Cruise control failure on the 2012 Ford Explorer
Only 7 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 cruise control failure gets reported
There are 7 reports of cruise control failure on the 2012 Ford Explorer, 7 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 72,000 miles. It is the 21st most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 14,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $200–$1,400 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 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2014 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 1998 carries the most reports, with 67; the 2012 has 7. 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.
Two extremely frightening experiences happened this day. (1) I was driving on interstate 95 and the explorer braked extremely hard from a speed of 65 MPH to zero. There was nothing around and I could not determine any reason for this. I proceeded on to my destination and the vehicle accelerated inexplicably to 95 MPH. I tried to turn off the cruise control manually and by tapping the brake (I was fearful of the vehicle rolling). Thank god, I was able to maneuver around traffic in northern new jersey and then the vehicle reduced speed. It was a very terrifying experience and one the ford dealer told me he has no explanation for. I have had many, failures of the myfordtouch system which I will detail in a separate incident report.
Two extremely frightening experiences happened this day. (1) I was driving on interstate 95 and the explorer braked extremely hard from a speed of 65 MPH to zero. There was nothing around and I could not determine any reason for this. I proceeded on to my destination and the vehicle accelerated inexplicably to 95 MPH. I tried to turn off the cruise control manually and by tapping the brake (I was fearful of the vehicle rolling). Thank god, I was able to maneuver around traffic in northern new jersey and then the vehicle reduced speed. It was a very terrifying experience and one the ford dealer told me he has no explanation for. I have had many, failures of the myfordtouch system which I will detail in a separate incident report.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford explorer. The contact stated that while driving 70 MPH, the vehicle independently engaged the brakes. The vehicle was designed with a unique braking program designed to engage with the cruise control when the vehicle was approaching a second vehicle. The system engaged despite there not being a vehicle in front of the contact?s vehicle. The vehicle was taken to a dealer for diagnosis and the contact was informed there was no remedy for the failure. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 14,000 and the current mileage was 28,000. ...updated 12-24-13 *bf the consumer stated the adaptive cruise control worked fine when he was following a vehicle in his lane. However, when he was in a separate lane, passing a large semi with large bright aluminum or light colored sides, on a straight highway without curves, the vehicle occasionally applied the brakes as if he were following in the same lane as the truck. The consumer believed the radar sensors on the vehicle were reflecting from the large bright sides on some trucks.
Also reported on the 2012 Ford Explorer
Other steering problem
Other body or interior problem
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other engine problem
Loss of power steering
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 7 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 7 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 cruise control failure happen on the 2012 Ford Explorer?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 15,000 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 cruise control failure on the 2012 Ford Explorer?
7 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