUGE REMAINS ON EMPTY. SERVICE ENGINE LIGHT COMES ON AND STAYS ON. IT IS UNSAFE NOT KNOWING HOW MUCH FUEL IS IN THE TANK BECAUSE YOU COULD RUN OUT OF GAS AT 70+MPH AND CAUSE A CRASH…
THE REAR LIFTGATE WAS CRACKED UNDERNEATH THE WINDOW AND EXTENDED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE GATE ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE EMBLEM. THE CRACK HAD BECOME PROGRESSIVELY WORSE OVER TIME. THE DEALER INFORMED THE CONTACT THAT THE FAILURE WAS A DESIGN FLAW AND IF IT WAS REPA…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 06E049000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 07E104000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 06E026000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Explorer 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 2005 Ford Explorer? What happened to yours?
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