Other suspension problem on the 2002 Ford Explorer
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 203 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.
When other suspension problem gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Ford Explorer report other suspension problem at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 63,000 miles and a quarter after 94,000 miles, from 166 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 100,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 48,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 126,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 78,000 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
6% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47,500 miles | 63,049 miles | 80,250 miles | 94,000 miles | 125,500 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, 2 a crash and 1 an injury are 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 $350–$2,000 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 24 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 2,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 165,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Two problems. There is a strong rotten egg smell in my explorer. I had the vehicle checked while under warranty, but was told there was no problem. Since the warranty expired the smell has become stronger. I had it checked, and the ford service department said it would cost $600 to repair. The other is a shimmy at 40 miles per hour. The service department just rotated and balanced my tires. I had this done a month earlier and it did not solve the problem. The vehicle still shimmies badly at 40 MPH. *nlm
Defective 2002 ford explorer front stabilizer bar - since I have purchased this vehicle, the front stabilizer bar has been replaced twice, first on 4/15/02, and again on 5/6/03. I have noticed that NHTSA has asked ford to recall earlier models of this vehicle for this same defect, and I am concerned this could be a safety issue, although the servicing dealer has not indicated it could be. *jb
I took my 2002 explorer in for recall on rear door. They told me that both rear springs broke. This vehicle has less than 44,000 miles on it, and has the tow package although nothing was ever towed. The springs that broke are at the very top and hard to find. Mechanic would have had to know to look there to find it. This LED me to believe that there have been others with the same problem.*ak
Also reported on the 2002 Ford Explorer
Other powertrain problem
Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure
Complete transmission failure
Differential or transfer case failure
Other body or interior problem
Wheel bearing or hub failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 203 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 other suspension problem happen on the 2002 Ford Explorer?
Across 166 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 63,000 miles and a quarter after 94,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other suspension problem on the 2002 Ford Explorer?
203 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.9 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