Overheating on the 1997 Ford Explorer
1 fire 1 of the 16 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 6 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When overheating gets reported
There are 16 reports of overheating on the 1997 Ford Explorer, 6 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 102,000 miles. It is the 21st most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 102,633 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $400–$3,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2019 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 21; the 1997 has 16. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Consumer received recall 98060000 concerning fuel line rupture; however, this vehicle was not included in the recall due to VIN. While attempting to charge the battery, the consumer connected the cable to the fuel line bracket. This caused the fuel braid to overheat, causing the fuel line to rupture. *ak
Ford did not apply NHTSA recall 98v060 properly to my 1997 ford explorer VIN [xxx]. The do not ground warning was applied to the incorrect bracket. When I attempted to jump start the vehicle, I used the fuel line bracket since there was no warning label. The braided fuel line covers overheated and melted the fuel line resulting in a significant leakage of fuel when the engine was running. The vehicle had to be towed. Ford claims the recall was done properly. I have photographs which show it was not done properly. I believe that this poses a serious risk to the 300, 000+ vehicles that had this recall done. Summary 1.the warning label was not attached to the correct bracket when the vehicle was serviced per the recall 2.there is no label in the engine compartment indicating that the revised alternator bolt is a jump start ground location 3.fords position is that the repairs were done properly. My contention is that they were not done properly. 4.this situation poses an imminent danger to drivers, passengers and bystanders. 5.there are still significant numbers of these vehicles on the road. 6.ford should provide a label indicating…
My 1997 ford explorer was parked outside a local restaurant when I was alerted that the interior of my vehicle was on fire and that the fire department had been called. Black smoke was pouring out of the slightly opened windows when I approached the SUV and ultimately put the fire out with a fire extinguisher. Closer examination indicated that the source of the fire came from under the drivers side seat. One of the firemen on the scene speculated that the motor that controls the power seat overheated and started the fire. My first call was to ford motor company. Their response was that they would send me a letter in the mail. This letter came a week later and explained that although they would really like to assist me with my loss , there was not a recall on my vehicle, so they would not be able to assist me. My insurance company took care of me and hopefully they will also "take care of ford" to recoup their loss . I am fortunate that a young child or one of our family pets were not in the car. Any thoughts I may have had about buying another ford have been replaced with thoughts about there customer dis-service and the lack of…
Also reported on the 1997 Ford Explorer
Other wheel or tire problem
Other speed control problem
Tire blowout or tread separation
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 16 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 16 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does overheating happen on the 1997 Ford Explorer?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is overheating on the 1997 Ford Explorer?
16 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed