Other wheel or tire problem on the 2004 Ford Explorer
2 crashes 1 fire 3 of the 38 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 wheel or tire problem gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Ford Explorer report other wheel or tire problem at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles, from 32 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 60,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 142,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 117,660 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.
19% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25,940 miles | 38,772 miles | 66,000 miles | 105,721 miles | 143,600 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 a fire 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 $200–$1,500 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 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 20 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 1997 carries the most reports, with 603; the 2004 has 38. 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.
I purchashed my 2004 ford explorer on january 11, 2005. After the first week I had to take it back to the service department of the dealership, on saturday, january 22, 2005. I informed them that the transmission is lagging when automatically shifting and that sometimes there is a loud clunk during the automatic shifting and especially when putting the car in reverse. Also the tire pressure warning light has been coming on; so they checked that and said that they replaced the sensors. That light is still staying on. As for the transmission, I was informed that there is a manufacturer defect and that they were going to order the parts to fix it. As of january 31, 2005, the parts still have not come in. In the meantime I am having to continue to drive this vehicle and the problem seems to be getting worse. I do quite a bit of driving on the highway to get back and forth to work and I am very concerned about the transmission as well as the tire pressure. *ak
Dt: the chrome on the wheels was chipping off and the consumer feels that he should not have to pay to get them fixed and that the cracking is a safety issue. The dealer says that the warranty expired and that they will not fix them for free. The manufacturer said that they will assist the consumer in paying for the problem but the consumer turned them down. *ak *sc *jb
Ltr fwd email fm consumer re defective michelin cross terrain p235/70r-16 tires for a 2004 ford explorer, request a defect investigation, DOT/i32005-5097. *ts while driving 55 MPH the consumer's vehicle began to vibrate. A soon as the consumer pulled of the road the tire blewout. The vehicle was taken to a tire dealer. The tire technician concluded that the failure was due to a manufacturing defect which resulted in interior liner separation and sidewall separation. The consumer contacted the manufacture but they refused to provide any financial assistance. The consumer had to pay a pro-rated price for a new tire. This tire was original equipment o the vehicle. The consumer is concerned that the other three tire will fail in the same manner. *nm
Also reported on the 2004 Ford Explorer
Other powertrain problem
Other body or interior problem
Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure
Other visibility problem
Cruise control failure
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 38 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 wheel or tire problem happen on the 2004 Ford Explorer?
Across 32 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other wheel or tire problem on the 2004 Ford Explorer?
38 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 220 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